Aloha friends and family! Aloha in every sense of the word.
To anyone who has been keeping up with the blog posts (notably our parents,) it might be apparent that I haven't been feeling like writing many blog posts recently. It's been almost three weeks without a post, actually. This is due to several factors: 1) We haven't been doing a whole lot of noteworthy things lately; 2) I haven't been feeling particularly well mental health-wise, and thus haven't been particularly motivated to do very much at all, let alone write or undertake any creative ventures of any sort; 3) This island has become our home, and thus has become mundane.
Also, because I haven't been feeling well I haven't been taking photos, so this post will be more sparse and less colorful than the posts of the past.
Now I'm feeling compelled to write. Perhaps it's the allure of home coming that's raised my spirits. Whatever the case may be, I'm happy it's happening.
Of course, when we last left off, we were just returning from our escapades on Oahu with the Howards and Michael Gerard.
Something that we all remarked upon returning to the Big Island was how much coming back felt like coming home. The three of us were in unanimous agreement that Hilo was a much better place than Honolulu. It feels more genuine. It's less shiny. It's more authentic and comfortable with who (or what) it is. It's not busy. It has a grungy port right next to its nicest beaches. It has swindling vendors who pass Dole pineapples off as their own and charge triple the price for them. It has no social life...and it's okay with all of that.
We returned to our odd little farm in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a cloud forest that is perpetually in the middle of rain. We returned to the faces that have become familiar--the Mommsen family including Sanji, Mama Mala, Theo, and Charlie; Sanji's friend Baraka who has become a near permanent fixture in our kitchen; the smelly dogs roaming the farm, the handsome cat Zorro, the wild cats up at our shack, the chickens, and Sanji's new ugly ducks; our beloved car Lil Red and our leaky but cozy shack.
While we were away in Oahu Sanji acquired a new member of the farm: a part pit/part chihuahua mix named Piko. Piko means "belly-button" in Hawaiian and is a wonderfully apt name for this little dog. Ordinarily I am not a fan of small dogs, but I took to Piko right away. He's calm and gentle and has curiously reproachful eyes. He's also a little dancer.
One of the first things that we did upon returning to the farm was to sell our beloved yet quirky vehicle, Miss Lil Red. We weren't sure how easy it would be to sell her, and so we decided to put her up on Craigslist early, to give us plenty of time. It turned out that it was actually very easy for us to sell our little Raggedy Ann car. We sold her just a few days after we put the ad up. That left us with 3 weeks on the Big Island with no car, which is not an easy way to live here...nor is it especially conducive to exploring the island.
Lucky for us, hitch-hiking is both culturally accepted and abundant here. Also lucky for us, we're three relatively well-groomd and sane-looking girls, so it is easy for us to get picked up. Through this experience we've again been struck by how many generous and kind people live here. There have been quite a few people who will pick us up and then drive ten minutes out of their way to make sure that we are able to get home alright. We can also alays tell a Canadian when they pick us up, as they're consistently the nicest and warmest people, falling in line with that particular stereotype of Canada.
During our last few weeks here we've also made a new friend, named Morgan, who is the friendliest person we have ever met. He works at one of our most common watering holes, Shark's Coffee Shop in Honomu. We always got along really well with him while we were hanging out at Shark's, and we had always wanted to become friends with him. We're glad we have had the opportunity to hang out with him more and to become better friends with him, even if it has been just for these last few weeks.
One day we had an excellent adventure with Morgan. He took us first to Hakalau, which used to be a thriving community centered around a prospering sugar mill, but is now just another spot on the island where a tree-lined river meets the ocean in a cacophony of spray. We drove up the river a ways and there jumped off of a 20-foot-high bridge into a deep pool. It was quite fun and effectively set the tone for the rest of the day.
