[tcb] Re: Still in Hawaii still
- From: Duncan <whocanduncan1@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:47:58 -0500
How fun but isn't a mongoose a venomous snake? I am deathly afraid of snakes,
especially poisonous ones. My fear was so bad that in grade school they had to
send my home because I touched a picture of a snake when I turned the page in a
book.
-------- Original message --------
From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx>
Date: 03/13/2013 10:01 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: tcb <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [tcb] Still in Hawaii still
We had a quiet week either hacking jungle around Dave's house or working on his
bus. It took a long time but I think the problems were a combination of the
little clips that hold down the brushes in his 12v generator and what turned
out to be a bad battery. Piece of crap, only lasted 7 1/2 years
Went to a place called Lava Tree Park. When the lava flowed over this place it
covered the trunks of trees up to about 8 feet. When the lava settled and
cooled, it cooled faster around the cooler tree trunks so it left these "lava
tree trunks" sticking up. Pretty cool. This park also has really big holes and
cracks that are pretty much bottomless. They have signs telling you not to go
down in the holes. Duh.
We were going to the water and saw that really pretty place called Puna Girl
Farms had their gate open open. It was a neat and tidy Macadamia nut farm with
a 6 acre mowed lawn cut from the rain forest. It had a view of the whole wooded
slope and to the sea. Very impressive. She and her husband found an old
overgrown Mac farm and bought it cheap because the seller said that all the
trees were dead. They bought it and started cutting back the jungle and the
trees all sprouted new growth within 3 days.
Now they sell all the Macs they can grow to a chocolate factory in Honolulu
called Hawaiian Host. Macadamias grow on a tree about the size of a live oak
and the fruit hangs in bunches by a slender thread. When they are ripe they
fall to the ground and are gathered there by hand. The fruit has a fuzzy skin
around a super hard nut and that has the Macadamia we know inside. They are a
bitch to crack open. An ordinary nut cracker won't do it. They use a special
one that looks like a vice grip.
Why are they so expensive? Well, besides gathering from the ground and keeping
the jungle back, they have to surround the groves by really good fencing,
including electric because the pigs will eat them all up. That's right, wild
pigs. We met a guy who rents a house on an old Mac and coffee farm and he says
that he takes care of the coffee trees, but lets the pigs have most of the
Macs. He eats the pigs.
By the way Puna Girl Farm is for sale, we found out later. $425,000. No house.
No Electricity, but it does have County water. And what a view.
So far I have encountered wild pigs, mongooses (not mongeese), wild goats,
chickens and roosters loose everywhere, geckos in the bathroom, and wild long
horn cattle. I didn't actually see the cattle, but I was warned about them.
They are not docile cows, but feral wild longhorns. Very dangerous I read. And
a Zebra.
So, we packed up the bus, after tinkering with the brushes, and took out for
the Kona side of the island to meet up with Ed Aragon and his family.
I have spoken before about the climate changes, but now I lived them. Dave said
to wear long pants when we left Pahoa and he was right. The books say that the
temperature goes down 3 degrees with every thousand feet climbed, so at our
first destination, the Village of Volcano at 4000' it was in the low 60s. After
we passed Volcanos National Park (I will be back here later) and over a summit
the temp went back up but now we were no longer in the deep woods, we were in
the desert. It's not a sand dunes kind of desert, but scrubby bushes and yellow
grass with lots and lots of exposed lava. No rain here. It never returned to
the deep woods state. There were varying heights and number of trees, but just
a complete climate change. Big wide vistas.
We had lunch and a beer at the Southernmost bar in the United States, Dave
tradition, and after a long drive came to the sea once again, but now the
beaches and parks were like an oasis in the yellow grasslands. Did I say I saw
a Zebra? I SAW A ZEBRA. Just standing there with the other horses. Not like at
a petting zoo. And he was big. A zebra!.
Then we were running up the West Coast and were in the land of coffee,
avocados, and cocao trees. Road side coffee tasting and coffee shops and coffee
farms right and left. Lots of fruit stands. Papayas, (including Thai green
papayas. A completely different thing), oranges, grapefruit, ponderosa lemons
as big as a softball, bananas, "BIG AVOS 1 BUCK", green coconuts and bags of
macs (not cheap).
We camped at a place called Ho'okene Park. You made a turn and are immediately
moving straight down a windy windy road to a beautiful "salt and pepper" beach
with big trees growing out in the sand for shade. Big waves pounding rocky
cliffs and an area for swimming and belly boarding. Lots of friendly people.
Don't tell Jan, because she will yell at me, but I was in the sun for about 20
minutes and I burnt. Burnt bad. All around me were people with chocolate tans
and my puke white and repulsive self turned fire engine red in 20 minutes.
Later I read in a guide that since Hawaii is at the 19th parallel the sun is
shining at a much more direct angle and through less atmosphere than on the
mainland you will burn much faster, thus you should use 500 SPF sunblock, and
if your from Arkansas, well, just stay inside.
So, this campground is down on this isolated and rock surrounded beach. There
is no electricity, no cell service, so you are kind of "off the grid".. I am
not sure I have ever been completely of the grid, but I survived. But the funny
thing is that when you climb the 1000 feet in 2 1/2 miles and finally get to
the main road you will see groups of people using their phones, so it wasn't
just me looking for society.
This has been a long message so I am going to stop and get ready for the
Woodstock type art and craft and food and music hullabaloo that is Wednesday
night at Kalapana. I have had the wood fired pizza and the spring rolls with
spicy peanut sauce and the warm malasadas and the Chinese char siu BBQ and the
perogie from the Russian lady...I wonder what Ill eat. Hope I see the Volcano.
Dave is looking for the guy with the $10 Rib Eye dinner.
Next I will tell about the great Aragons and the billion dollar resorts of
Kona.
"Try slow down. Mohalo". A hand drawn sign on a little windy road.
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