birds, buses, and beaches

My life this week has consisted of power tools, ladders, nest building 101, passerine banding, incubation, a lot of sleep, a random illness, and then there was yesterday...

Work is going well so far and I'm feeling pretty good about everything. I hadn't done much else up until yesterday, really. Sadly, my first weekend was a waste because of a mysterious food poisoning / stomach bug incident. Day one I was ridiculously sick and day two was spent recovering. Thankfully I haven't developed cabin fever yet but I'm sure it's right around the corner. It's not so easy to get off of the mountain when you're lacking a vehicle.

So, one of the perks with living in an abandoned prison? Weird, creepy things happen. This place may or may not be haunted. I don't even know if I believe in ghosts, but many unexplainable things have been happening as of late. One example: there were mysterious footprints in the incubation room this past week. Nobody had been in there and the next time it was checked, they were gone. Nobody had mopped. This makes me feel really great about having to wander over to the incubation room at night in the dark. And by really great, I mean I am sufficiently creeped out and keep looking over my shoulder. Example two: the interns arrived back from dinner and were attempting to unlock the door but something else locked it whilst doing so. They figured it was me but I was in back of the apartment. Neat. At least the ghost isn't harmful? YET.

Yesterday, I decided to finally get out and explore. I started my trek down the mountain at 6:30 AM and made it into Makawao just in time for the 8:11 bus, which was running a few minutes late. It's about 5 miles and about a 2400 foot elevation change from where I'm living to Makawao. Needless to say, I'm a little sore today. I tried out my hitchhiking skills on my way back up, though, and ended up walking uphill for only about 2 miles.

I took the Upcountry Islander bus to Kahului and transferred to the Kihei Islander bus. The bus costs a dollar every time you get on or you can get a day pass for 2 dollars. I went for the latter option and ended up saving at least 5 dollars. Riding the Maui Bus is great for people watching and meeting a lot of interesting people. I made a couple of friends yesterday. If you follow me on the twitter, you probably saw my commentary tweets.

A brief geography lesson on Maui: Makawao is in the "Upcountry", i.e. on Haleakala. Kahului the main city on the island and it's located in the valley; if (WHEN) you fly here, you will fly into the airport in Kahului. Kihei is on the southeastish side of the valley. I've added a handy map for you to reference (click to enlarge).

I laid on the beach in Kihei for a bit then headed to the busier area in search of some snacks. I ended up eating at Fat Boy Burgers near Kalama Park. Of course they had a veggie burger amidst all the animal burgers... this is Maui, afterall. I opted to get the chipotle-lime sauce with caramelized onions and mozzarella cheese. It may or may not have been the best veggie burger I've ever had. I also had their sweet potato fries, but I've been spoiled by Pawley's in Columbia, SC and I found them underwhelming. I wandered around for a bit more, missed the bus, and wandered around a bit longer. It was a nice break from the cold, rainy mountain... and by cold, I mean I currently have six blankets on my bed. And, I am surprisingly not too terribly sunburned after applying sunscreen at least three times. Soon enough I will look less like a haole and more like a local.

Post-making the journey back up the hill, I joined some of the interns at Polli's in Makawao. It's a little Mexican restaurant with lilikoi (passion fruit) margaritas. We met some more locals and enjoyed some good food. Everybody is generally quite friendly here and most are interested in what we do up on the mountain. It was a pretty great day overall. One of my favorite parts was walking down the hill and watching the sun rise over the island.

Today I shall do some domestic things before returning back to work tomorrow. I'm hoping that I can stretch out these sore muscles so I can hike around the lava tubes up the hill after it warms up some. My work schedule will hopefully be changing quite a bit soon, so I'm going to try to take advantage of my set schedule for the remainder of this week. If it ever stops raining after work, I'll start my trail running up the road. Hooray for being able to do things outside during the "winter"!

Did you know that the state fish of Hawaii is the Reef Triggerfish? Also known as the humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Have fun pronouncing that one! :)

new adventures

Well friends, it's been over a year since I last updated this. Catch up: after returning from Belize, I was a veterinary technician in South Carolina up until almost a month ago. Since last month, I have resigned from my job, hung out in San Francisco for a few days, packed my entire life into boxes and suitcases (after giving away the majority of it to Goodwill), attended a fantastic going away party (thanks friends!!!) and boarded a plane to Maui on February 14th.**

** I also found a home for one of my two kitties. The outdoor one still needs a home... any takers in South Carolina?!

Fifteen hours later, I landed in Kahului and two days later I started the job I've been awaiting for years. So now, I am a Research Associate at an avian propagation facility for endangered Hawaiian birds run by the San Diego Zoo and the Hawaiian Endangered Bird Conservation Program. I had an internship with this program in 2006 and ended up staying a year with a seasonal position. Although I won't be discussing the details of my job, you can find out more by checking out the blog (link on the right!).

Things you should know: I work and live in an abandoned prison on the dormant Haleakala volcano. I'm sure there won't be any volcanic explosions while I'm here, but it's entirely possible you'll hear about some unexplained things happening in the apartment. Weird things. GHOSTY THINGS. I'll just preface this blog by saying that creepy things definitely happened the last time I lived here so don't be surprised if there are some slightly hysterical posts. Just saying.

My first few days have been spent getting settled in and reacquainted with the schedule. My body is adapting fairly well to the time change (currently 5 hours behind EST) and tonight is the first night that I haven't felt like taking a nap at 6 PM HST. I was pretty excited to find out that my favorite restaurant is Paia is still open (Cafe de Amis) and I was able to have a delicious vegetable curry wrap with mango chutney and raita last week. My favorite grocery store, Mana Foods, is still around as well. Nothing has really changed in five years... it's almost like a time warp. The only noticeable difference so far is more traffic and a bit more development in general. It's still amazingly beautiful.

Yesterday was the Pacific Whale Foundation's World Whale Day at Kalama Beach park in Kihei. We headed there after work in time to enjoy some reggae / island music, hippie dancing, and good food. It's been pretty cloudy and rainy over the past few days, but the sun broke through just in time for it to set. There was a mass migration of people from the festival to the beach to watch the sun set and, fittingly, there were a couple of whales breaching right off of the beach. I've seen many, many sunsets and this one was by far the most beautiful. The image on the right doesn't really do it justice. It's pretty unbelievable that this is my life now. How did this happen? I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow beings my weekend. I'll probably lay low tomorrow since I still things to do to get settled. Maui has a pretty reliable and cheap bus system which I think I'll explore on Tuesday and find my way to the beach. I have to get the first sunburn over with at some point, I suppose. It'll take me about an hour and a half to walk down the mountain into town and the bus stop, unless somebody offers me a ride. Hitchhiking is actually a pretty good way to get around on the island if you don't have transportation. I've been told that if you're going to hitchhike, Maui is the place to do it. One of these days I'll get my own car. One of these days...

I think you've been sufficiently caught up... stay tuned for more updates!