Back to the Desert Without a Leash

"Hey man, you wouldn't happen to have another leash?" 

"Sorry man I don't..."

The weather prediction looked good so we headed back to the desert again. After convincing myself that it wasn't going to rain anymore, I started sleeping out on the sand dune. 

Not a bad place to sleep

Beautiful sunrises...

And beautiful sunsets. 

Looking through the monocular. The Humback whales were jumping all day.

Waking up on the sand dune overlooking the ocean, I dusted the sand off my body. Looking up and across the beach, the ocean had become sheet glass with perfect crystal clear waves.

Playing with my water camera

Calm below the ocean'a turbulence

The surf forecast didn't look good prior to the trip so I didn't bother bringing my board. Just my luck that the waves would get good. Luckily Robo had brought two boards and was kind enough to let me borrow one. The downside was that he only had one leash. I wasn't going to let the absence of a leash stop me from surfing. I was determined to get in the water. Especially after being cooped up from the wind during the past few days.

Finding a piece of six foot rope laying around, I made a makeshift leash and fastened it to the board and my leg. I nervously paddled out through the warm aqua marine water. The waves were breaking a hundred yards off shore with several strong rip currents. A faulty leash would mean a lot of swimming.

After a few waves the leash ended up failing and in doing so broke the tail of the board off. Robo also broke his other board that session. With one board between a couple people, we were determined to continue surfing. 

Leashless and armed with one surfboard it was almost a blessing. After Robo or I lost the board we would swap out kind of like subbing out for a teammate in a sport. It was nothing but hoots and hollers as we got to watch each other slide across the waves the rest of the day. 

Some more photos from camping.

Gio's garden before. 

Gio's finished garden after. Complete with aloe, pineapple, and tarot. He moved the stone from a dry river bed to build the wall. 

Camp

Day camp

Friends, food, and sunsets

Slippers

Tracks

Reflections and wave turmoil

Dry Camping on the Beach Part 2

"What should we do? Should we call it and leave?"

"No we should stay and make our shelter better. Looking up the beach towards the North East I don't see any storms coming."

Upon deciding to tough it out, we decided to move camp to a different location with more tree cover. From there we could set up ridge lines to make a tarp shelter. Cold but wanting to get out of the wind, we moved to the new location so we could set up camp.

Our camp and gear

Through the strong North wind we built our shelter. We finally were protected from the elements and best of all we could relax. Even though it was windy, the sun had come out and brightened our surroundings. Taking a brief walk to look around revealed the surrounding landscape; a long spit of sand as far as the eye could see with large lava plateau mountains behind us. To the North East you could see the storms wrapping around the island a quarter mile offshore and headed back out to sea. They were volatile dark rain clouds rolling, spinning as if sent through a storm drain just offshore. It seemed as if the storms were divided by a window. They seemed close enough to touch. 

Entering the dunes

Massive rainbows all day. Also notice the storm gliding by just offshore. 

Deserted desert

Sunset from camp

Heading over the sand dune back to camp, I sat down and relaxed the rest of the day. Gio determined to make the campsite better spent the day planning out the garden he was going to put in.

"Text Josh to bring tomato plants and other starts. Also tell him to bring another rake and shovel. Let's go get river stone to build rock walls too."

Gio's building site for his garden. 

Until sunset it was a mellow day as we hid behind our tarp. However, things began to change quickly. Peering out from behind the tarp we could see the storms beginning to hit the mountain side from the North East. It was going to be another wet night.

Not wanting to set up my hammock, I decided to sleep under the tarp shelter on the ground. I layered myself in all of my clothes - jeans, shirt, flannel, and a windbreaker. Soon it was raining hard enough that the tarp roof needed a gutter. 

Sensing that the rain water was coming in, I placed a plastic table over my makeshift bed to act as another roof. Feeling like I was adequately prepared for the storms that night I fell asleep. 

Like the previous morning. We all woke up early due to an uncomfortable night in the rain and wind. We felt defeated. Our tarps were leaking and beginning to tear. Thinking that we couldn't feel any lower, the truck got stuck in the sand. As our clothes soaked in rain like a sponge and the wind tore into us, we laboriously dug the truck out.