After Hakalau, Morgan took us to Ninole, where we scrambled and swam our way up a river to a series of massive waterfalls. We engaged our problem-solving skills to figure out how to navigate our way up and over each waterfall to get to the river and subsequent waterfalls above. We went cliff jumping a few times in Ninole; Rachel and I, for the most part, stuck to the more moderate and reasonable, yet still exciting, 15- or 20-foot jumps. Morgan and Tam, on the other hand, both decided to jump from the top of one of the waterfalls to its pool below, which was easily a 40-foot drop. Both had to run and jump without looking first, so as to not lose their nerves. Both ended up just fine, except for a tweaked shoulder (Morgan) and a bruised tailbone (Tamarah.)
When we had finished exploring that lush and idyllic tropical river, we were all feeling quite peckish. Morgan suggested a burger place in Waimea called Village Burger, which he was adament made some of the best burgers on the island. So we decided to extend our adventure to a trip to Waimea to try these burgers. They were indeed quite tasty and filling, with an extra bonus that truffle fries that could be ordered along with them.
There was another day when Tamarah and I hitched our way to Kole Kole Beach Park to go swimming, which, we now know, is not a wise thing to do at Kole Kole. As far as ocean activities go there, it is (and should be) primarily used solely by very competenet surfers...definitely not for two haole girls to go swimming. The waves at Kole Kole are tall, strong, and persistent. Luckily both Tam and I are strong swimmers and were able to stay reasonable during moments when we could be panicking. So, essentially, we swam out into the waves, realized we shouldn't be there, and slowly navigated our way back to the shore, all the while scaring some local boys who thought they were going to have to jump in the water and save our asses. We learned our lesson and sunbathed for the rest of our time at the park, safely on land.
On that day, upon our return to Shark's to get Rachel, we met a gentleman named Shane. Shane was looking for adventure buddies, and had a car to easily travel to said adventures. Tam and Rachel took advantage of the adventure-buddy situation to hike Waipio Valley with Shane, and then again to return to hike to Waimanu Valley, which is one valley further over from Waipio. The hike to Waimanu is much longer than the hike into Waipio, and so they decided to spend the night in the valley. Again, as I wasn't there for these particular journies I unfortunately can't report much besides what they told me--like the waterfall in Waipio that they saw that is many times taller than Akaka Falls, or how they met some incredible Argentinians that they got along with very well. I'd say that the most talked about part of these trips was the waves in Waimanu. Rachel was deeply touched by these waves. She says that not only were they the most beautiful ocean waves that she has ever seen, but they were perhaps the most beautiful anything that she has ever seen.
The farm in recent weeks has become substantially more crowded. Sanji was away in California for the first week and a half of December, and upon his return he brought many new lives in touch with ours: Sanji's friend Armando from Kona is here visiting and helping Sanji with his work; a family friend of the Mommsen's named Ashley and her 2-year-old daughter Chloe are here visiting from Volcano; a new couch-surfer named Ella who we quite enjoy hanging out with; an old family friend from when the Mommsen's lived in the Virgin Islands, a very nice man who we all call Uncle Bento; a pregnant couple from Austria who has moved into the main house for Mala's help as a midwife; and in the last couple of days a couple named Joe and Celine have taken up residence in the shack adjacent to ours. All of these new arrivals have added extra energy and activity to the farm that we've been enjoying quite a lot, especially since we spend the vast majority of our time there now a days.
Tamarah's last day on the island also happened to be her 23rd birthday. The day before she left we decided it would be nice for Rachel and I to take her out to one of the nicer restaurants in town that we have't tried yet. We've always been intrigued by Cafe Pesto, but it was closed for rennovations, so we decided to go to Pineapples. In town we ran into Lauren, Stephanie's friend who we quite liked, who showed us the banyan by Rainbow Falls early into our time here. She invited us to tea with Stephanie and some of their other friends, which we accepted, and in return invited all of them out to dinner with us. It was a lovely evening filled with pleasant people, delicious food, and yummy cocktails. After dinner Rachel and I bought a gallon of cheap wine and then the whole crew went up to Akaka Falls to explore it at night.
