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| Tamarah in Onomea Bay |
We realized that we haven't posted in a while...we need to update some folks who care about what we're doing.
We'll start out with what happened after picking up our Third (as I call her, to other people without her knowledge,) Rachel. As we had made the 80 mile journey from Honomu to Kona to pick up Rachel, we decided to spend most of the day there. Per the suggestion of our host Sanji, we went to
Kua Bay (also known as Manini'owali Beach,) which had beautiful bright blue water, lolling waves, and actual sand beaches (but no sea turtles.)
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| Tamarah and Rachel replacing the brake pads, with Sanji in the background |
In the days following our return to Honomu/Hilo, we largely just spent it getting Rachel acquainted to her new home. We took her to the marvelous Farmer's Market mentioned in previous posts, fixed the brake pads of our car, and returned our very expensive and large tent.
Which brings me to an important development in our Hawaiian adventure...we ultimately decided it would be more plausible and fiscal for us to just rent our little shack from Sanji (which costs generously little money, in addition to working around the farm throughout each month.) Living in our shack provides its own little adventures. It is somewhat leaky, we don't have potable water, and only enough electricity to power some lights. The three of us also share a bed, which took a while to get used to (especially for me, as I am not too keen on unnecessary human contact.) The decision to send back the tent and thus completely alter our initial plan wasn't arrived at easily. We were all rather attached to the idea of living in our big beautiful tent, but we're also quite happy with where we are now. We've started preparing garden beds for planting, painted the interior of the big house, and have plans for a chicken coop for all of the marvelously healthy chickens that strut about the farm.
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| The three of us (Catherine, Rachel, and Tamarah) in front of Rainbow Falls |
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| Rachel and Tam in the banyan |
Later on we met up with a friend of a friend, named Stephanie, and her friend/roommate Lauren. We found them entirely delightful and interesting. We met up at
Concious Culture Cafe, a place we could entirely picture existing in Boulder. They make their own kombucha and deliciously fresh sandwivhes, salads, and soups. After the cafe Stephanie and Lauren took us to see
Rainbow Falls, right outside of Hilo. It's a pretty typical tourist spot, but the ladies took us up around behind the falls, where they showed us this huge and glorious banyan tree. Stephanie and Lauren patiently waited while we giddily climbed around this massively extensive and sturdy organism. They then took us to the river above the falls, where there was potential for swimming, but was dangerous at the time due to heavy rainfall the days before.
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| Rachel with our source of inspiration. |
There isn't much of a nightlife in Hilo. We went to First Friday, which was extraordinarily low-key. The spot for any nightlife is
Hilo Town Tavern, which is right downtown with a fairly large outdoor stage for live local entertainment. We were also introduced to kava at
Bayfront Kava Bar, which is a sort of cold tea derived from the local kava root. It has a mild sedative effect and made our mouths all tingly. Sometimes we wanted to relax with some wine at home. We found a gem called "GO BIG" at our local Target (they sell liquor everywhere here, not just liquor stores!) It has since become our motto (somewhat ironically.) We frequently shout it at each other in frat bro voices when it comes to making decisions. It generally helps.
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| Down in Kilauea Iki |
One day we decided to check out the volcanoes. We drove for about an hour to
Volcanoes National Park, where we hiked
Kilauea Iki, an extinct pit crater, and checked out an old lava tube. We bought an annual pass (only $25,) so that we can return and check out more.
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| Rachel picking wild guava |
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| In the lava tube |
After living at the farm for almost three weeks, we decided to explore the property a bit. Sanji and his daughters had told us about a waterfall on the property, but it was not clear to us where it was or how we should get to it. We ended up following a wild pig trail through thick and brambly jungle until we found the river. It was beautiful, paradisical. There was wild ginger and guava trees lining the banks, and deep pools for swimming in. We came out of the jungle above the waterfall, and were able to look down over it (where we spotted our first authentic wild Hawaiian pig!)
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| Wild guava above the river |
On October 9th Rachel's longtime friend Erica came to visit. She's still here, sitting right next to me as I write this, which is exciting. On Erica's first day here we returned to Rainbow Falls (and revisited the banyan,) this time excited to be able to swim in the river. We swam up the river a bit, and climbed up and over this cliff that hid a series of waterfalls and deep deep pools. We were able to clamber around the black cliffs, cliff jump (don't worry too much, mom, they were only about 20 feet high,) and swim in the fresh water. It was a lovely way to introduce Erica to the Big Island.
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| Rainbow Falls |
This past weekend we made another trip to Kona for the Ironman World Chamionships. For those unfamiliar with the specifics of the Ironman (as we were,) I'll lay it down for you: the athletes start out swimming a little over 2 miles in the ocean, then bike for 112 miles, then run a marathon (about 26 miles.) We had spectacular timing and made it just in time to watch the leaders make the switch from bike to running, had lunch, then made our way to the finish line to watch the leaders cross it. It was tremendously exciting. We were all in complete awe of the event. The athletes were incredible, of course. The leaders finished the race in just over 8 hours (they travelled about 140 miles!) but some competitors were at it for 15 hours. We were also impressed by the spectators...there was a hefty crowd out there supporting all of the athletes (of which there was over 2000) well into the night. Everyone who finished it was made to feel special and heroic, not just the winners, because they were.
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| The four of us at the Ironman World Championship finish line |
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| Erica, Tamarah, Rachel, and myself at Kua Bay |
That night we went out dancing in Kona (during which we desperately missed our friends from Boulder, we were the only ones dancing for most of the night.) We slept in the good Ole Nissan, then visited Kua Bay again. On our drive back Rachel took us up
Mauna Kea (just to the information center, we didn't make it to the top that day, but will definitely return for that and stargazing.) We happened to arrive on the 200th day of protest against TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) being built on the dormant volcano. It's an important issue here, and I'll write a more comprehensive post on the issue later, to give it its full due. It was absolutely beautiful on Mauna Kea, it is easy to see why the mountain was and is sacred to Hawaiians.
Some Notes from the Past Few Weeks:
- It seems that it is necessary for every employee working at a chain business on the island to wear a Hawaiian shirt as a uniform
- We have definitely been inflicted with a loss of any sense of time. Hilo moves at its own pace--it's energetic when sunny, and sleepy when rainy
- Not wearing makeup (it's useless with how much we sweat/swim) and primarily wearing swimsuits lends itself to constant self reflection on my physical insecurities (and hopefully overcoming them?)
- On that note, sunburns really highlight stretch marks nicely
- It's interesting how quickly our bodies adapted to a circadian rhythm living without real electricity (or internet). We're wide awake no later than 7:30 (Rachel usually at 6:30) and asleep no later than 9:30, usually.
- The people here are unbelievably friendly. The "aloha spirit", I guess.
- Floating in the ocean is naturally meditative
- My favorite song right now is "Avant Gardener" by Courtney Barnett, I highly suggest giving it a listen
- I also suggest reading Frans de Waal's book "The Bonobo and the Atheist" if you have any sort of interest in understanding the physical evolution of our morality as it relates to the religiosity of our species. He's very fair headed and honest, and there's a lot of fun talk about bonobos, an entirely underappreciated species
- Our car literally says "hello" to us everytime we turn it on, which I have not gotten over yet.
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| The four of us on Mauna Kea |
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