A Farmer's Market way of life

No matter where one is on the island, there is sure to be a Farmer's Market within reach. Year round Farmer's Markets. Imagine that.

I found several listings online such as this one here which is conveniently arranged by region.
http://www.bigisland-bigisland.com/Big-Island-Farmers-Markets.html

In the Puna region my favourite market became the Kalapana Farmer's Market on Saturday at Kalapana Seaview estate. A great mix of produce, baked goods, ready made treats - some of them raw, macadamia nuts, kimchi and other fermented foods, the most delicious goat milk cheese and even a young kid goat for sale. Oh and don't forget the dude making a performance art out of cultural heritage: pounding poi with very little clothing on.

The drive to the Kapalana market is exquisite along the undulating HWY 137 Kapalana - Kapoho road with blue water and black rocks vistas, and lovely lush tunnels of tropical trees at times. Or rain squalls and wind as the weather sees fit.

On Sundays, the Farmer's Market in downtown Pahoa opens at a bright and early 6 am. The day I visited was VERY wet and I arrived a little later than 6 am, I confess. Nonetheless there was a good mix of fruit and veggies available, including some fairly unfamiliar. Some of the stalls were more garage sale types. Some I had seen at the Saturday Kalapana market. Live music and good food. Farmer's Markets are definitely thriving on the island.

Of course I could have ventured a little further to the Hilo markets, of which there are several, and which I have been assured are the best. I was keeping it real local during this visit. Hilo will still be there when I need.

The Na'alehu market has a special southern magic and is also on a Saturday, outside the Ace Hardware across the road from the Punalu'u Bakery - purveyors of fine malasadas and other tempting wheat and sugar filled baked treats. Many years ago, on my first ever visit to Big Island, I bought a honu carved from a shell at the Na'alehu Market. I only discovered this visit that that was the market. All these years,the mana of Wai'ohinu and Na'alehu have been with me, carried by a honu.

Na'alehu Market provided blessings on new venture this time around. Circle in a spiral, wheel with a wheel and all that. And the big wheel turn around and around.

Kohala rainbows

On day three I circumnavigate the island, to greet and pay respects to all directions and the guardians of all regions.

It was a lot of driving to take on in a single day, often very slow. The maximum speed on any road on Big Island is 55mph, but in many places one is restricted to 25, 35 or at most 40 mph. Roads are often narrow and sometimes pleasantly undulating. In some sections they are single lane or there are single lane bridges.

There is always scenery to marvel at, and incredible, changing topography from rainforest, grassland to desert. Big Island has 10 of the world's 15 ecosystems,and yes it does have some palm fringed beaches, but they are by no means more than just a tiny fraction of the story.

On this circumnavigation, the Kohala region aumakua treated me to a spectacular lightshow. It felt like a welcome home, to be embraced by luminosity so pure and radiant.

A cigar flower lei from the atmosphere.

Feral flora: dreamscape amplified by a promiscuity of Anthurium

So do I have a tan yet? No, not yet, in spite of having skin which tans easily and having been on a tropical island for five days already.

The reason: it has rained incessantly. Not that dripping tap kind of misty Pacific Northwest rain, but torrential downpours. Gullywashers. Very wet, but a lovely, steamy, warm wet. So wet that one can almost feel the weight of water in the air. So wet that I considered driving around in my hired car with the heater on just to dry my laundry. No chance of smalls drying overnight in all this humidity.

Water is as wild and unrestrained as all the other elements here, where Pele stages her creation dance of molten lava flowing from the world's most active volcano, and the prevailing winds meet a little bit of island land mass after moving hundreds of miles over open sea, making for amazingly clean fresh air all ready for Pele's smoldering kisses. Apparently scientists come to this south eastern point to measure the qualities of this air untainted by human or land. Who would have thought?

All this rain means botanicals grow with spectacular fervor. The dinner plate sized, rampant anthuriums surrounding my little retreat are wondrous testament to this. My grandmother had an upstairs, treetop level balcony full of anthuriums at her Durban house. I was fascinated, as a child, with their plasticity and their bizarre forms.

Now, as I surface from dreams in a slightly uneasymaking, feral forest of anthuriums, I am come home botanically in so many ways. In the jungle surrounding me, lush foliage of various relatives of strelitzia, monstera delicosa, bromeliads and the linear discipline of palm leaves cool and channel the passion of the anthuriums and other blooms. So many are familiars from a KwaZuluNatal childhood.

No doubt about it, this region offers an abundance of delight for a tropical botanist.

Pause a moment too long with a walking stick and it will root and leaf as you stand. Decay is also hastened by heat and moisture. Life begins again and again here.

Rainforest jungle retreat

For the past several days I have been on retreat in a marvelous rainforest jungle in the Puna region of Big Island, Hawai'i.

