Part Two Approaches

This is a photo of the Makapu'u Lighthouse on one of my sunrise hikes. Very very cool. To get this picture, I hiked WAY off the trail over a ton of sharp pumice. I would do it the same way all over again.

Anyway, I've had even more fun than I anticipated, but part one of my adventures must come to a close. On the 5th of August I'm moving to the Philippines: I bought the plane ticket today. The flight dparts in the early afternoon on the 5th and arrives in Manila the evening of the 6th, even though the flight is about 10 or 11 hours. I am filling out the paperwork for the visa and sending it FedEx first thing tomorrow morning. Over the next two weeks, I'm going to be figuring out my housing situation for the first few days, packing, contacting dive shops, and exchanging money. I will be on Mindoro Island in and around the Puerto Galera area. The reason I'm only going to work out the first few days is that the cheap backpackers lodges don't have websites. What I'm going to do is stay in the cheapest (though safe) place the first 2-3 days then find a place for a few bucks a night. I don't need any luxury whatsoever - all I want is safety. The first two weeks I plan to be unemployed. I'll be walking (or biking, motoring, scootering, whatever) around to all the dive shops scoping them out and seeing which ones I like before I start talking about work.

Speaking of work, I passed the Instructor Exam and I am now a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. As soon as the paperwork is processed I will be in teaching status. That news is huge, but honestly it's sort of outweighed by the upcoming move to the Philippines.

Other exciting news is that Meg comes back from the mainland tonight. I would get her a lei like she did for me, but I have no idea where to get them. Sorry Meg. I'll at least pick you up with a big smile.

Weather or Not

I've gotten into this whole sunrise thing. Monday morning I went out toward the north shore, stopped at this park, and spent about 30-45 minutes taking pictures of the sunrise. The next day (yesterday) I drove out to Lanikai before 5, hiked up the pillbox trail (there's a picture of the hike on one of my first few posts). I hiked up in the dark, saw the sun rise over the Mokes, and made it back home by about 6:30. With my jaw injury I took this morning off and I'll probably do the same tomorrow morning then go somewhere else on Friday.

The weather here has been weird. I don't know if I'm just now noticing or if it has been unusual the past few days. It rains for no more than 5 minutes at a time, no less than 5 times a day. Plus it's constantly changing depending on where I drive. Like today going out to Haleiwa to dive with Jeremy, I swear it rained 4 times and was sunny and hot in between each one. A couple other noteworthy things about that drive: I passed the Dole plantation and then while we were out on the boat I looked back toward shore and there was a brilliant rainbow. It was there when we surfaced, and it was there as I drove back home. Very cool. (I started writing this paragraph because it started suddenly raining, and now it stopped. Point made.)

The last piece of news is the biggest of all. Ready? I'm thinking of moving to the Philippines. Palau was proving to be very difficult to find housing and transportation. When I looked into the Philippines, there were tons of links to backpackers that I could stay in (as little as $10 per night), they have an abundance of dive shops, and at least two airlines fly there direct for about $700. I'm going to continue researching it, then talk about it, think about it, and pray about it over the next week. I hope to have some sort of decision by this time next week. Don't worry, making a decision means there's still another couple weeks to wait for the visa and to make sure I secure housing and transportation arrangements, so it's looking like I'll be leaving no sooner than the 5th of August. But then again, I can never be too sure. Stay tuned because there's going to be an Instructor Exam update soon, then a follow-up about the Philippines very soon after that.

Where Clouds Are Made

4:25 is certainly an early time to wake up, but when you want to run up a mountain before the sun comes up, you have no other option. This is precisely what Meg and I did along with a friend named Polly yesterday. Equipped with camera, water, headlamp, and my Vibram shoes I love so much, we parked at the base of the trail then proceeded to the Old Pali Road and jogged up the half paved/half jungle route. Lights from the city were blocked by the trees so our meager head lamps were the only things allowing us to have a peek at how steep and how slick the ascent really was.

Upon reaching the summit around 5:45, the sky was beginning to lighten up but the Sun itself was not yet visible. Looking at the peak to my left, clouds were being created right before my eyes. It was a truly magical sight: small faint white splotches appearing from crisp clear air and growing as the wind whipped up from the base of the mountain and carried them higher.
Turning back to my right, the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds in the distance. This is what you see in the photograph. It didn't waste any time as it quickly crawled past the clouds and into the open, warming the mountain as well as the valley below. It may be difficult to wake up before 4:30, but after seeing a sunrise like that, there's no question that it was worth it. What a way to start out the day.