Staying dry

Wet and windy 

Soaked and cold, Robo said, "I think I'm going to bail. The weather report doesn't look good and they have flash flood warnings for the area. What's the point of being out here if we are cold and sitting behind a tarp."

"You know... Young people nowadays think an adventure is going to be this romantic, easy thing," Gio said. "Well it's not. Adventures are often like this. Sometimes you get uncomfortable but that's what makes it an adventure."

The thought sunk into my chest as I too started to pack up and leave with Robo. I thought to myself "Maybe I'm not as adventurous as I thought."

As we loaded the truck, the last thing I saw was Gio digging his garden fervently in the pouring rain. Robo and I left with our tails between our legs as Gio stood his ground like a brave soldier in the rain.

Five miles later, we exited the washboard road that we were so excited to be heading down the day before. Turning back one last time I saw a dark menacing cloud enveloping everything around it. Ground, mountains, sky, and the camp where Gio sat. 

Dry Camping on the Beach Part 1

"You know... Young people nowadays think an adventure is going to be this romantic, easy thing," Gio said. "Well it's not. Adventures are often like this. Sometimes you get uncomfortable but that's what makes it an adventure."

60 hours earlier. 

The time had come. We finally hit the washboard road that signaled our camping destination. As the trucked bounced like a pogo stick due to the bad shocks, nothing could pull our spirits down not even the sign that said five more miles of dirt road. The sun was setting, the windows were rolled down, and the dust that blew in made us further realize that the Christmas camping trip we had been looking forward to was beginning.

The truck bed loaded with ice chests of food, tarps, rakes, shovels, stoves, and tables made me think about the Baja camping trips I got to do when I was younger. What we were doing was essentially the same thing. We drove to the dry side of the island. The side that is more of a desert and gets considerably hotter and gets less rain than the north shore.

Surveying each campsite slowly, we decided on one that had only a few tourists at it. Upon unloading our truck and the arrival of our friend Robo, the tourists realized that their territory was being taken over and decided it was best to move a little further away.

While setting up his tent in the fading sunlight, Robo called out, "We could see some bad weather tonight, it might rain and get windy."

Gio remarked, "It never rains out here. The storms always blow off shore and talking to the tourists, they said the weather has been incredible. If it does rain it will blow through quickly."

As Gio and Robo put their rainflies on, I was busy covering my hammock with a tarp in the spindly mesquite trees. Not wanting to cut the rope I brought into smaller pieces, I had to create a spiderweb of rope in every which direction to hang my hammock and tarp. Satisfied with my work, I crawled into my hammock and fell asleep.

10pm

The howling wind cut through the hammock's material and chilled my body. Laying in my hammock, I was torn about getting up. I could scramble in the dark through the mesquite to fix my tarp, or I could make a mad dash to the truck to grab my comforter.

Deciding upon grabbing my comforter, I placed it in my hammock as it started to rain. It wouldn't have been a hard rain except for the wind that made it so. Instead of rain drops falling, they were sailing horizontally. Crawling back into my hammock determined to fall asleep, I curled up as my hammock was being tossed around as if it were in rough seas. 

2am

Waking up to the sound of the wind beating the tarp like a drum and the incessant swinging of the hammock, I realized that I was also getting damp. The rain was beginning to leak through the tarp and onto me. Peaking my head out to see how Gio and Robo were fairing. I saw Robo's headlamp sprinting back and forth through the darkness. I laughed to myself because I wasn't the only one uncomfortable.

Gio sensing that we were up hopped out of his tent and said, "How are you guys fairing? I'm having to keep my feet against the tent to keep the rain from getting me wet!" 

"I'm fine" I called out, "I'm just a little damp."

Robo said, "I'm pretty wet, my rainfly isn't working, Wyatt seems to be fairing better than you and I Gio! This is going to be a long night!"

6am

Falling out of my hammock like a person that is leaving the bar in the early morning, I made my way to the picnic table like a zombie. Seeing Robo and Gio looking the same way made me feel a little better. We were cold and defeated as the tourists around us packed their tents up to get out of there. It was only the first night and we were supposed to be there for a week.

