Pedaling through Paradise

After a morning of flying, we took a load off and relaxed outside, breathing in the clean air scented with Birds of Paradise and Anthurium flowers growing all around, gazing at the abundance of plant life thriving everywhere.  After we carried in all of our stuff, we began thinking about the fact that we were now where we wanted to be, at least in terms of being on the Big Island.  Next would be finding our land, where we wanted to build our little piece of Paradise and create our own reality.

We didn’t do much the rest of the day, or on Sunday or Monday either, because we needed to decompress from all the travelling of the past two weeks.  It felt so good to chill out and not have to get in the car and drive anywhere.  We had stopped at the grocery store during our cab ride from the airport, so we were stocked for at least a few days.  Monday didn’t even feel like Labor Day, probably because neither one of us had worked in a month nor were going back to work on Tuesday.  In fact, we wouldn’t be going back to any jobs for a while.

On Tuesday morning, we headed out around 8:30am with the intention of catching the bus into Hilo in order to get our bikes.  As we left the driveway and began walking down the street, we ran into Ron, the next-door neighbor, who was driving by in his jeep.  He said he needed to head into town and offered us a ride.  We accepted, and got to talk with Ron as we drove to the bike shop.  He even offered to wait until we got our bikes, just in case they wouldn’t be ready and we needed a ride back.  He is an amiable man in his early 70’s, but he has the personality and zest for life of someone half his age.

After we got our new bikes and had some accessories installed, we rode down into Hilo to lease some storage space for our belongings that will be arriving in a few weeks, and then went to get some lunch.  After lunch at Ken’s Diner, we rode around downtown to see what was going on. There was the usual bustle of a small tourist town and the ever present ocean to the east of this quaint locale.  On our way out of Hilo, we stopped at Sports Authority to get a few more things for biking, along with a couple of milk crates, compliments of Wal-Mart’s loading dock (yes, we “liberated” them from the dock, but Wal-Mart can afford to lose a couple crates, right?).  Our ride home was almost thirty miles and took almost three hours, but if felt good to get some real exercise after all the driving we had done for the majority of our cross-country trip.

The lady from whom we're renting is a vibrant woman in her 70's named Nishta.  She makes beautiful jewelry, is a Reiki master and gives reflexology treatments and soothing, facials with all-organic food-grade products.  She has a lovely dog named Honi Honi ("Kiss Kiss") and two kitties, Paca and Pubah.  Nishta's been gracious enough to take us on Tuesday and Friday mornings to the local Qi Gong classes at the community center, which are free. J

After a couple of weeks on the island, we have started to get used to our new mode of transport. We have our almost-daily trips into the tiny hipster town of Pahoa, a thirty-minute bike ride downhill into town and an hour trip uphill for most of the way back. The ride is kind of like a roller coaster with steep grueling hills that burn the quads into Incredible Hulk standards. Pahoa has been good to us though. There is a natural food store, several mom and pop restaurants and even a local bank branch. And the beach is not very far away, a thirty-minute downhill ride and the bus route to bring us back, bikes and all.

We made it down to the beach recently and just sat there, mesmerized by the beauty of the turquoise waters with its white foam crashing on black lava rock lined with chartreuse mosses. We wound down the 137, a/k/a Kapoho-Kalapana Road through mango and ohia forests, always within sight of those crystal blue waters stretching endlessly outward for thousands of miles. One can feel the remoteness of this mysterious place, but to us it just feels right.

Recently, we were fortunate to have found a spiritual community called the Center for Spiritual Living, right here in Puna. When we arrived at the partially-built skeleton of a church, there were building supplies scattered around the parking lot. The side walls of the church were open and there was no glass in the window frames, but the people were as warm as the Sun, and we were immediately greeted with hugs, kisses and shell-beaded necklaces around our necks. The Sunday morning service was refreshing, and there were many like-minded folks all gathered together to share in and honor all paths to love. We knew we had found the right place and will be going back next Sunday for sure.

One of the most exciting things going on right now is the fact that we recently put an offer in on two acres of raw land, high and dry up the mountain. Our realtor drove us to several acreages, and we found one that really resonated with us because it wasn’t too “jungly,” and we feel that we can get into it reasonably well with our machetes. The acreage is abundant with ancient, native ohia trees with their velvety looking trunks and fuzzy orange flowers. We can already envision ourselves creating much harmony on that property and are keeping our outlook positive about the purchase. The price is also right, coming in at the amount we had intended for our budget. With a little negotiation, we will be right where we need to be to start our homestead. Wish us luck!