River Adventure

We meant to get up early, but that did not happen. I did not sleep that well due to nightsweats. I guess diet really does make a difference. I drank a cup of lemon water and checked e-mail. We took a shower and got dressed. We headed to Hamamoto's fruit farm. We used the tablet and the map together to make sure we were on the right road. But Chris saw the sign before the tablet told me. We drove on a long driveway and parked by a structure. We wandered in front of the gift shop until a man called out to a woman. She took us inside and asked a few questions. We had just missed the tour but she said we could walk through. Then she wrote up a receipt for two tickets to walk through and to have a fruit tasting platter afterward. She gave us a map and we walked the path. We saw many unusual plants. Some were houseplants gone wild! After walking through the farm, she indicated that we should investigate the open area structure. As we did that, someone prepared a drink platter, consisting of tiny sour oranges that we could squeeze into a glass, and two pitchers of sugar water. But I asked for regular water to go with my sour orange juice. IT was good and refreshing. Then she brought out the platter. She showed us which ones were sour and which were sweet. So we started with the sourest one- bilimbi. I had to pair it with the pineapple to eat it. We ate all the fruit on the platter. Chris put the seeds in a little baggie I had in my purse. Then we walked around, enjoying the view and taking pics. We went to the gift shop because I wanted to buy some of their honey, having seen the hives. But they were out, having sold to hotels and the airport. All they had left were pieces of honeycomb for $32 each. I passed on that. Outside, one of the men was cutting bamboo to make a grouping for luck to share with his neighbors for New Year's. I asked if we could have some of the leftovers and he said yes. I pulled a grocery bag from my purse and we took two pieces. The lady came out and handed us more.

We thanked her and headed back to the main road. Again, pairing the tablet (which showed us where we were at each moment) with the map, we looked for the river cruise. What we found was called The Adventure River Cruise. We signed up for the 1:30 cruise. We were early so we walked across the street to the beach on the other side. The sand was dark brown and rocky. After a few minutes we climbed up to the shore and back to the cruise site. We stood and talked with other waiting passengers. Then we boarded. The cruising part was short actually. We went downriver and stopped at a place where natives were building an outrigger canoe. But when we went ashore, it was our guide that did all the talking and demonstrating. We saw a few things in the encampment area, then a shallow cave. He mentioned that the nut of the poison fish tree made a good but strong soap. A walk through the woods brought us to a covered picnic area. There was a table with items woven from coconut palm leaves. He explained how each one was used. He was very funny. He had us play Rock, Paper, Scissors in various combinations until he had handed out all the woven items.

Then he showed us how they made fire. But it didn't work very well. He said it should take 10 seconds, but he rubbed the stick for a long time, as did one of the passengers and his co-worker. Mostly he made smoke. But in the end, the stick stayed smoking even after he quit rubbing. He pushed the smoldering part onto some coconut husk and it started to smolder. As he talked, the smoke turned to fire and he tossed it in the river. Then we went to see the water buffalo. I swear it was the same one as last night, so I did not ride it. A man was leading it by a nose ring. The kids played with a puppy on a leash nearby and our guide showed us two crabs in a terrarium. Then we got back on the catamaran. We went down one tributary and hovered while he through out bread to attract fish or crabs. Then we turned around and went down another tributary. We did not go far because a recent storm had made us likely to get stuck. He tossed out bread to attract catfish. And he laid down and reached out to catch fish with his hands, but it did not work. Then we motored back to the dock. We all thanked him and went to our cars. On the way down, we had passed a sign for a German restaurant so we looked for it. And we found it. The interior was not impressive, but the prices were reasonable. And the clientele were international. Koreans, German, Americans and Hawaiians. We ordered, then talked while the order was cooked. Chris got half a chicken with German potato salad and pickled red cabbage. I got beef in sauce with red cabbage and spatzle. When we left there, we went across the island and up the main drive. We were looking for Kmart. It was supposed to be the highest grossing Kmart in the world. I think we got stuck in rush hour traffic because it took so long. But we did find it. I looked for black shorts. With the black ones were blue ones. I chose one of each and brown pants in two sizes. I tried them on in the dressing room. The black shorts were too small even though they were marked large. The blue ones were marked large and they fit, but the material was almost see thru. And the pants were not flattering in the least. So I took it all back. I found a black pair that really were size large and a blue pair made out of better fabric. Then, as we stood in line, I saw the lady ahead of us buy lots of Christmas sale stuff. So we went over to that side and picked up a box of lights. Then I thought of aloe. But though we searched high and low, there was no aloe without other 'stuff' in it. We bought Vitamin E oil instead. Then we stood in a long line to pay. It was dark when we got out, and drove home. I plugged in my camera and tablet to recharge. The little extra battery to charge the phone, would not work on the tablet. And I had forgotten to bring the cord for the phone, so both devices were very low. As they charged, I e-mailed almost 100 pictures from my phone to my laptop 5 at a time. It was slow going. Then, I had to download them from Gmail to my downloads file, and move them over to the vacation file. But there were problems. Not everything downloaded, or got e-mailed, or whatever. So I began deleting from my phone what made it to the vacation file. Then what wasn't deleted got e-mailed again. I spent hours doing this. Eventually all the pics were moved into place. But I had taken one video and the e-mail pop-up said it was too big to send. It got late and we had intended to go to bed early so we could get an early start tomorrow.