This is all so obscure and gorgey moreso than Fingernails! I wanna go. Sit on your tripod over the 'vog' breathe deep and predict our future, oh wise cassandra.

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Money shot.

This is the volcano. You are prevented from getting any closer than this, it is about two and a half or three miles off. Its about a six or seven hour roundtrip to get to this. There is only one difficult passage, when you descend down in to a dormant crater, but that is a short bit. Needless to say, you won't see anyone else out here.

The earth is alive. You're just a guest here.

I'm so getting into vog. Is it hallucinatory?

It has some kind of effect, you do get woozy. It goes way up in to your sinuses. But I'm thinking they wouldn't let anyone near it at all if it was really deadly. The 'effect' took a half day to wear off. Mostly it is of course the odor you notice, it can go from really sulfuricly biting to something not very describable cause it is so primordial -you know, it comes from deep inside the earth. Burning rock.

Thanks for the advice about WPP.

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OK that's it...
we HAVE to go!!!

Gorgeous.

Full moon in the jungle.

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ask around about naked volleyball.
that should help you find the resort.
it's called KALANI.
which translates as "volcanic enema."

MMM you said " volcanic enema"

Ahh, Seven. You are brining back so many great memories. I loved the Big Island. It really is magic. did you go see all my lovely sea turtle friends? give them my best!

"volcanic enema" which translates into Jackie Bigalow.

Messy Bonnie Raitt can't be far behind.

I did say behind.

My stay in Puna is done for now. I definitely would come here again. It is good to know about a place so wide open where a person can live for practically nothing

Spring is a good time to come to Puna. There are a number of large festivals. The winter months can be very rainy. Watch out for the airports in Hawai’i. Because everything is so lax culturewise any kind of information about directions, times, connecting flights and the whereabouts of your bag is sparse. One of my bags was sent to Guam and took three days to get back and I had to keep on the airlines about it. In Honolulu don’t ride the shuttle bus between terminals, it runs literally at about 5 miles per hour and you can walk to your connection with less friction. For some reason only the airlines know I was able to get a much less expensive ticket to connect to Kona instead of the town much closer to Puna which is Hilo, it just meant about a two hour highway ride from Kona to Puna. On the big island, if you don’t know anyone, it is not hard to find reasonably priced places to stay but there are also amazing places to just camp out with minimal gear. In general people are very easygoing and friendly in Puna though there is a little bit of an edge especially around Kapoho and the Red Road so it really makes a difference to have friends there. Overall there is a big disconnect between locals and visitors. If you google ‘Puna’ you can find loads of practical information if you want to go.

Puna is a place where I feel like I am so self indulgent simply by being there.

Landlady of the lavaflow.

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local color

an island with a life of its own

You got out just in time. The VOG is taking over...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/06/hawaii.vog.ap/index.html

"Residents on Hawaii's Big Island say vog levels from Kilauea's main crater are increasing, forcing them indoors.

"For eight years, Tony and Sam Bayaoa have grown thousands of bright red, yellow and pink protea flowers on their farm. Then in March, Kilauea volcano opened a new vent and began spewing double the usual amount of toxic gas.

"Now about 70 percent of their crop is dried, brown and brittle.

"Big Island crops are shriveling as sulfur dioxide from Kilauea wafts over them and envelops them in "vog," or volcanic smog. People are wheezing, and schoolchildren are being kept indoors during recess. High gas levels led Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close several days last month, forcing the evacuation of thousands of visitors.

Residents of this volcanic island are used to toxic gas. But this haze is so bad that farmers are thinking about growing different crops, and many people are worrying about their health.

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When I left the whole western side of the island was in it.

With the volcano in Chile exploding and a 6.5 quake near Tokyo, probably Kilauea will go bang next.