On the road to Hana, I like the waterfalls without people. The kind where I can rock-hop naked and suck wild ginger and generally behave like a mad woman. How do you find one like that? By walking. Caveat: you might get muddy. You might get lost. Hell, you might find a waterfall I haven’t found yet. But it’s totally worth it.
Natural Beauty, Quirkiness and All Things Water
What the Hell Do You Do On Moloka’i? The Mellow Guide to Road Tripping and Some Cool Shit To Do You Will Never Find on the Internet
On an island of 8,000 people and no traffic lights…what do you DO on Moloka’i? Okay. Now first allow me to explain something. Maybe you’ve been to Hawaii- like Oahu, Maui or the Big Island. You know how people talk about “island time” being slow, where things happen at their own pace? What they’re talking about sounds really really fast on Moloka’i. Moloka’i is slow and that’s why we love it. Take a breather, turn off your phone, and talk to people. Ask questions. You’ll get way better answers than maps and GPS can offer.
Okay, so you wonder: where is this gorgeous picture? It’s the ocean view of Karen’s Yoga Retreat property. I’ll tell you about it.
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My Boyfriend’s Dad Buys an Island and We Inherit a Baby Sloth
Bocas del Toro, Panama is our home base. But beautiful Bocas is an island. Unless you fly straight in to the tiny “airport,” you have to pass through the last bastion of land. And that’s Almirante. You don’t want to linger here. It’s a port town, a hungry town, a wide eyed town. Where the turds from outhouses drop straight into the water.
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Where You Can Go Naked Surfing on Moloka’i
First order of business to score a little freebie on your way to naked surfing beach, a.k.a Papohaku Beach: Pay attention to the available flight schedules. Some airlines, like Pacific Wings, make stops in Kalaupapa. Which sits at the base of some of the tallest (2,000 feet) sea cliffs in the world. Of course Kalaupapa is also a former leper colony and is super duper hard to get to.
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The Deep South Tastes So Good: New Orleans, Baby!
The mardi gras beads were still dangling from giant oak trees when we arrived in New Orleans at the end of March. A local African American artist explains to me that as a kid on the streets during Mardi Gras, he’d shout, “over here! Hey mister throw some beads over here!” and glanced at the throngs of people catching fistfuls of the shiny necklaces and doubloons. He moved into the crowd of white people and crouched down.
Road Tripping New Zealand’s North Island: Cathedral Cove, Coromandel and “The Backside”
Here’s the route: we’re driving from Coromandel down to to the surf town of Raglan, up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands, west to NZ’s Tasman Sea Coast, and then down the enigmatic Highway 12 through the misty fern filled Waipoua Forest and back to Auckland.
Auckland! K-Road, Street Art, Coffee & Comedy
When we get off the plane in Auckland at midnight, I am a little buzzed I admit. See, when I get up and headed to the bathroom a few hours into the flight, there was the whole crew of Maori dancers I saw file onto the plane. They’ve stuffed themselves into the flight attendant’s quarters near the loo, joking and bantering.
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Miami: A Boy, An Alligator and a $45 margarita
If I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. I book a room at the Posh Hostel in the heart of Miami Beach. Complete with glittering chandeliers, free wifi and a rooftop pool for $60. What more could I ask for?
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FORBIDDEN SOIL: CUBA
It’s all Ivy’s fault. I get dumped by Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome himself and feel like I’ve fallen off a skyscraper. I need to get out of Maui, like fast. So on December 7, 2013 (the day my Saturn return starts) I find myself in a dingy brown wing of the Miami International Airport meeting up with… the Public Defenders of Los Angeles. What the hell am I doing traveling straight from Miami to Havana with a bunch of lawyers?
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Thailand! (And Accidentally, Malaysia)
I guess it all happened because Dad got depressed. And not your average boo-boo either. The real kind. The kind that includes hospitals and break ups and electric shocking.
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Kenya! Diesel, Ugali and Lots of Zebras
When I told Tutu I was going to Africa, she hung up on me. Now I’m on Kenya Airways popping extra strength Ibuprofen. The ache of an abortion keeps me company and keeps me awake while I fly over the dark continent. But that’s another story.
