We first dabbled with apartments abroad while in Buenos Aires, where we were lucky find this colorful one bedroom in the trendy neighborhood of Palermo Soho. We were hoping for similar luck in Honolulu, especially because, unlike BsAs, where we stayed for seven weeks, we planned to live in Honolulu for at least a few months.

And to our good fortune, we were lucky again. But there’s a back story to all of this. So, let me back it up, back it up.

While in Cartagena, Colombia the last week of January, I realized, “Crap! We need to start looking for an apartment in Honolulu if we really want to move in mid-February!” So the Craiglist search began.

And it wasn’t promising. Rent was too high. Apartments weren’t furnished. Landlords/agents wouldn’t accept short-term leases. We were even willing to share with random roommate(s), thinking it’d be a fun way to meet new people, but many didn’t want couples and others only wanted females. Also, I just can’t get on board with being 420 friendly. Sorry.

We extended our search to Airbnb, which is how we found our BsAs apartment and VRBO, but the prices were ludicrously high.

Just a day before we left Honolulu, it was looking pretty grim. Sure, we had accommodations for the first few days in Hawaii, thanks to the wedding and the accompanying hotel my parents booked for us. But what about after that? Would we have to say goodbye to the islands and head to Asia sooner than expected?

Well, we ended up getting one positive response, and it was for a “HUGE” studio apartment in Kaimuki. My cousin Pratt and her new husband, Craig, who live in Honolulu and had been giving some of our Craigslist picks a once over, had given us a list of neighborhoods to live in, and fortunately Kaimuki was one of them. We set up an appointment for the day after getting to Honolulu and prayed that it wouldn’t get scooped up before we arrived.

So in between wedding festivities, we saw it. And loved it. It was perfect, not only because it was a beautiful furnished apartment, but because the tenant was going to the mainland for 3-4 months and just needed someone to occupy it short term. We knew immediately that we wanted it, so after going back to our hotel, we reiterated to the tenant via email how much we wanted it.

He asked us to come back the next day to meet the landlord. You see, the apartment is kind of, sort of the basement — a baller one at that — for the main house that sits above it. (This is apparently a common apartment set-up in Hawaii.) The owners of the home are a lovely retired professor, his wife and their son. We met with the couple — the wife even made us some fresh guava juice — but it was more like a “here’s what you need to know about the apartment” than “let me check if you guys are mentally insane.” They told us about how the mail works, what the neighborhood was like and whatever else we’d need to know about the apartment. So I guess we got it?

YES WE DID. We were thrilled — mainly because it was the only response we got from Craigslist so we didn’t really have any other options.

Check it out:

We live up a mountain in a quiet, very residential neighborhood. And yeah, the walk up that driveway at the end of the day isn’t fun.

One side of the apartment. (Note: We get HBO!)

The other.

A desk!

Eaman’s stuff on top (minus the pink purse and pink tee) and mine on the bottom. Not sure how he has more clothes than me.Bed + extra couch + Bowflex.

Eaman decorated this side table with — left to right — my fedora my parents brought from home, his new “Live Simply hat” (surfboard on a bicycle), his fedora from Panama and seashells we found in San Blas:

We have fish!

The fruits of our labor from a trip to Sam’s Club. It felt like we were grocery shopping once a week in BsAs so we stocked up to avoid that madness.

A full and happy fridge.

An even happier pantry.

WASHER AND DRYER! I never thought the day would come.

We don’t have a balcony, but we do have sliding screen doors we keep open for fresh air and this view.

Our landlord brought us homemade scones and fresh guava from their tree the day we moved in. Guava has got to be the most aromatic fruit. Our place smelled lovely for days.

I couldn’t stop saying, “Oh my god. Oh my god,” when we moved in. If you’ve lived in New York City or any other huge metropolitan area where nice apartments are hard to find, then you’d understand. I’ve never lived in such a nice, homey place. (Did you see the carpet?!) And as someone who likes to cook, bake and hang out at home, this is my zen palace — and a big one by studio sizes. There’s even potential to stay longer and take over the lease, as the tenant may be staying on the mainland more long-term.