Covered in Teak

Turning off the belt sander I quickly turn down my headphones to save my ears from the loud music. Looking down at my boardshorts, I see they are stained yellow from the teak wood. Dusting them off only creates a cloud of dust around me but it doesn't matter anyways because they are covered in paint and mud. Only remnants of what they used to be show through. Standing up to stretch, I look back at the damage done. The deck is almost sanded and I'm ahead of the deadline. As a reward to myself, I weave my bike around potholes on the dirt road so I can go for a swim.

As of late I got hired by my friend Robo (short for robot, and another nickname by Gio) to work on a beach house mansion. The main guest house remodel just finished and now a bigger house is being built next to it. A year later, they are starting to finally paint the interior. The owner brings in his own crew of workers and artists from the Midwest to build his custom homes. I'm just a very small part of the cog in a much larger set of wheels.

Everything is custom on the house, the exterior siding is textured with sand and trimmed with exotic woods. He has stone tile and statues carved and shipped over. The railing to the stairs is all custom steel work. Eventually the plan is to have a waterfall with it's own stream running through the yard.

Rolling on the paint

Tools of the trade

I found the most interesting thing is that he finds artists that he likes and gives them the canvas and all of the supplies; in return they get to create whatever they want. He lets their imagination run wild. One example is they cut down an iron wood tree and left twelve feet of it standing. A wood carver then came and turned it into a Chinese dragon. It's so detailed even the scales contain finer details. The list goes on. 

Coming back from swimming, I get back down and start running the belt sander sending dust everywhere again. One of the painters comes out and tells me that I do a beautiful job sanding. I laugh to myself because they are the artists painting the walls as if they were recreating a Monet. After a second of silence I see the painter is waiting for a response so I thank the painter kindly and continue on.

Joy From An Orchard

Shirt off and a sitting in the lawn chair, I was styling with the world flying by me at 45 mph. Only the wind in my ears and the squeaky engine belt could be heard between gear shifts. I couldn't help but smile that we were going fruit picking at our friend's orchard. It's an activity that my friends back in Mendo (Chet and Gio) enjoy immensely. Give me a choice between Disney Land and picking fruit, I'd go fruit picking. 

50 pounds of bananas

As we bounced off the road onto the orchard's bumpy land, it looked like a piece of property covered in Christmas ornaments. Trees evenly planted hanging with bulbs of different colors and shapes. Bananas and plantains lined the perimeter with different types of fruit trees planted in the center. Some trees were so laden with fruit that the branches were beginning to break under the weight. It would be an understatement to say they were dripping with fruit. 

As we walked around with our five gallon buckets, we would pluck different types of avacados from the trees, pick up macadamia nuts, and harvest tangelos, oranges, lemons, and tangerines. Gio would climb twenty feet up in a tree and give it a shake as if there were an earthquake. Fruit would subsequently fall from the sky and litter the ground as I would scramble around to fill my bucket before I got bombed by more falling fruit. 

Once a five gallon bucket was full we would go back to the truck and dump it into the bed only to load it up with more. Once we were done picking in one area we would go to another and pick more. The entire time we couldn't help but laugh. We were little kids in a playground and it was all smiles as we drove off smelling like fruit. 

Our truck bed of gold

Enjoying some fresh plantains

Hanging Beams

"What are those steel toed slippers? Yeah! They must have their safety slippers on!"

We probably came a little ill prepared for this job. However in defense, we are pretty good at working in slippers (flip-flops). I haven't worn any shoes other than slippers since I've gotten here and for the most part no shirt either. No shirt no shoes no problem. 

After pouring a small concrete slab in the morning, Andy, Gio, and I went over to a friend'a house to help hang their rafter beams on their second story extension. Our friend Princess (a nickname given by Gio) and her husband have a house on five acres over looking a river surrounded by old tarot fields. Coconut trees sporadically dot the old tarot fields that are surrounded by the lurking canopies of the dense jungle. It's a tranquil place that is only interrupted by the bleats of their goats. 

In the heat of the day we began to work. Gio hating the sun hides under his hat and long sleeve shirt as we got directions for the task at hand. Among the stack of building materials were four thirty foot beams. Our task was to get them from the ground to where they belonged three stories up.

Setting the beams three stories up. 