My accommodation, booked sight unseen online, has turned out to be the most lovely space: rattan walls, bamboo ceilings, ceramic tile floors, sides open to the tropical air, with just insect screen mesh.

There's a comfortable bed, a sink, fridge and hotplate. The cupboard is well stocked with pots and pans but of most interest to me is the blender for my morning smoothies - what a score!

The bathroom has a huge oval tub with inset red glass, lava rock and red light features. Household water is solely catchment from the roofs in this area - there is no water utility company beyond the elemental one of nature.

Since my arrival in a downpour of epic proportions, it has been raining and raining and raining. It IS a tropical rainforest after all, and winter is the major rainstorm season in these parts. I also, it seems, happen to have arrived during a very stormy spell. "Last week the weather was beautiful" says landlady Nishta. I thus feel no anxiety at all about running full tubs of hot water and soaking under the red lava lights while the rain pounds down. The catchment tank will fill up as I soak.

Free wifi comes with the room and is relatively quick compared to some I have known.

For some years now, I have been using the Vacation Rental By Owner website (www.vrbo.com) to find inexpensive accommodation for my travels in places where there are no backpacker's hostels. Nishta's rainforest Hawai'i island retreat was one happy result which I stumbled upon by searching for single person accommodation in the Puna region. Two could stay in the room, but it is perfect for one meditative, yoga practicing person.

The surroundings are lush: filled with tropical vegetation and birdcalls during the day. At night it is loud with frog chorus. The coqui frogs are an invasive species introduced by accident in the nineties. They are really really REALLY loud at in the evening time. This reminds me of noisy African nights. There is a supply of earplugs next to the bed for more sensitive sleepers. I, however, revel in the primal din.

Nishta has quarters upstairs at treetop level. Ganesha welcomes all on the porch. In so many small and subtle ways, I am home.

More about another aspect of Nishta here
http://www.bodyhealthorganics.com/nishtas-journey.html

In flight entertainment

SEA - KOA is around about 6 hours. A short flight compared to some I have done. Way back in GEG in the pre-dawn dark hours, I had approached customer service with not much hope. I wanted to reassign my computer generated centre seat. The online system had refused to allow me to do this. I thought there was slim chance, but maybe an aisle seat, oh gods of travel, smile on me, please!

What a gift! I score an exit row window seat! Leg room and inflight entertainment of sky, clouds, landmasses fading away then a few hours later rising up to meet.

We board. I cannot help noticing that even the Alaskan native figure on the tail of the aircraft wears a lei, a garland of flowers. I am going to the Pacific Islands, yes!

Then we fly and fly and fly. I finish knitting a woolen hat. I watch clouds. I dream a bit and watch ice crystals form.

We begin our descent over volcanoes. Haleakala, I think: house of the rising sun, on the island of Mau'i. Then whoosh! like landing on the moon, the black lava of Kona region rises up to meet us. Whales spout and breech in the bay.

The wind is a strong and warm embrace rushing to greet from Mauna Kea as I deplane.I will never tire of arriving at open air airports. The informality of KOA is so refreshing - no barriers and glass or suffocating corridors. I get over the small hitch of having forgotten which of the million and ten rental car companies I booked with, by traipsing to each in turn, backpack on my back. Fortunately I am traveling fairly light.

Then I am on the road. Going south. In a manner of speaking. Wheels on the Mamalahoa Highway. The Kings Way - circumnavigating an island and giving free passage and protection to all according to the Law of the Splintered Paddle.

Here is a link for the Wikepedia article which discusses this road.

Sunrise in the sky with volcanoes

Having to rise in the freezing chilly just after midnight hours to get to the airport fifty miles south to take the first flight out to Seattle has advantages.

Timed right, sunrise will be pushing in from the east, a magnificent light show of a tailwind. Lighting the volcanoes and the saw toothed peaks of the Cascades with mastery and mystery.

As we come in to land in Seattle a whale fluke plays in the sunrise heat. Predicting the real whales which frolic and blow spouts in the water just off Kona as the plane lands at KOA few hours later.

All this on top of comfortable flights with empty seats, GEG-SEA and exit row SEA-KOA. Travel gods are well appeased for now and smile on this nomads, yes!

Forgive any clumsiness of presentation. Am traveling with the fruit brand tablet as sole companion for the first time. I left the lovely silverbird of a laptop at home. I must confess to some anxious moments closing the door on that piece of baggage. Initially it had seemed so small and light but over the years I have found myself envying travelers with their handhelds who seem to be traveling even lighter. So here goes. First journey sans laptop. It is all in the baggage we bring to the task.....My biggest challenge is photography. I purchased an adaptor (more gadgetry to fill those cloth bags and keep track of - ah remember the simple days of pen and paper notebook?) to upload pics from my cameras to the tablet via usb. My next challenge is getting the pics to display correctly in the blog post. After I have downloaded the app. Of course there's an app for everything.