On the drive up to the falls Lauren asked everybody in the car what the felt fed their souls. I, without even really thinking about it, said Star Trek, and then had to (gladly) explain to a car full of people who had never seen the show how it could feed my soul. My answer was one of the less poignant answers (although I'm adament that it's still a true answer.) Stephanie said good chocolate and good friends, who she clarified to be people who she can be her self around and who she can say anything to, uninhibited. Rachel said the waves at Waimanu. Tamarah said moments when you're driving and a good song comes on, and you can be by yourself or with a group of good people, but that moment is still so gratifying and filling. Lauren said the moment when she crosses the singing bridge (a bridge so called because it sounds like it's singing when you drive over it) going north out of Hilo, because she knows that she's headed towards an adventure.
The moon was small but bright, which was helpful when we navigaed the steps to Akaka Falls at night with our gallon of wine. When we got to the falls we watched it for a while, passing around the wine, remarking on how amazing it was that we could still see texture in the waterfall as it plummeted in the dark. When it came time for that adventure to end, they dropped us off at the farm and we said our goodbyes to our new friends. We were so fortunate to have had such a good last night with them.
The next day, Tam's birthday and departure day, Sanji finally took Tam surfing. It was the best birthday present he could have given her. As she didn't have very much (if any) practice surfing during our time here, she flailed around a bit out there. But she was able to ride the wave a few times, which was good.
For lunch we went to one of our favorite vendors at the Farmer's Market. She sells her own Chinese food, which we love. Tam and I also had some delicious birthday brownies.
It was sunny all day. It was the perfect way to celebrate Tam's birthday and to send her home to freezing and snowy Colorado.
Since Tam left, Rachel and I have not been doing a lot. We spend a lot of our time at the farm or down at Shark's. We've hung out with Morgan too, which has been nice, as always. Yesterday the farm had a big party where most everyone living on the farm came and had dinner together. Rachel was in charge of cooking and baking most everything for the feast, and everyone was wowed by her cooking prowess. It was really a very nice time.
Now we're coming close to the end of our time here. I leave in two days and Rachel leaves in three. We're really looking forward very much to both being home with our families for Christmas and then being with The Collective (our college friends) for New Years. We're feeling ready to embark on our next adventures. Although our readiness to leave has not stopped us from reflecting on our time here, and all that we're going to miss about it.
We're going to miss our new friends, and all of the people we've grown close to while living on the farm. We're going to miss it being in the 80s everyday and for "cold" to be 55 degrees. We're going to miss seeing the ocean everyday, especially the view of it that we have as we drive down the hill from the farm into Honomu. We're going to miss he abundance of fresh and free exotic produce growing on the farm that we can eat at any time. We're going to miss the Farmer's Market and being able to buy any 2 pounds of produce we want for $2. We're especially going to miss Papaya Guy who sells 8 papayas for $2, and often gives us a couple extra for free. We're going to miss the small and quaint town of Honomu and the large and sleepy town of Hilo. We're going to miss seeing sea turtles on a regular basis. We're going to miss falling asleep to the sound of the rain on the tin roof of our shack. We're going to miss this unreal sense of freedom, of being able to do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it. We're going to miss the laid-back atmosphere of the island. We're going to miss the kindness of people here who are truly living out the aloha vibe.
Most of all, of course, we're going to miss spending all of our time together, the three of us. Right now we are so, so very fortunate, and we know it. We got to spend 3 months in Hawaii with two of our best friends, exploring and doing as we wish (and eating SO MUCH fresh fruit.) Our lives are all headed towards new adventures, all of which we're looking forward to. But we will probably never be ale to be this close to each other ever agan. It is unlikely that the three of us will share a bed for any extended period of time ever again, or share with each other every detail of each other's lives as it's happening, or eat giant salads together from the same bowl every night.
It was a spectacular adventure that I still can't believe I was lucky enough to be a part of with two people that I love so much.
But it is coming time to say aloha to the island. Aloha, good bye. Aloha, with love. Thank you for letting us live here. Thank you for letting us grow here.
We love you, goodbye. Aloha.
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