Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is a thrilling place to visit. It's the site of two of the world's most active volcanoes, and when you visit you can hike to the crater and watch the smoke billow out. In fact there is an excellent hotel with a fine fining restaurant that has the exact view as the above photo.
The Thurston Nahuku Lava Tubes lie below the park, and are pictured above. The tubes used to carry hot molten lava to the ocean below, but seeing as they're extinct now, they make for some great cave walks. My wife and three girls have visited the park twice and we make a full day trip out of it, leaving from Kona in the morning.
The first time I brought my girls to Hawaii, they stepped off the plane and said, "This isn't Hawaii, there's no hot lava!" I guess they were expecting the pointy type of volcanoes you see in Nicaragua ( and in the above photo) which erupt regularly. Nicaragua has a lot going for it; many say that it's like Costa Rica was 40 years ago. I went there to do an article on fishing for Marlin Magazine several years ago, and my trip turned out to be a full fledged adventure into an exciting new frontier. You can see the article on this page: Travel and Fishing Articles by Jon Schwartz
The surfing and fishing in Nicaragua is world class. I lucked out with some really nice underwater sailfish photos, like this one here:
Speaking of sailfish, Cabo San Lucas is another great sport fishing location that I have enjoyed visiting. It's a bustling city that is chock full of high end shopping areas and malls. I like to show shots like these because people are often surprised to see how luxurious some of these Latin American locations are. I took the below photo from a resort that overlooks the famous Land's End, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean. The clouds made a neat reflection on the infinity pool.
Below is a photo I took at the Puerto Paraiso Mall at the main Cabo San Lucas Marina. I told you it was fancy!
I'll add some photos from Costa Rica is a few hours...
