We disembarked and headed back to the airport, where we caught yet another bus, ferry and taxi back to Royal Palms. And they had nicely upgraded us to a suite! It had several rooms, a fireplace, a jacuzzi, and a toilet with not only a heated seat but a remote control with buttons I was afraid to push…

When we arrived we had planned to just relax, have a nice dinner and get ready for the big travel day ahead, but I happened to go onto the hotel’s website to look something up and I realized they had lava tunnels on the property! So we had one last adventure before flying home. These underground tunnels were formed millions of years ago when the outside skin of a molten lava flow solidified. When the flow of lava from the volcano stopped, the lava inside the skin kept running, which emptied out the skin leaving these tunnels behind. The lighting inside is lovely and the minerals in the walls shine gold, but it’s still a tad creepy-beautiful. And the ferns, plants and lichen growing at the entrances were such an amazing green.

The hotel actually has a banquet facility down there, close to the entrance (near the red lighting) with tables, chairs and a pinhole lit dance floor, but I’m not sure I’d accept an invitation to party down there. But it was fun being in a lava tunnel for a while.

The next day we did the trek back to the airport and checked in for our flight. It’s quite a nice airport with shops selling local handicrafts, bags of local coffee, and local chocolates. While we sat waiting for our gate to be announced we grabbed a soft drink at one of the vendors. Steve pointed behind me at one of Darwin’s finches munching on a piece of fried churro. He then said, “You know, in 50 years there’ll be a new species called a Food Court Finch”. Ah. Evolution at its finest.

Deborah