After fighting an urge for chocolate for a few days I made the walk with my meager tip earnings to the gas station down the highway. A long walk up the driveway lined with avocado, guava, coffee, lime, macadamia nut, bananas and beautiful flowers of all kinds. Once on the highway it's a narrow, crushed lava shoulder and a two-lane road. The clerk at the gas station is the same aged but always cheery Hawaiian women who's always one duty. I make a mental note to ask if they need help on my next visit. She smiles, as always, as she counts my change and starts conversation with the man, a transplant who seems to know the clerk very well, in line behind me. Crossing the street and turning down the driveway, I notice the vog (volcanic fog) has let up enough to see the ocean. Today is the first day it has been clear enough to see the curve of the earth in the horizon. I sigh, bite into my chocolate, and think of spending my day off snorkeling with tropical fish, sea turtles and dolphins.
I'll be at Rainbow Plantation until Janurary. I'm entertaining several ideas for after that. I'll probably work for three months at a hostel in Kona while taking a parttime job in the evenings. That should allow me time to save money to fly to Australia and get through customs there. Though, there are so many great farms all over the islands that I could spend years here.
