Prelude in G

January 16, 2007 - Rarotonga

My room mates have vanished. It is me, the cool of indoors and the glorious sounds of Rachmaninoff.

The day feels long. It began meeting Paul, then heading into town to do all manner of things.

We made a plan. It involves coffee, among other things. The plan is to fly to 'Atiu on the 25th for a few days, do a homestay and tour the two coffee farms on the island before flying back to Rarotonga. To say I am excited is a bit of an understatement.

Today was nothing if not long. We walked all over the place and back again and my sandals have given me blisters. Made a plan to go to the movies that I think we forgot about (do I have to walk back to town again?) and then walked back, getting groceries, scoping out town. We returned to the village before setting out with the intention of going for a swim by way of the airport to pay for our tickets to 'Atiu. Then, I found out later, we walked the wrong direction from the beach. All we found were rocks, sharp rocks, and more rocks. All the way... back into town.

This, of course, necessitated another stop at a cafe. Not just any cafe, The Cafe. Open for business. The Cafe is home to the in house roasted Cook Islands Coffee Company. To my surprise, their coffee isn't grown in the Cooks, but is a blend from Ethiopia, Brazil and Guatemala. The atmosphere is fun and the coffee is amazing. The espresso bar is an old one, and watching our barista pour shots gave me great envy. I would love to spend a morning working on that bar - for fun. At the end of the day, conflicts aside, I love my job. I love the part where I don't have to worry about being ten places at once and I can just concentrate on the espresso bar and making coffee. It was hard for me to not ask if I could work the first four hours of tomorrow morning for free.

We decided to catch the anti-clockwise bus back to the village, and on the way I stopped to pick up some frangipani hair oil. My hair has tripled in size due to the humidity. I didn't think my hair knew what frizz was, but apparently it is quite expert at it. Luckily for me, the islands are known for their hair oil.

Tonight, right away soon, I am going to eat mangoes. Hurray for supermarkets.