Aloha all,
It is a pleasure to be back in contact while I'm here in paradise, even if it is only for one more day. I got back to Maui from Kauai yesterday and I must say I had an absolute blast while I was there. I made myself a bowl from a coconut, met some incredible humans, saw a freshwater cave, the bay of Hanalei, a desert of immense proportion, and on my last day I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen in my life. A small kine example of the good vibes I got from Kauai is this: The first person to pick me up hitching bought me breakfast, a pair of shoes so I could get a job (all I had was a ratty pair of flip-flops), and finished by dropping me off in the town just before Hanalei after giving me eighteen bucks he had sitting in his truck. Turns out he came to the Island of Kauai thirty years ago with three dollars and fifty cents to his name, and now he makes furniture for a living. Interestingly enough he showed me this fantastic playground/bridge that was being built in Lydgate Park just outside of Lihue where I worked on my last day and slept. That was the same period of time that I found my first whole sunrise shell and saw one of the most gorgeous sunrises I have ever seen. To boot I was sleeping in the same place I had slept my first night after having gone as far around the island as the road permits. Unfortunately I wasn't able to hike into Kalalao as the weather turned foul and the river on the trail leading to it became torrentous in nature. I heard this from the last person who came out of Kalalao for the whole two weeks I was there. So my last night on Kauai was spent serenely enough, on the sand with the ocean lulling me into slumber. Then I get back to Maui, I'm about to hitch a ride with a couple celebrating their anniversary. They started in Honolulu and now they were going to spend nine days on Maui. It just so happened they were heading towards my old home base in Kihei so I asked for a lift while we were waiting at the airport. Then I got to Maui, felt the vibe I always feel when the sun hits my face,(I'll never understand those personal air conditioners on airplanes. Everyone on the plane had theirs on and most of them were wearing long shirts and pants. I, thinking that this wouldn't be the case, wore shorts & a thin t-shirt and consequently freeze my butt off for the duration of the flight.) and then I called my friend Don, who apparently had just got done with work and was near Kahului at the time. So he cruised down, picked me up, and we proceeded to pau hana at this wonderful fruit stand over on the east side of Iao Valley. We ended up sleeping there under the pavilion where all the fruit is sold. (I finished my day off with a fresh Maui pineapple grown by the guy whose fruitstand I was sleeping at. We had a good day yesterday, and today after we are both done with our work we will go up their again and fall asleep on the couches in the middle of one of the more fantastic views on the island. So that's the basics of what's been going on in my world the past few weeks. There is more to tell but as they say here in the internet cafe business: Time is money. On that note I bid you all the warmest aloha and I will see you all very soon. Safe journeys to all in everything you do.
Love, Kimo