On the second story we use a come along and guide ropes to lift each beam individually. As the beams are cranked up the side of the house, the beams are just feet away from the old house and one mistake could do thousands of dollars in damage. It was a slow task as we tried to keep the beams from swinging like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. Beads of sweat dripped down my body not from the heat but from the stress of moving the beams.

As we got the beams hoisted to the second story, we then picked them up to bolt them into the third story. I was more than thankful that we got the beams into place without anything going wrong. Even if a slipper or two slipped off. 

Leaving the job site. 

Wax on, Wax Off

With the continuous drone of the palm sander in the background mixed in with the happy beats of reggae music, I can't help but think of the Karate Kid.

"Wax on, wax off. Up, down. Up, down. Smooth motion."

Since the surf hasn't been good the last couple of days I've been putting in some time working. I've needed the time away from the ocean anyways. The reef has been like a cheese grater to my body and spending more time in the salt water prolongs the healing process. 

First broken board :(

The reef always wins. 

Currently I'm helping to build a place that is in the stages of having the interior painted and finished. It's no more than 100 square feet with a bedroom, deck, and bar overlooking the vast amount of jungle. It's a sweet little zone and I'm always intrigued on how Gio ties in things that people are going to throw away. For example he will take old fencing and make shelves, fishing net for trellises, bathtubs for delicate ponds, or left over tile for mosaic designs. He has taken reduce, reuse, and recycle to heart.

What we lose in fuel efficiency we gain in packing efficincy. Recycled roofing used for fences. 

It's a work in progress. 

Already moving furniture in. The end is in sight. 

View of the jungle from the bedroom. 

The kitchen. 

While I've done a little painting before, it has been a great experience learning how to roll paint on smooth without any shadows or drips. My sensei I guess you would say is a man by the name of Andy who apprenticed in landscape architecture and building design. He has been building homes for thirty years and has done it all over the world - from Europe to Indo. To have his guidance is pretty awesome. 

Between talking about how to create environmental homes and living a healthier life style, he often comes and checks my work to critique it. He then gives me a couple of pointers and lets me get back to work. The best part is that even if I do it right the first time, I still get to paint it again for a second, third, and fourth coat.

Practice. Practice. Practice. "Wax on, wax off. Up, down. Up, down."

Gloomy Days

The few days of amazing weather was short lived. The swell drastically increased with onshore winds make both diving and surfing nonexistent. Along with this, consistent rain storms keep us inside. While going outside in the rain isn't bad since it's warm, it does get tiresome constantly drying off. 

Solo sunrise walk

Usually this wave is no bigger than waist high. This is probably a twelve foot wave.

Lone coconut drifting in the waves

Pretty sure that's what I looked like wiping out the other day.

Instead, between listening to the rhythm of the rain drops on the tin roof and plunking on the guitar, we have been spending more time in the garden and working. 

Glad we have some guitars to jam with

Hanging out

The garden that Gio maintains is phenomenal. It's a full time job on top of his other jobs but he somehow manages to keep it going.

For him it's a lifelong experiment. He's a mad scientist trying to get the best results. Growing kale, cilantro, and other veggies isn't good enough. It can always be better. Gio tries different tilling methods, lighting, everything imaginable.

Where it all begins

I think the pattern that papaya leaves make is pretty cool. Like big snowflakes. 

His results are impressive, basil plants that are small hedges. Tomato plants that are five years old and still producing. 

Gio finds that fighting the constant dampness followed by mold is a huge problem. When it starts raining he flies around the garden trimming and hacking plants back so they won't die or rot. He still sees life in them and we need it to eat. For the most part we don't buy any fruits or veggies except for carrots, onions, and garlic. Everything else is from the garden. 

One of the terraces

Hawaiian chili peppers

Tarot

Sweet potatoes

While banana trees line the perimeter and  papaya trees dot the interior, terraces line the yard with fruits and veggies of all kinds. There are often multiple varieties of each plant. Different oreganos, spinach, and peppers. 

He also reminds me of Jonny Apleseed. More like Gio Avoseed though. He makes little piles of the seeds from his best avacados and will fill a pocket full and toss them along the jungly road side knowing ten years down the road there could be an avacado tree for people to enjoy.

Papaya, banana, and lilicoy (passion fruit) for breakfast