Happy New Year!!!

Aloha and Happy New Year!  My past week between the holidays has been spent getting back into a more regular yoga routine, working and doing a little more exploring.  I took 4 yoga classes in 5 days.  The open air studios are so peaceful to practice in.  I enjoy the lower impact classes like Yin Yoga and Restorative.  You spend 3-ish minutes in each pose and can really focus on relaxing the mind as well as the body.  But I'll dedicate a future blog post to the studios and classes later.

As we are in the rainy season here, it was a pretty wet week.  I did do a little adventuring on one of my days off.  I borrowed a car with chef Ted and a few other volunteers this past Monday to run some errands and do a little more exploring of the local area.  Here is Ted and I eating pizza for lunch in the closest town with commerce, Pahoa.  It was my first Coke since I've been here.  It tasted really sweet having not had one in weeks.  I liked it. :) 

Island Naturals Food/Supplies in Pahoa

Pahoa main drag

Pahoa is filled with local businesses, eateries, a few bars, natural health food store, coffee shop and smoke shop.  Here are a few pics to give you an idea of what I mean.  Keep in mind, this is the poorest district of Hawaii.  Many get by on trading goods and services.  

Isaac Hale Park

Isaac Hale Park

When Ted and I were finished running errands we took the scenic route down the Red Road back to Kalani.  The Red Road is a popular tourist drive with many scenic beach, look out and snorkeling stops.  I'm lucky that Kalani is a stop on the Red Road.  All I need to do is walk or hitch a ride in either direction from the Kalani entrance and I have a wealth of beautiful activities.  After we picked up a couple more Kalani friends, Lisa and Kat, we stopped at the store for some wine and beer and got back on the Red Road and went down to Isaac Hale Park to enjoy our cocktails.  Here are a couple pics of the park.

After a little while, a storm started rolling in.  We noticed it as the surfers all got out of the water.  Safe to follow the surfers, they know more about the weather than anyone else.  So the four of us piled back into our ride and went back into Pahoa for a Mexican dinner.  We finished the evening at the local Kava Bar sharing a few bowls.  To all my Fiji friends, it still looks and tastes the same as it did 11 years ago, like drinking hand sanitizer.  Haha  Here are pics from dinner and our Kava nightcap.

Kava Time!

New Years was nice.  I worked early on New Years Eve, so although I made it to midnight, I was asleep by 12:30.  We had a party with a 9 person reggae band.  It was open to the public so I saw a lot of local color.  People dancing in all styles, rhymes and flows  and in all sorts of dress or in very little clothes.  The band was great and everyone had a pretty good time. 

Today is my day off.  If the weather holds out, I'll walk down to the beach.  I have a 4:30 yoga class and an 8pm Watsu water therapy appointment.  Watsu is aquatic bodywork, combining elements of massage, joint mobilisation, shiatsu, muscle stretching and dance.  I'm looking forward to crawling into bed tonight all relaxed and hopefully still feeling like I'm floating in the water.

Well, as the first few posts have been more based around providing an understanding of what my new day to day is like, that may get pretty old for me to type and you to read.  So I'd love to make this more of an open forum.  Feel free to post comments if you have any questions or comments on anything you'd like to know more about and I'll blog some answers.  I'll also look to focus my future posts more on specific topics, i.e. the yoga, the people, the pool/clothing optional areas, how I"m changing/evolving etc.  

Happy 2014 everyone and go Packers in the playoffs this weekend!!!!  Sending light, love and Aloha!