Sissy Hankshaw’s thumbs.

I have really been getting used to living here, which is awesome, but it means that I’m also getting used to all the crazy/funny/strange things that happen to me day to day but I forget that they might be significant enough for you to want to know.

I’ve been reading this great book,Even Cowgirls get the Blues by Tom Robbins and it is really resonating with me. Not only is there a lot of intelligent liberal hippy philosophy but the main character has enlarged thumbs that were made for hitchhiking. She, therefore, makes that her life’s passion and it has really been inspiring for my hitch hiking adventures.I think that it’s one of my favorite things about living here. I usually have to walk about 1.5 miles down the driveway and to an intersection before I can get a ride, but the other day I walked about 3 miles before I got a ride and on Monday for some reason my hitching was off and I was having terrible luck getting a ride and ended walking about 4 miles. Anyway, my new favorite method of travel is in the back of someone's pickup looking at the coast and the trees and everything with a 360 degree perspective. It’s really incredible. This is the intersection in Pohoiki (by the hot ponds) that I stood at for awhile the other day waiting for a ride…

This was on Monday I think, when I went into town and hung out with some of my new friends, Richie- a cute gay boy from Southern California and Sam- the cutest boy from London who keeps a totally raw diet and is extremely interesting. Then, the three of us caught a ride ( we put the good karma out there by singing to the cars…) to the tide pools, which are a little bit farther north from the hot ponds. You have to go through this development to get to the tide pools, which is kind of weird, but they were incredible and the snorkeling there was a million times better then at the hot ponds. There are so many cool fish and corals growing on the bottom and the water was so clear. It was beautiful and Sam shared fresh macadamia nuts with us, that we had to crack open with a rock.  

Hanging out with them has been the highlight of my week so far. After the tide pools, while we were waiting to get a ride we got coconuts out of a tree and had a good time cracking them open. I really really love living in an environment that is conducive to eating from the side of the road. Then we went to the ponds so that I could do my laps and the plan was to meet up with Michael so he could give me a ride back to the farm, but we got there after he left so that’s when I had to hitch and had such bad luck. Anyway, I saw this on my way back to the farm and it’s pretty much the only piece of graffiti that I’ve seen on the island. I like it.

 

I’ve pretty much lost most concept of time or dates. It’s interesting and sort of unnecessary, but I do always make it to the beach on Sundays. Sometimes Saturdays too, but this past week I got there really early and it was raining. So, I went to the back of the beach where the cliffs begin to stay dry. Well these rocks just scream “Climb Me!” and so I did. Here, I’m sitting on a ledge about 20 ft up. The view of the ocean was incredible and I really enjoyed it up there and stayed for a long time. The beach on Sundays is so much fun, people are just everywhere smoking and drinking and hanging out with each other. I meet new people every week and it’s really nice to come back and see familiar faces. My favorite beach guy is OCN (unclear how to spell his name, it’s Celtic but it sounds like the letters O-C-N) who is from Poland and has long silver hair. He has the kindest eyes and we always have a good time talking together.

These two pictures are from last Saturday on the cliffs by the beach. This guy Skyler and I hung out all day and ended up here near the beach. I really can’t get over how incredible it is to live this close to the coast and to be so near to water. I’m so close in fact that at night I can hear the waves crashing against the coast about 1 mile away. Cool.

You can kind of see in the picture above the small steps that you have to climb to get up from this spot we were hanging out in. Cool. But totally dangerous, it’s kind of crazy how vulnerable one really in by being in or near the water. Two days ago, when we went to the store at Kaimu Bay ( near Kalapana, where the cafe is),there were all these emergency vehicles around including a boat. Apparently, a local surfer got swept out to see. I read in the paper today that they still haven’t found the body. Pretty sad, but one thing I’ve realized is that the ocean is not very forgiving here and you have to be smart about getting into the water. Note taken.

Alright, that seems good for now. I’ll try and be more frequent and less long.