11 Jan Week 8 Recap: Less work, more play

This week we were grateful to have light work loads and both of us had Saturday off market duty. We took advantage of Jiva’s Christmas gift card and went to Kapa’a Thursday for a day of beaching & town adventures. We grabbed lunch at the Molaa Sunrise Fruit stand before hopping the bus down to Kapaa and finding a beach spot to sit with our sandwiches & smoothies. The sun was really cooking us and wasn’t long before we were ready for an ocean cool off!

After lunch we walked down the beach towards the Nani Moon Meadery to use up our gift card. Beach driftwood huts and blue blue waters all the way, we enjoyed the slow, relaxing afternoon.

The meadery was really fun! We got to sample all 7 meads and could barely settle on a favorite.

Nani Moon meadery was so cute!

After an hour at the meadery, we headed back to the beach for the remaining the sunny hours. We walked down the main historic blocks of Kapaa to find a good happy hour, and were not disappointed by the Olympic Cafe’s $3.75 draft beers and $6 fried pickles! We met up with our fellow farm-ateer at Paniolo BBQ for some real LIVE music! Our first time seeing live music in about 11 months. The band played covers of all kinds but had some great instrumental solos. We got to meet more islanders, and stay out past our usual 9p bedtime! All in all, a super fulfilled adventure day in Kapaa!

Today (Sunday) we snagged the farm car and half our farm staff (Texas Tim, Orion, Sammie Jo & Marco) and went just up the road to an Ecstatic Dance party. There were about 30-40 of us gathered in this beautiful mahogany forest for a couple hours of whatever-you-want movement to variety of music. The gathering started off with a cacao ceremony with some really really delicious Peruvian cacao mixed with rose, blue lotus and other mystic elements. The dance floor is a non-verbal zone and the gathering itself is sober, and featured an amazing fruit display of banana, rambutan, mango, pineapple, kumquats, and cacao seeds… followed by a quick meal of curry quinoa & veggies for after the dancing! No photos of this amazing event, as phones & cameras are not allowed!

After we finished dancing, eating and mingling we headed to a new-to-us beach just southeast of Molaa Valley: Papaa Bay. We luckily had a local neighbor, Ari, along with us because he showed us to the western trail leading to a different beach then the main Papaa: We hiked a short but steep trail that lead us to the rocks along one side of the bay, with a gorgeous sandy and secluded beach on the other side! Another river inlet featured some mature coconut trees that Ari & Marco harvested and popped open for us! Fresh coconut water, sunshine, and super soft sand!

After the beach, we took the crew to Kapaa for some grocery shopping and lastly – snagging some fish, veggie, and pollo tacos at Tiki Tacos! What a day and great week!