Do these people look capable of having a ghostly encounter?
Does this group look like they normally have ghostly encounters?
My first ghostly experience started off rather innocuously. A few weeks ago, Chris joined his wife Teri to begin a 9 month tour of Japan,Vietnam and hopefully Europe.You have met Teri before at the tidal pools, as she has been here several months and works in the kitchen with me. Chris however, slaved away back in Mordent, Manitoba as a developer of canola oil products, until the time was right to make his great escape. He works in horticulture and joined Teri in a tent down the hill from me, bordering the intersection of lower tentland and Trent Lane. Caitlyn on the right was a coffee shop manager in her old life, and hails from beautiful Carmel, California. Caitlyn works in horticulture as well.
Being got it going on people, I jumped on their recent invitation to go to Volcano National Park in their got it going on convertible. We spent the first few hours wandering the caldera of Kilauea Volcano, exploring the steam vents that dominate the older, outer crater. This steam and rain make for a natural hothouse for giant ferns and mosses. Alas, for this part of the trip my camera was left back in the rig.
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The Halema'una'u crater, one of several side craters at Kileau. Over the millennium , earthquakes, tectonic collapses and such, cause cracks and rifts for continued giant lava flows. This shot is from the rim; for scale you can see the hikers at the bottom of the page. In July of 1986, activity switched
from Pu'u O'o to a new vent further east that covered Chain of Crater Road and the town of Kalapana and reached the shore. The activity has continued here ever since.
After completing the 11 mile Crater Rim Drive with multiple stops and hikes, we followed the road down the side of the shield volcano in the background, across the1986 lava flow that made the Big Island even bigger. It is still a cookin' and a belchin'.
In 1986 a huge fault developed on the side of Kileau in the background and spilled out tens of miles of pahoepahoe lava for as far as the eye can see.
In every direction
This coastal road that you now know as Red Road was blocked by the flow. As the crow flies, Kalani is very close. The road used to connect Kalani, Kalapana's Uncle Robert's and Volcano Park, but it has not been repaired yet, as the volcano is still very active they don't want to waste the money if Pele should start showing off again---which makes for a roundabout way home.
Where the, er, lava hits the road
No huge waves surging over the sea cliff, unexpected collapse of the cliff into the sea or unpredictable strong winds that will blow your ass into the Pacific are going to stop this intrepid traveler.
Alright, ready for the ghost or whatever story as we related it to the Park Ranger several hours later?
As it began to get dark and rainy, we made the final stop of the day at this Hawaiian Holy Spot to look at the petro-glyphs and unexpectedly stumbled into the spirit of Pu'uloa
We parked our car at a pull off and walked about .7 of a mile until we hit this boardwalk which crossed the carving field. There were about twenty people there, who eventually took their pictures of the petro-glyphs and headed back to the Hotel Volcano for a Mai Tai. The couple in this picture, in the red and blue parkas were the last people there. As the rain picked up, Chris and Caitlyn headed back to the car, a few minutes later the couple left and then Teri and me. Eventually we overtook the couple, who were in their early sixties and carried only a water bottle. We tailed them a while, thinking it rude to pass them, until they stopped to let us pass. As I went by, the man said " looks like we are the last people out here, can you wait for us in the parking area to make sure we make it out?".
"Sure, we said". It was a straight shot back to the cars, and at their pace, maybe a ten minute walk. The rain picked up, so we got in the car. 10 minutes, then 15 passed. As you can see,this area is kind of desolate and with the warnings signs and all everywhere, not the kind of place that
elderly tourists just go off trail to wander and ponder.
It is at this point, we realize that we are the only car in the parking lot. How did these people get here? Chris and Terri head out to the lava fields to look for them. Because of the wavelike hills of lava, they too soon disappeared. I told Caitlyn that if she disappeared, it would really get kinda weird for me, being alone in a convertible in Pu'uloa-land.
But Chris and Teri did come back, reporting no sign of the couple. Where did they go? How did they get there? Fly? Was the dude a prankster? Did he murder his wife, throw her in a steam vent and jump in himself? We went over every possible scenario and could not come up with an answer. We checked around in the car for another half hour looking for a place that they may have left their car. Eventually we made the 35 minute mountainous drive back to Volcano National Park, reported this story to a Park Ranger and adjourned to the bar at the Volcano Hotel. Over Kona IPA's I couldn't help but ask Chris and Teri how they felt leaving two old tourists to die of exposure on a dark and stormy night on a live volcano.
In other news:
Recently, a couple who met at Kalani, had their wedding here. At a small impromptu gathering, a few of us stopped by to meet the family of the bride and groom. Above and on the left is Motie, originally from LA. Motie has agreed to a long term stay to help co-ordinate the permaculture program, that would make Kalani totally self sufficient food wise and possibly off grid-wise in several years. In the middle is Lilly, who grew up in Manhattan, and is a yogi, my new best friend ever and Thai/Indian food chef/shift leader in the kitchen with me. Lilly first came to Kalani in 2007 and has spent time in other intentional communities and ashrams in New York, India and Thailand. I think she is home now. Charles just celebrated 19 years at Kalani and is salad dressing maker, hot sauce maker, experimental bean sprouter, obscure Internet fact checker and van driver extraordinaire. For some reason, he also knows of some of the recent scandals/gossip in Charlottesville.
Spiritual (11 dimensions to explore) Eddie from Mexico City and Natilie, Kalani's in house attorney, from LA, recently had a beautiful three day wedding to die for. Eddie's mom brought the spices for this Mole from Mexico, and Hawaii provided all the fresh produce for everything else. Here is Lilly checking out the guac. Lilly was responsible for the Thai/ Hawaiian reception catering and Eddie's mom added a Mexican touch, making three different types of tamales, which I helped steam for the dinner.
Kalani was a major sponsor of the Hawaii Yoga Festival. These are some shots from a private farm down the road called Green Lake where the day long opening celebration was held. Hawaii being the gift that keeps on giving, provided a green lake sanctuary that must have been a old volcano that was now a magical meditative garden of mosses and ferns.
Opening Sun Salutations
Who knew that coconuts from different trees have different flavored water. Thanks Amy for turning me on to that and being so adept with that machete.
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