Fruit of the Week: Rambutan

Fruit of the Week

Rambutan

I think that it's pretty safe to say that this is our new favorite fruit. We buy bags of them all the time at the Farmer's Market and just munch on them all day. They're good with breakfast. They're good with lunch. They're good with dinner, and as dessert. They're just delightful, 10 out of 10. Rachel thinks that the fruit is delicious and juicy, and that the outside gives it an exotic look. She says that they're a little hard to get into, but all you have to do is jam your thumb in there to effectively crack it open. Her only negative is that the skin around the pit comes off easily. Tam thinks they're delicious and taste like a really sweet grape without their peel. She agrees that the only downside is the seed covering easily peeling off.

Go Big (Island): The Weeks Following the First One

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.)

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.

The three of us (Catherine, Rachel, and Tamarah) in front of Rainbow Falls

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.

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.

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.

Rachel picking wild guava

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!)

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.

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.

The four of us at the Ironman World Championship finish line

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.
  

  

  The four of us on Mauna Kea

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Video: Tamarah and Catherine's First Week in Hawaii!

Hello friends and family and interested people who we don't know,

This is a video that Tamarah and I made during our first week in Hawaii while we were waiting for Rachel. It is not the greatest quality or the greatest cinematography, but our charm makes up for it, I think. Please enjoy this glimpse into our lives. We've watched it about 20 times and find it to be quite funny (we quote it to ourselves). It grows on you, we promise. Just watch it a lot of times so YouTube pays me the big bucks (I'm still unemployed.)

Local Music

Here's a sampling of some contemporary Hawaiian music that we've been introduced to in our first few weeks of living here. Tamarah and I saw Anuhea and Sudden Rush at Hilo's Block Party, hosted by KWXX, called Ho'olaule'a. Tribal Seeds is a popular reggae group that we've heard a lot about. Medicine the People is a band that was introduced to use through Sanji and his mother Mala, and I personally think that our friends back home will enjoy their music a lot.

Also, this song just plays on the radio a whole lot. We don't enjoy it, particularly, but we thought it might be fun for people to get a taste of what pop culture is like here.

Fruit of the Week:

Mountain Apple

We stumbled across this fruit at the Hilo Farmer's Market, and were intrigued. Tamarah, by now used to pronouncing most things in Hawaii with all vowels clearly pronounced (as that is how Hawaiian words work,) charmingly called the Mountain Apple a Mo-oohn-ta-in Apple. They're relatively small (about the size of a plum) and the texture is somewhere in between an apple and a pear. Sanji informed us that the ones we purchased were of the Thai variety, and that the Hawaiian ones aren't as good. They taste light, not too sweet, with most flavor seeming to exist in the skin, which is semi-bitter. Anyways, I (Catherine) am a big fan. I think that they're delightfully light, fluffy, and crisp, and that the taste is subtle but inviting. Rachel was surprised at how much they actually tasted like an apple, she expected them to be much sweeter. She thinks they were more watery than she would have liked, and lacked flavor. Tamarah is not the biggest fan of them, she thinks that the

skin was like an apple and the inside was like a watery pear.

Go Big (Island): Week One (and a half)

Hello friends and family (and anyone else who happens upon this)!

Richardson Beach, right outside of Hilo

This is a blog about three haole girls' adventures in the beautiful and amaranthine Big Island of Hawaii. Our doings primarily take place in or around Hilo, on the eastern side of the island. We initially began this adventure as a means to do something after our graduation from CU Boulder. At least, that was what led me (Catherine) out to this small dot of land in the middle of the Pacific. Tamarah Howard, my co-pilot, was the main initiator. Her sister, Jess, lives in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. We were going to move to Honolulu, and figure out how to live with $1000 dollars of rent every month in a new city. Then Rachel Irons, our co-conspirator, told us about land that her friend Hunter owned on the Big Island, that we could live on for free. Thus a new plan formed--the three of us, roughing it in a patch of jungle in the middle of nowhere, with no immediate access to amenities. We were going to clear the jungle foliage with machetes and our sheer determination, build a deck, pitch a tent, and collect rainwater. That was how we were going to live, and we were so excited. It was an adventure, something we had never done before, and that seldom few other people had done before (well, at least in contemporary times.)

