Aloha! The long awaited Pangaia posts are finally here. Grab a mango and pour yourself some coconut water  because this is a several post series, yippie.

Pangaia is a permaculture project on the Big Island of Hawaii, located in the great district of Puna. They’re  in an active volcano and tsunami zone. You may be familiar with Pangaia from Jenna Norwoods YouTube posts. They’re completely off the grid, water is by rain catchment and the electricity is obtained via solar panels. They’re a self sustaining community and eat what they grow. What they don’t grow they get from the Pangaia Pantree the online raw food store they own and operate.

My mom and I enjoy going on adventures together and this was our first raw food vacation. We had been wanting to visit Pangaia for quite some time. We were thrilled to see they were so flexible with accommodating visitors. You can stay at Pangaia for a nightly or monthly rate, it’s also possible to trade accommodations for services. We taught a class on the benefits of water kefir in exchange for our stay and food.

Welcome to Pangaia! I will be your tour guide for today, please keep your hands, arms and legs inside the ride at all times:D

This was the cute Bali hut we stayed in, it was screened in on all four sides and in the back there was an outdoor sink. Our hut was peaceful and quite in the day but rather noisy at night. As soon as dusk rolls in the singing frogs come out. Around 6 a.m. natures alarm clock would join in as well, I’m talking about roosters, Pangaia has several of them. It was a little shocking the first day but you get used to it.

Even when it rained all day and night this hut kept us nice and dry. It was also an insect free zone due to the gecko mating ground above the bed. Since they eat all the mosquito’s, spiders and anything else that crawls, I welcome them:)

All the cozy nooks in the top of the hut made the ideal gecko nest. There were probably 30 geckos up there, if you look close you can see some tails and feet.

Occasionally, a rogue gecko would jump down from the ceiling. This one was rescued from my moms hair, I don’t know who was more shocked!

Ahhh, the great kitchen! This mega kitchen is the hub of Pangaia. The kitchen, living and dining room are situated on a polished concrete slab. It’s protected from the elements by a massive roof made from clear corrugated fiberglass panels that let the sun in. This kitchen is well loved and is often the busiest part of Pangaia.

The kitchen is right next to the garden, a perfect location. It was awesome to pick your own fresh food every day. If you look closely you can see the papaya trees.  The garden is really quite big and my picture does not do it’s size justice.

The living and dining room is where the electricity is, everyone comes here to charge phones, cameras and plug in laptops.  At night everybody congregates here to chat and check their Give It To Me Raw profiles over tea:) We came to visit at a great time because there were two parties during our stay and they were a blast! Bongo’s and ukulele’s in full swing and of course fun people and great food.

The showers are embedded in this lava rock wall. Each little crack had something interesting to look at, a shell, a crystal, a statue or painted rocks. This wall was gorgeous. I admit to being nervous about the showers and bathroom before I came to Pangaia. They look amazing but being in the buff in front of people I don’t know didn’t thrill me. The first two days I purposely showered at the beach. I soon realized that know one else here cares if I’m in the buff so on the 3rd day I showered at night. No sweat;)

The bathroom sink was stately and adorned with shells, crystals and plants growing from coconut husks. If you look in the mirror you can see the bath tub as well.

A zen soap holder;) One of the many decorative touches on the shower wall.

Yes, this is the loo! It looks intimidating but it’s very user friendly:) In the top left corner of the photo you can see the toilet seat. You would remove the lid and place the seat over the hole. Outside the loo you are supposed to pick a few broad plant leaves and that’s your TP. We did however get the 411 on the real toilet paper stash. I have no problem with leaves but I prefer the conventional paper stuff. The ceramic bowl contains a sawdust that aids the composting process.

So that was the quick tour of Pangaia, hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned because the next post is all about food, oh boy! I’ve got some great photos, so start drooling in anticipation.

♥ Lesley Anne ♥

Sorry to have left you guys hanging for so long! My inspiration and motivation for blogging has been zapped by cold weather. My space heater and I are now best friends, we tell each other our innermost secrets and thoughts, we’re practically joined at the hip;) In the last month I’ve lacked interest in raw food due to living in an urban icicle. No amount of spicy raw foods, hot tea, warm baths or sweaters are solving the problem either. I’ve just been plain cold and want hot food. So what changed Lesley? Why are you blogging now, it’s still an urban icicle here? Well, I’m no longer in NYC Toto. I’m back in Utah where it’s warm and sunny, well, warmer anyway. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the fresh air is reviving my blogging spirit and thawing out my toes.

On my trip back home I happened upon a gem worthy of posting. JetBlue’s new JFK terminal has a self serve salad bar! A nice one with pretty a spring mix, spinach and a hearty veggie selection for toppings. It’s priced per lb but worth the $7.99. It was so exciting to see nice salad while traveling I had to take advantage even though I had snacks. Fresh food at an airport, what a novel idea! No more roaming around terminals only to find gross washed out salads, hooray! Ahhh, if only all airlines followed JetBlue’s trend, some day…..in the not so distant future.

I still like to clean out the fridge before I leave on a trip, taking my fruits and veggies with me. This has been a great asset for keeping in the raw while on the go and you don’t waste your food. This photo was from a trip I took in the summer and those were my very own home grown tomatoes;) Cute little guys aren’t they?

I promise I won’t be such a stranger. I’ve got several fun posts up my sleeve, book reviews, recipes, beauty secrets and yes, the long awaited Pangaia pictures. Stay Tuned:)

♥ Lesley Anne ♥

P.S. You may have noticed, my blog got a mini make over, the photos are bigger and better than ever:)