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Picture of the Day

Friday
August 24, 2012

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It was so fun meeting all those people yesterday I branched out again and walked
over to the Laulima Farm Stand, one of the local social hubs. It was a slow day at
the stand itself but the neighbors started gradually showing up to congregate in the
bucolic bamboo bower & sit around a massive table carved from hardwood stump.
                           It's hard to imagine a more relaxed place or gentler conversation.
                           People came and went, smokes were smoked, drinks were drunk.
                           Three Czech tourists arrived and I was recruited to translate. They
                           seemed to be doing OK in broken English so I hung back until the
                           time seemed right, then I dropped some Czech on them so casually
                                  they didn't even notice a stranger was addressing them in their
                                  native tongue; they just responded in kind. Laulima used to be
                                        famous for its bike-powered blender until the bureaucrats
                                        shut that action down, but it's still a wonderful place to buy
                                        local organic produce and
                                        take a break from the
                                        usual daylong driving
                                        tour that brings cars
                                       by the score along this
                                       remote and winding road.
                                         If you take the trip, be sure
                                         to drop in on Laulima, just about
                                         a mile south of the Kipahulu entrance
                                                    to Haleakala National Park. You can sip
                                                    a coconut through a papaya stem, slurp
                                                    coffee, or just soak up some local flavor.
                                                                       And if you see hitch-hikers, pick 'em up!
                                                                                  Chances are they're not going far...