Catherine and Tamarah at Akaka Falls

Tamarah and I arrived in Hilo first. Our tent wasn't due to arrive for another week, as was Rachel. With no immediate shelter, Tamarah used the Couch Surfing app to find us a place for the night. We were picked up at Hilo's airport at around 10 pm by a gentleman named Sanjay, who was a friend of our host, Sanji. We drove for an unexpectedly long amount of time (about 25 minutes outside of Hilo) until we came to Sanji's fruit farm (aptly named Aloha Farm.)

Zoro, a frequent companion of ours at the farm

Our stay at the farm was lovely--we had our own bed, and after the first night, we were moved up to our own house. It was a perfect home base for us to scout the local area--Akaka Falls, a lovely waterfall, is only about a mile from the farm. Sanji was very accommodating and drove us down to Hilo when we needed to, which was often. Our first goal was to buy a car, and this we did after a couple of days here. Most people selling cars here only accept cash (a wise decision, when doing Craigslist transactions,) and as neither Tamarah nor I have Hawaiian banks, it was a day long struggle for us to accumulate enough cash from ATMs and cash-back at grocery stores to pay for a car. Finally, at the end of the day, we were proud owners of a '92 Nissan Sentra. Red. Sexy and FULL of personality.

The Sentra

On our second day, when Sanji was still driving us everywhere, he took us to see the land that we were planning
to live on. It was undesirable, to say the least. According to Sanji, the area was rife with car thieves, wild boars, and prone to spontaneous outpours of lava. The land itself was dense DENSE jungle. Sanji, at that point, offered us the option of just living on his farm. It was an entirely tempting offer, after seeing the land....but however logical it was, we were holding on to the romantic notion we had of the three of us wahine toughing it in the jungle, by ourselves. We had a glorious, feminist, guttural desire to swing machetes at ferns and claim the land as our own. In the end, after a lovely Skype chat with Rachel, we slowly came to the conclusion that we should just stay at the farm. The farm offers its own kind of adventure. One with rampant free fruit, wild cats, and nomadic Hawaiian wannabes. We began talking of building our tent (a truly luxurious three-room Cabela's tent) somewhere on his property in exchange for us working on the farm part-time. Sanji had garden plots that needed tending to, and we seemed to be the perfect people to bring those patches of weeds to (consumable) life.

Papaya vendor at Hilo Farmer's Marker

After a week filled with fruit (so much fruit), Farmer's markets, swimming at the black sand beaches (which always have a sea turtle floating around them somewhere, very exciting!), and lounging reading during the incessant rain brought on by Tropical Storm Niala, Tamarah and I drove to Kona (on the western side of the island) to pick up Rachel. We were very excited to see Kona, if not solely for its reputation as being the dry and sunny part of the Big Island. Indeed, it was sunny (finally! finally! We were tired of being persistently wet/damp.) The sun has continued into this week, even in Hilo. It seems Hawaii just needed Rachel to bring the sun

We also now have the tent....but we might just return it. We have a perfectly good house.

Hilo is lovely, in my humble opinion. It has a modest population for the second largest city in Hawaii (around 40,000.) It also has a very authentic feel--this is a place that in some ways expects the usual Hawaiian tourists, but will not perform for them. It is an honest place. Most of the people here are of Asian or Oceanic descent. The pace here is incredibly slow and lackadaisical. Everyone takes their time doing things at their own pace and in their own way, and everyone else just kind of patiently waits for them to do so. It's a welcome pace.

Tamarah at Onekahakaha Beach Park

 Some notes from this week:

• Ginger toothpaste might sound appealing, but don't fall for it
• It's imperative to hang up towels/any wet clothes/swimsuits after they get damp/wet or everything you own will smell gross
• Wild cats can be assholes
• I'm currently reading Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport, an excellent read for anybody, but especially for people moving to the Big Island. It is a wonderful story and taught me so much about Hawaii's history and culture
• On that note, Hawaii should definitely be sovereign
• Also, why are white people just the worst always
• Tamarah is finally reading the Harry Potter books
• Apparently mosquito bites leave huge red welts on my body. I wanted to live with hairy legs (no shaving) but the combo of hair and dark red welts was too much for my fragile ego, and I ended up shaving.
• Sometimes planned adventures don't go as planned.

Gecko on a banana flower outside of our bedroom window