08-05-2011, 01:31 AM
- If you're looking to live in paradise, it may take you a lifetime of roaming to find this out...but you'll never find it, at least not on this planet. Our imaginations have always turned to the distant, exotic, and remote places of the world that are presumably pristine and perfect. But they're not. Hawaii has its paved, overdeveloped sections like LA does. Hawaii has its dry, barren sections like Arizona does. Hawaii has its run-down, dirty, unsafe sections like the Bronx does. And Hawaii has its semi-developed, semi-backward, semi-redneck sections like West Virginia does.
- But even though Hawaii isn't paradise, it has always been desirable real estate for its tropical climate, beautiful natural landscape, and overall remoteness. Like other islands from Manhattan to Santa Catalina to Bermuda, a limited amount of land in a desirable place, faced with a growing global population, has resulted in an inevitable price crunch that has squeezed out everyone except the richest of the rich. It's happening to Hawaii. It's even slowly happening to the Hilo/Puna area.
- What has kept Puna open for average folks has been Puna's rural, agricultural, isolated, semi-undeveloped state. But that is changing as the global agricultural economy changes. Not to mention that Puna is nestled comfortably beneath a simmering, active volcano. And that Hilo has been wiped clean more times by tsunamis than New Orleans and Galveston combined have been wiped clean by hurricanes. And Hilo's tourism has declined for many years as Kona's has increased.
- Puna will slowly turn into a place for retirees, upscale vacation home buyers, independently wealthy folks, and mobile/virtual workers and business owners. But there's still plenty of time for many average folks to get one last shot at living in Hawaii.
- If you have the means to make a comfortable life for yourself in the Puna area (which probably depends more on timing, circumstances, occupation, and resourcefulness than on just money), then you'll enjoy an area as nice and prized as most any in the world. It has beaches nicer than California and Florida, and they're usable all year round. It has tropical rain forests that cannot be found anywhere in the continental US. It has mountains that cannot be found in the eastern half of the US. And it has a milder climate than anywhere in the continental US.
- Hawaii enjoys all the benefits of being part of the US, without the downsides that accompany so many tropical locales. Hawaii isn't politically unstable, third-world, or foreign-speaking like Central America and many parts of the Caribbean. It's not crime-ridden like Puerto Rico. It's not overly military-base-dominated like Guam.
- Hilo/Puna is unique in that it's one of the only places in the world where average people live in a tropical location and enjoy all the benefits of being part of a modern, advanced country. Most of us looky-loos (like myself) can only watch from a distance and envy. For those of you fortunate enough to call Puna home, never take for granted that rare and wonderful opportunity you have. If you have a decent job there, and still can't learn to enjoy life there, you're either better suited for life in a big city, or you wouldn't be happy anywhere you lived.