Hurricane Iselle, Massage and Air B&B

On August 7, Hurricane Iselle, the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall on the Big Island of Hawaii in recorded history, well, made landfall. We had had plenty of warning and Kalani was ready. All tents and tarps were struck, water and generators were trucked in. Soon the power went out and would stay out for another two weeks. It made for a surreal two days, since we basically live outside and all, with torrential rains, howling winds, falling trees and giant waves in the ocean. As a result of this community's preparation, it really ended up being no worse for us than hurricanes on the East Coast. Great food continued to be served by generator on time. Above, we wake up to begin to inspect the neighborhood.

My old tentsite with the hatches battened down. 

Brien 21, from Brisbane, OZ and Alyssa 20, from Long Island and two of my chess partners, checkout a tent in the early AM. There was widespread tree damage on the island, mostly from the introduced and invasive Albizia trash tree, also known as the tree that ate Puna. Power was out in some parts of Puna for almost two months.

Because of our preparedness, the only lasting effect on us was making our already rustic way of life, a little more rustic. The Civil Defense used the property as a staging area to give out ice and water to locals. 

I chanced upon this free water and soft drink depot while doing laundry in town. I didn't need the water but had two of the free hot dogs they were also giving away. My first dog in months.... awesome un-asked for snackatizer!

Jim, from near Culpepper, Virginia, former and current comedian, author, and psychic Read More about Jim Here  Kana, a gifted musician from Japan and Mitch, a gifted banjo player, chef with me and hailing from another podunk town in Wisconsin that no one has ever heard about, wait out our turn at the laundry mat in Pahoa. After two weeks with no power, we were not the only people with that idea. In an otherwise mirthless place, Kana's drumming seemed to lighten the mood somewhat.

 We also subsidized meals for the community at large.

These guys seemed to have weathered the hurricane quite nicely, one even gave birth to a colt. 

Hawaii School of Massage  One of the benefits of life here is subsidized one and a half hour massages given for $40 by students at the Hawaii School of Massage at Kalani.



JarRed's Massage and Yoga Classes The other benefit is that every imaginable kind of yoga class is offered for free. I have tried them all and settled on Jared's Vinyassa yoga. They range from Yin yoga, which emphasizes resting restorative poses that last for long periods of time, usually laying on the floor, to Power yoga which is way too many calisthenics and leg lifts for me.Vinyassa is a continuous flow practice that holds the poses for about three minutes.

In my working life, I helped carry catering tables, maybe a million or so, for a couple of decades. Our standard way to carry these tables was to have two people on the left side of the table with both of our right hands on the upended lip of the table. As a result, my hips re-aligned slightly to the right and was beginning to cause me problems. I saw a doctor and words like titanium implants were bandied about. I thought that there was no way in hell I was going to let someone cut those muscles, hell I would just as soon live with the inconvenience. Then someone suggested yoga. I am happy to report that yoga, specifically Jared's Vinyassa classes for the last 14 months have 97% cured the problem. Nothing like having an end of the semester re-alignment.You can check out Jared's services, classes, workshops at his website. Mahalo Jared!

One of my favorite masseuses, Hanna, 21, prepares her massage table on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. It really doesn't get any better. Hanna specializes in deep tissue and lomi lomi styles.

Samantha specializes in intuitive massage. When she encounters a problem area in your body, a bone in her leg starts to crackle, sort of like a Geiger counter. She reports that she has had this gift since she was a child and it intuitively lets her zero in on the problem area.






















One of the keys to successfully adventuring long term here is doing so without spending much money. When we travel about the island, we use AirB&B  I have used them about five times and have really stumbled on to some remote and beautiful spots. The house/B & B above was in Kona and a private room was $107 per day.

We had access to this living room, full kitchen and the beautiful pool out in the yard.

  

This one was over looking the Waip'io Valley . Just sitting in these chairs, it was ineffably difficult to absorb if this view was even real.

This was one of the bed rooms in the cabin where five of us stayed. Get a group of game people together and the cost is minimal.

with this view on one side

and this view out front

and morning flowers like these...for a split $227 a night and we never even saw the owner...she just left us the key.

This is the view from the backdoor street entrance of Hulihe'e Palace in Kailua, Kona, looking through the front door ocean view, which I thought was kind of cool. Built in1838 by Governor Kuakini, it quickly became the house of choice for vacationing Hawaiian Royalty until 1914 and now is maintained as a museum by the Daughters of Hawai'i.

Uh, Ted mate, your cruise ship is in the other direction.

  

The last bit of news for this time is our new outdoor kitchen. There was some problem with the fire suppression system and to solve the issue, this camp kitchen was quickly and professionally built. Although it added about three extra miles of walking per shift, 109 steps at a time, it moved us from four walls inside to this coop with a view. Another added bonus is that guests and volunteers going about their quotidian routines can stop by for chats with Ted and see what's cooking.

Random vignettes are painted during a shift. Here I watch Kana weeding the Cuban Oregano in the "YUM", play on "OM",kitchen garden, while I stir the bouillabaisse.

Enough of the Hurricane news. Out next post will follow the slow motion lava flow that is threatening Pahoa. They predict that the flow is going to pass through the middle of town in ~12 days, probably setting it on fire, like it did in Kapaho in 1960 and Kalapana in 1992, the two towns on either side of us. We are 9 miles south of the flow, so our biggest concern is the cutting off of the road. There is an alternative road, and they are building another one, so our biggest concern is re-supply, which would make the 15 minute trip into Pahoa morph into an hour and half one. The effect on guests' plans remains unclear.

Big Island Now Lava Update

One can follow the progress of the flow's most recent progress by going to this site and clicking the most recent update.

 Charles recently sent this article Pahoa-living in a state of emergency

Thanks for stopping by