Patience

I first came to this place eight years ago. He wanted to show me the island at least, that is what he said. In hindsight he wanted to seek out old runs, dives and friends to share a joint or two and talk story all while I was devoured by mosquitoes.  I wanted to hike, to stomp across the lava fields, to walk through barren calderas and get lost in the forest of man-size ferns and to explore the dark insides of a lava tube. But most of all, to see lava oozing from mysterious origins deep below the earth.  He didn’t bring anything but a pair of flip flops having little intensions to spend any time here. He’s interests were in kicking up twenty years of old dirt with the drop-out, hippie freaks and otherwise social errant outcasts of the 70’s.  His good old days.

The second time I came it was my birthday, just a couple months after the first visit.  Alone and on a mission: to see earth born on the same day that I was born.  In those days it was a three miles hike across the lava beds inside the Hawaii Volcano National Park.  I hiked during the day across what was an endless black sea following carrions assembled of the same black rock. The ground baked in the tropical sun. In a land of no features that provide a scale for size or distance the hike was a bleak trudge, but I finally came upon a hot stop where lava was a grayish charred red beneath a black glassy cape. It looked no much different from a dying charcoal briquette in a barbeque grill. Disappointing.  On the hike back I rendered first aid to a young woman who had fallen  and had a knee that looked like it had been in a meat grinder. 

After moving to Hawaii and buying my condo I took seven Brazilian kids to volcano. I warned them not to expect to see shooting lava fountains or enormous lakes of red.  That stuff was for tourist brochures.   Sure enough we saw no flowing lava, but we had a great time exploring the lava at the end of the Chain of Craters Road, the Holei sea arch, and Thurston Lava Tube. We stopped toured around Crater Rim Drive and stopped to look into Halema’um’a getting a snoot full of sulfur and other hazardous volcanic fumes.  One of the best trips I have ever had to Volcano despite not seeing the flow.  A week later Halema’um’a exploded in the middle of the night. The road is now closed and the Big Island air quality has been the worst ever.

I can’t count the number of times I have been here, alone or with friends, cousins, my dad and sister. The story is always the same. No 2000 degree molten lava here. I have made special trips to see it after hearing of new breakouts that have torched houses and buried roads. But the story is always the same. “Should have been here yesterday. Came right over the road.” Or, “This stuff you are standing on is from last week.”  I have called myself the anti-Pele. Pele being the goddess of the Volcano.  

This year the flow is once again reaching the sea at locations both inside and outside the park. The best and most exciting way to see the lava is by boat.  (That’s the best way if you don’t get sea sick, like me.)  I decided to invest in a weekend, my birthday weekend to see earth born. Rent a car, get a couple nights in a cabin in Volcano Village. Paul Revere I’d cover land and sea.  I hired a guide, and then signed up for a boat ride. All with the same company.   

The best viewing is at night. This means making a difficult trek on uneven black terrain that is not well marked. To do alone is crazy, but you also cross private land. Solo treks are something I’ll leave for the invincible twenty-somethings.  I arranged to meet my guide at 4 pm.  

I arrived early, use the port-a-potties and talk with the security guard who confirmed where I was waiting was the spot.  I waited. I called to be sure I was in the right stop.  The road to Kalapana is the longest dead end road in the world. It just disappears beneath a lava flow.  Makes it kind of hard not to be in the right stop. I waited some more. I waited long enough to start directing people down the road beyond the restricted area (I know this because I have been there before.).  I call the company three times. Fortunately I got the same reservationist, who felt for me, but she couldn’t get a hold of the manager to find out what happened to the guide.

Meanwhile, I watch another company shuttle people in.  After a full hour I drove back to the security staff. “Remember me?”

“Yeah. He didn’t show?”

“Nope. Anyway I can hike in alone.” I knew I couldn’t.

She empathized with my plight and introduced me to Shawn, an agent for another tour company. Unfortunately all the tours had already gone out.  But he didn’t quit there.

Most people who have seen me in the last two weeks know I need a haircut. In the humidity of Hawaii, my hair comes alive, frizzing and curling everywhere. Add the wind and the end of a 180 mile car ride after a three mile walk to get it and yeah I was looking a little tussled.  But my hair had nothing on the Ed’s fro that shaded his tie-dye t-shirt.  

Ed has a place in Kalapana a village of structures built on recent lava flows.  He was hanging with the boys who work the random tourist who wants to wander out to see the lava.  Shawn asked Ed, “you want to make a quick 100? Take this lady out to see the lava.”

“I would man, but I already had a beer. No can do.”  I am doing my best to asset the situation and Ed.  I can’t see Ed’s eyes hidden behind his Cool Rays.  He’s a lean dude, the kind I always associate with hard druggies, 70 dropouts and homeless.  I don’t smell anything. He speaks clearly. The security guard had not made any effort to shoo Ed away or discourage this free enterprise transaction.  In conversation I learn he’s  been on island for four years so he is not one of the friends mentioned in the first paragraph.  I appreciated that Ed acknowledge his current physical state.  He agreed that if I could be there at 4pm tomorrow he would gladly to take me out.  I agree.

The Shawn hugged me and then Ed did the same saying “Now I can get a new phone. My other one somehow got fried in the investigation.”

I asked if Obama had listened in on his conversation.

“No we had a murder out here last week and the government fried my phone.”

Hum, there ought to be some interesting conversations tomorrow.