Our first five days on Kenawa have gone by quickly. When we pulled up to the island on Monday I think both mine and Rob’s jaws dropped at the site of the Earthships and the clear water ten steps from the door of the closest one. We were greeted by Mama & Papa Kenawa who are the only 2 actual residents of this 32 acre island. With their help, and Suji’s, we unboarded both houses and began exploring our new home sweet home.

 

Rob and I took the house closest to the ocean since it has a king size bed and Teri took Earthship 2 just a few steps farther back. The bottle work in the houses is really the main feature (I promise to take photos for next post). Each morning that I wake up all I need to do is open my eyes and I can see all the beautiful glass bottles lit up with the ocean in between. That’s how close we are. I hear the tide rolling in when I wake up in the middle of the night, watch the sky turn orange across the water if I wake early enough and all without moving at all. All the doors are screen to allow the wind to flow through the house and leaves the view unobstructed.

We spent our arrival day cleaning the house, settling in and discovering what was already here for us to use. The batteries that charge from solar power were drained in Teri’s house, but we charged them over the next day and got them back up and running. There is plenty of work for us to do this month, but not without ample time to enjoy this island each day as well. The water is so clear and remarkably stunning. Our living room is on the front veranda where we spend most of our time. That’s also where we make all of our meals. Mama Kenawa has a shop a two minute walk along the shore where we can always grab a meal
or a mildly cool beer, but so far we have been making our own meals. We all know Rob loves to cook and we stocked up on noodles, rice, vegetables, lots of hot chilis and other assorted items before arriving. The food is very very inexpensive here.

Every evening he begins his relaxation time of cooking and I’m the happy recipient! We even had a little baby tuna one evening that was so fresh and delicious. My favorite part of the island so far is the snorkeling! I’m in love. Every day we have a “snorkeling date.” This morning I couldn’t wait and rolled out of bed, into my swimsuit (which isn’t always required- the first day we snorkeled naked) and off to see my beloved fish. By far, I see more zebra fish than anything else. Schools of them! But there are so many different and brightly colored fish and I see different ones every day. What makes me smile most are the HUGE bright blue star fish. They are a foot long across and just splay out on the coral for me to see. I will become brave enough to use my waterproof phone case and take photos to share. I would love to share what I am seeing. Mostly our days consist of a bit of work (today we began to repair a roof leak on Teri’s house), snorkeling, admiring the shells and coral, cooking, chatting with visitors to the island, reading and watching stunning sunsets. Island life is nice. It’s relaxed.

Since the island is so small we easily walked around it in 45 minutes on our first morning here. Magnificent views surround each part. I especially love the mountains on the surrounding island. I truly am a mountain girl at heart. Upon climbing the one hill on the island to watch the sunset last night we counted 13 distinct islands that we can see surrounding us. And when we look down I can see the green and blue ocean beckoning me to explore it underneath. Today we did just that and chose a new piece of shore to snorkel from. We plan to snorkel around the entire island discovering each new piece of coral reef it has to offer. Today’s adventure was just what I needed. The water was deeper, the coral larger with huge mushroom fans and the fish bigger. Rob plans to come back and use his pole spear to catch these bigger ones for dinner one evening. The cherry on top though was that we swam all the way to the tip of the island and then had to decide how to get back to our place – swim or climb the steep cliffside of the back of the hill. Naturally, we chose to climb the cliff-face which was a little precarious (my dad would say “be careful and don’t make worry!” just like he did when I climbed a mountain by myself this winter and came back covered in cuts and bruises because I recklessly went up farther on the ice than I should have). From shore line to hilltop today. It was spectacular and yes, we saw 2 more big blue starfish.

As I finish writing this, the daily rain just stopped (usually happens for 30 minutes towards the end of each day as the rainy season ends), the air is cooling and a full rainbow just faded. Rob is cutting shallots and preparing dinner while the tide recedes. I didn’t see the starlings tonight like I normally do at dusk, but I’m sure our morning dragonflies will welcome us tomorrow.💓🌸☀️