Pirates of the Pacific

After a day of heavy weeding at a neighbouring organic farm, helping them prepare for market, we took a little trip to the ocean. Michelle posted some images in the last entry, but let me tell you about the magic of the place. The feel was something out of a Hollywood shlocky pirate movie. We found ourselves standing atop 50 foot cliffs with giant waves crashing in on the rocks below...it was truly a jaw dropping experience! The smell of the salt water mist is something I will never tire of…neither did I seem to tire of exclaiming ‘wow!’ or ‘awesome!’ every time a massive wave crashed on the shore.

There was a rock grouping that jutted out into the water that was climbable to take one out to a lava tower sitting on the ocean. Standing atop that rocky peak was like standing on the bow of a giant ship sailing freely over the powerful and awe-inspiring ocean, invoking feelings of respect and humility for the energies at hand, but stirring that need in the human soul to pursue the exhilaration of adventuring freely into the unknown...my crappy words can't convey the sense of liberation held in that moment on the rocks...the energy of the crashing waves exploding against the cliffs, and the gleam of the near-setting sun reflecting off the water is something that every human should experience once before leaving this fascinating realm.

I’ll never tire of sitting along a coast and watching massive rolling waves crest in...generated from untold energies somewhere on a massive globe of endless wonder and possibility….awesome!!!

And on a site note, we found a wild papaya tree in that same area...Michelle got up on my shoulders, and was just able to reach the ripe bottom fruits. It was an unpollinated tree...the papaya had no seeds! But sweet and yummy nonetheless. Further down the way, my we found several wild noni trees.

Noni is a pungent white fruit that has been used medicinally here for ages. Mainstream health stores carry the juice. I've been collecting noni and fermenting it in the traditional Hawaiian way - stuff em in a jar, and leave em in the sun...works like a charm! The juice seeps out rather quickly once a ripe noni has been plucked from the tree. They become translucent within hours of being in the sun, and begin giving off a smell much like ‘ripe’ blue cheese! Definitely not the fruit for marketing to the holiday crowd...but I love it! Morning ritual has become drinking a couple ounces before going running and watching the sun rise (although it's cloudy most mornings due to being on the rainy side of the island). I will get a picture of the sun rising over the ocean at some point...

My morning runs have also become my morning fruit collecting adventure. Each day I pass heavy fruiting lilikoi vines (yellow passion fruit) and collect whatever has fallen onto the road during the night...the juice from these babies will make you wonder why you ever spent a lifetime shovelling snow and eating food that's been picked unripe and shipped a thousand miles on a truck...lilikoi rocks!
Came home with a coconut 2 days ago, and a wild avocado yesterday...
Gotta go now, time for a morning run...
Will tell you all about the discovery of breadfruit and the joys of macheteing coconuts tomorrow...
Live big!!!
Mike