On Tuesday Richard got up really, really sick. He had felt something coming on while on the plane over there. I am sure it did not help him to be out in that very cold air on top of the mountain yesterday. He called to find out where a walk-in clinic was and he and Victoria took off to the doctor. This took about 3 hours so the rest of us had some leisure time. We rested, walked out to the shore and just relaxed. When they got back, the doctor had given him 2 shots and 2 or 3 perscriptions. Sh e had also ordered him not to utter a word for at least 24 hours maybe 48 depending on how his voice was. As it ended up it was 48 because he was so bad.
I don't know if we ate lunch first or went to the coffee plantation, but at any rate we stopped at Jamesons by the Sea for Lunch. It was really a nice place and right on the ocean and on top of that the food was good too.
Richard is a real trouper so we took off for the Kona Coffee Plantation. The guide told us that coffee plants were brought in from Australia in 1829. Coffee has been grown there ever since. We saw some men picking coffee beans. They do use large sacks slung over their shoulder and pick with both hands only the beans that are really ripe, which means they have to go over the plants several times during the season. The beans are and roasted and the 'parchment' that is left from the roasting is taken off and the beans are washed and spread out to dry. Out back of the small building where the beans are brought for roasting, grinding and packaging was a small garden of sorts that contained coffee plants, cocoa plants (see image below), papaya, pineapple, banana and fig trees. This was very nice as I had never seen most of these.
We got to sample all kinds of coffee roasts if we wanted and some of us did. It was too hot for coffee for me and they make it too strong. Doyle doesn't ever drink coffee so he didn't try them either. I did buy some so that I could bring them back home and share with everyone.
We drove back to the condo to make it a short day because of Richard being sick. Later that afternoon we went to a Hula show at the resort. There was a mostly female 'band'; the leader was very funny. They were fair musically but the humor made up for it. The resort also provided snacks of finger sandwiches, fruit, punch and vegetable dip. One lady who was one of the musicians gave a Hula dance lesson and several in the audience participated. That was fun. She was a good instructor and really explained what to do well.
Then there was a solo performer that was featured several times in the show. She was very petite and pretty with very long black hair. She did several traditional Polynesian dances and was such a pleasure to watch; so graceful and lovely.
At the beginning she was the one who came around and placed leis around every one's neck and posed with them for pictures. She was very sweet to do this because there were several people there and every one wanted a picture. For the topper after we went back to the room for a while, Doyle went back out for a walk and ran into her and found out where she was from etc. He has a good eye for beauty! You go Doyle!!!
This was one day that we were able to get in the bed early and Richard really needed the extra rest.
