Pahoa, HI
August 2007

Peace, Love & Pahoa Man

Hosted by Tony

Next: Busnapped...Sort Of

Perhaps it is time to give you a bit more information about Puna...lol. We have been sooo busy running here and there that, well, it just didn't occur to us that people aren't familiar with Puna.

Puna is a district on the island of Hawaii, aka The Big Island (Tony was once scolded for calling it that so doesn't anymore.) It is a big island though, all of the other islands combined aren't as big as this one. The two major cities on the island are Hilo and Kona on the westside.

Some of you may be thinking, "Oh the Big Island...that's where Honolulu is." Nope...Honolulu is on the island of Oahu. We will give you a few other tips about Hawaii and pass on the answers to some questions Tony has received over the years that are rather...shall we say...not brilliant.

Back to Puna...In summary the Puna District is on the east side of the island and is basically upper (mountain) Puna (Mt.View & Kurtistown) and lower (coastal) Puna (Keaau & Pahoa).

Our next journal entries are dedicated to visiting lower Puna and I will sprinkle in a few more facts as I go along if I don't forget.

Just before you enter the little town of Pahoa you will encounter a sparkling new shopping center, the name slips my mind. Anyway, there is a really groovy store here called Jungle Love. Jungle Loves got everything from bamboo wind chimes to rolling papers and in-between.

I hear through the grapevine that the rolling papers are a huge business. Perhaps it is because of something else that Puna is very famous for...marijuana growing. You may notice the little leaves hanging in the back ground to the right of RG.

We, of course, were not here for the papers as we showed RG some of the trippy hippy clothes available here. Cool store and RG thought he looked smashing in the hat! We suggested that he quite brushing his hair and grow some dreads before he bought the hat, to which he smiled thoughtfully.

It was lunch time and amongst the little stores was Pahoa Fish & Chips.

RG was minding his own business when someone put this fishing net over him and said "Gotcha". You should've seen the look of panic in RG's eyes. It was classic.

Come to find out it wasn't gnomenappers at all. It was Tony's friend Star. We invited him to hang out with us for the day.

Once RG realized he was never in danger he lightened up and he and Star got along famously.

RG spent quite some time browsing the local selection of fresh fish & other unidentifiable edible marine life.

He stared at this package very intently trying to determine exactly what Opihi is.

According to Wikipedia: In Hawaii, limpets are commonly known as 'opihi, and are considered a delicacy. Larger limpet species are, or were historically, cooked and eaten in many different parts of the world.

There is even a reggae group in Hawaii called The Opihi Pickers.

Since we didn't have a grill with us and a bit of (shoyu) soy sauce RG did not get to sample the Opihi.

We all decided we would refrigerator fish for our lunch and RG hooked himself an Ahi filet. At least I think that was Ahi.

After a long day of refrigerator fishing it is rewarding to finally eat your catch. Star commented that he eats here often. That is when he isn't just another broke dude...hehehe.

We took the opportunity to start taking photos with our fans at this point since we had just received a polaroid camera with LOTS of film to burn through.

Here we are with Phil, Philip, William & Sylvia from Pasadena, CA. They loved seeing RG and told us they have used Travelocity's services to take vacations over in Vegas. Thank you!

We hopped in the car and headed in to Pahoa town - the epicenter of hippy culture in Puna. It's a bit of a strange bird for those uninitiated, with the ENTIRE spectrum of the Earth's inhabitants roaming around at any given time. Pahoa's a neat little town but can get a little rough & weird.

Alas you see Star in the shot above. To RG, Tiki Jr. and I this guy looked like the statue of liberty looking up at him. He's one tall dude. It was kinda hard to get our bearings on his height but I'd say he's a good 10 feet. Even Bigfoot has to look up to Star, hence forth, why he used to be known as Too Tall! We next had a quick visit to the chiropractor for a neck adjustment whewww what a trip so far!

It was pretty slow in town so we wandered about and went in to a few small shops. Pahoa Skate Shop has only been open for a week or so and they sell, well, skate board stuff and alot of little odds and ends in the memorabilia department. Pictured are Sarah, Sunny,& Eli.

We then went in to Pahoa, Puna Buy & Sell, a local pawn shop. Star is shown above with his pawned guitar with us & Madie being quite impressed by his hard rock poses. Dig them Jim Morrison shorts which Star sells at his ebay store sold-with-love. Check him out - might be able to get a cool guitar or shorts of your own!!

We wandered in to a local eatery known as LuQuinn's. They serve Mexican food along with a few other American staples in one part of the place and have a bar on the other.

We chose the bar and sat down to talk with our bartender Michael. Tony drank a near beer and took this picture. Thought it wasn't suppose to have any effect. Hmmm.

He was real cool and directed anyone new wandering in to have a photo taken with us.

We sat next to Susan & Gino enjoying some lunch at the bar. A couple Puna folks we sat around and talked story with for quite some time.

RG couldn't resist taking this photo. Said it reminded him of a shot he had been in previously.

You may or may not have noticed that while we were in Hilo being photographed outside the Palace Theater it said "Cats" was playing. We wandered in to the Akebono Theater and found the performers practicing for the coming weekends performance in Pahoa.

It was quite a flurry of activity as we took photo after photo with the performers. When things calmed down they looked energized and went back to practicing. It was pretty darned awesome seeing them enthusiastically sing & dance on the stage.

Star bought tickets for the next days performance and surprised his wife! He thoroughly enjoyed the show and talked with the manager for a while about bringing shows to the theater. In Star's past life he was in the music promotion business amongst many other music related talents.

Tony & Star met outside a local Subway because Tony was wearing a Hollywood Allstarz tshirt from a few years earlier when they performed here in Kona and at the Akebono Theater. Tony designed the posters for the Kona side. Star performed on stage with the band on a tribute song to Dimebag Darrel. We are trying to get them back out here.

The Hollywood Allstarz are Chaz West of Bonham, Krigger from Ike & Tina Turner, Jeff Pilson of Dokken (at that time), Vinnie Appice of Black Sabbath and Carlos Cavazo from Quiet Riot.

On our way out of town Star said "Hey we gotta go talk to this dude." So we did.

This dudes name is Ras Randy. He can be found here quite often selling incense outside of Bank of Hawaii (only in Pahoa I tell ya).

Tony offered a shot with us to a few passers by and Randy informed us we'd have to get our own corner for that...lol. Ras Randy is on myspace. Check him out. www.myspace.com/rasrandy

(Photos: Tony V./ Dialogue: Tony V.)