FIFTY STATES AWAYAfter a weird incident of waking in what I thought was the middle of the night because it was pitch black outside, I ended up thoroughly confused, I checked the clock and it appeared to be 9.30am. This made no sense whatsoever and I couldn’t work out what was going on so I went back to sleep. I woke again later to the cockerel crowing, which was quite nice, we had a cockerel and some chickens when I was a kid so it was a great reminder of that time in my life. After getting my brain in gear I realised what the problem had been in the night, I still had my phone on aeroplane mode so the time hadn’t updated properly, it was now actually 6.30am and bright outside.
I decided to get up after having a cracking nights sleep, Ben who was a little less rested tells me the birds chirped all… night long and that one of the cats came and sat outside for a little chat, meowing away along with a couple of yaps from the dogs! There are several chihuahuas living here and they are so cute and tiny! One of them literally had two puppies an hour before we arrived and we got the chance to see them!
Breakfast is provided and starts at 7am, consisting of a platter of fresh fruit, gluten free breads, homemade jams and scrumptious pancakes, a great way to start the day. We had a chat with the people who help around the place and discussed options of things to do, there’s lots of adventures to be had and we headed out.
I really just wanted to drive around and acquaint ourselves some more with the area and pop to a slightly bigger store to get some essentials. In the end we didn’t do all that much in the way of noteworthy stuff today. On our way back to the Ranch we stopped for dinner having a lovely coconut curry, with added spice and had the chance to try a fish called ono, apparently part of the barracuda family and Yummy it was too!
Returning back to our room we decide to have a little check around for ‘friends’. We think the lizard has made its exit, but we have gained an additional spider, which after a bit of a chase Ben managed to capture and put outside. A very commendable effort on his part this thing was huge! We have been wondering how Ben’s uncle Keith would find this place, he is exceedingly well travelled and enjoys the extremer holidays, we were both discussing on whether he’d been anywhere like this and what he’d make of it.
Reflecting on the day and our time here so far, we feel that even in a short time we’ve learnt a lot about the way of life and culture here and can appreciate that the food is generally healthier than in the mainland US, with most of it being organic and homegrown. The weather is nice, it seems to stay at a consistent temperature, we have a lot of cloud cover here mainly due to the volcano and the sub tropical climate. The cloud cover is perfect for growing coffee and Kona Coffee is everywhere! The cloud cover is also appreciated as it is hot already (26c, 80f and up day and night) and having the sun beating down on us would not be exactly pleasant, especially when it hit 29c (84f) earlier.
