Day 1

Heck, I can make a kite - at least it will look like a kite - but I don’t think I’ve ever flown one. This may be a great disadvantage - I won’t have much insight into what modification to make if it sort of flies. Also, this kite is not going to be made of homemade paper. I think I’d have a mutiny if I even suggested it - too much work!

So up the coconut tree I went. I originally saw people climbing trees while doing botanical research in the tropics. Some of the guys who lived along tributaries to the Amazon would climb various palm trees to get the fruit. They’d wander into the forest, find a vine, wrap it up, and then scoot up a palm tree. Yes, some palms, like coconut palm trees, you can "walk" up, but others are too smooth. I wanted the fruit of acai and other smooth-trunked palms, so I learned the vine method of climbing by watching.

I forgot to sharpen my machete before Kate and I hit the forest, so it was pretty pitiful when it came time to cutting vines. I can imagine every botanist, farmer and forest lover just laughing and shaking their heads watching me hack at vines with my dull machete. At least Kate’s was better. She also learned fast.

When it came time to filming the collection of the coconut fiber, I headed up the tree. It isn’t difficult, but it does take quite a bit of muscle. I’m always thankful that my parents got me involved with cross country running starting when I was eleven. Not only did it keep me out of trouble all the way through high school, it has also provided me with a fitness foundation. I am not fast, but I am strong and reliable. My lungs and legs have stamina. My arms on the other hand…

I was doing the best I could holding on, hacking with my machete to cut the fiber sheaths that surrounded the coconut flower. In rock climbing we are always told to have three points on the rock, but it just wasn’t working. I needed two hands - one to hold the fiber sheath and the other to hack at it. It was safe as long as I was squeezing the palm as hard as I could with my feet and thighs. The blood kept draining from my hands and arms, though. This hurt. Sure, for some this would have been a piece of cake. For me, it was hard. I’d actually never done it before. I’d watched guys climb many times. I’d never seen a woman do it, nor had I done more than one or two "steps" up a palm.

Here I was climbing and hacking with this film crew watching. When I couldn’t stand it any longer and my legs were shaking I started to head down. Drew called up that he was out of film, could I wait a minute for him to change rolls or, if I had to come down, could I then go back up for a minute? That is when I really got tickled. Hey, I liked to think I was making it look easy. Actually, my legs were wobbling and throbbing. There was no way I’d make it up the tree again today - or even tomorrow. Could I hold on?

Once safely on the ground again, I quickly threw together a kite using sticks as the frame (I’ll collect bamboo tomorrow), coconut fiber as the sail and home-made thread/rope from the hulls of coconuts and agave plants. Once I proved I could make a light, but dependable, line, Kate generously gave me some. (Otherwise I would have had to put her to work making forty to sixty feet of it.)

My first attempt at a kite did not fly. I took it to Kathy and Jonathan for insight. Making a botanical kite was my challenge - and appropriately so. I just wish it were someone else’s job to make it fly.

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