There are some cons, like ants everywhere, geckos that sometimes make their way inside and a solar-powered shower that doesn’t always guarantee scalding hot water the way I like it, but that’s a small price we pay to live in the mountains in this paradise. (I also didn’t love paying three months’ rent up front and buying all that Sam’s Club stuff. I now feel broke.)

But the apartment also came with a tons of fun stuff the guy we’re subletting from left behind, like a body board, beach and yoga mats, towels galore and a really well-stocked kitchen. I know the idea is to be outside all the time, but I have to say, on those days we feel like just hanging out, we have an amazing place to do so.

There was a small big problem though. Our lease didn’t start until March 1, so we had to find a place to stay for more than a week. The bigger problem? All the hostels were booked. My cousin and her husband had left for their honeymoon. Nobody responded to our CouchSurfing requests. We were even willing to shell out some money for a hotel, but they were booked solid, too. It was crushing, not to mentioned exhausting, to walk from hostel to hostel to hotel, and get rejected.

But then, on the last night of the wedding, when us youngins’ had gone to a Waikiki bar, one of my cousin’s friends heard our predicament and so, so generously offered us the spare vacant room in his apartment. We didn’t want to impose, but we didn’t have any other options either. We wanted to stay for as few days as possible, but the lack of vacancies anywhere made that tough. We ended up staying for a week and couldn’t be more grateful to him for his kindness. Thank you, Brett!

That generosity is just one example of how amazingly sweet everyone — both local Hawaiians and my cousin’s incredible group of friends — has been to us. They’ve taken us under their wings, offering their cars, surfboards and more to us. I’ll talk more about this Hawaiian kindness in another post, but here in an open forum, I just want to say: Thanks, guys, for making us feel so welcome.

Hawaii-living for three (or more?) months. Let’s do it!

I know I technically have already posted about Honolulu, but I also know I owe you guys a proper update. The thing is, life has been, well, insane, to say the least. I’m an organizational maniac, so I think bullet points will work best since so many different things were happening at once:

• On February 15, we traveled 15 hours from Panama to Hawaii — with a three-hour layover in LAX filled with Baja Fresh (sad they didn’t have Taco Bell) and these.

• We spent our first night in Honolulu in a rather dingy hotel. My parents had booked Eaman and I a nice hotel room at a Marriott for the wedding Thursday through Monday and despite their insistence, I told them they did not need to spend more money on a room for Wednesday night since we were getting in at 10 p.m. anyway. We figured we’d just book a hostel for one night. Cut to two days before we left for Honolulu and ALL THE HOSTELS WERE BOOKED. And all the rooms at our Marriott were booked. So we ended up spending $108 on a dingy hotel room. Believe me, we considered sleeping at the airport or on the beach.

• I got my first cold in 5 months of travel. Yes, I’ve had food poisoning, but a cold — an annoying, pestering cold — is sometimes worse. Dang recirculated air in airplane and too-high A/C in dingy hotel room.

• We went to my cousin’s beautiful Hawaiian wedding.

It was a three-day event, filled with impeccable dinners, song and dance and some of the best slideshows I’ve ever seen at a wedding. (And I really love wedding slideshows.) Now I don’t know my cousin’s new husband, Craig, (a.k.a. my new cousin) all that well, but I do know my cousin, Pratt, and what I loved so much about this particular wedding was how true to her personality it was. Unfussy, stylish, relaxed, so genuinely sweet with touches of Hawaiian culture (Craig and Pratt actually live in Honolulu), it even involved yoga, which she teaches here in Honolulu.

We started the weekend with a beach day of paddle-boarding, badminton and, yep, yoga; we were treated to a brilliant dinner at Iolani Palace, then got to show our best moves at the sangeet, which is kind of like a talent show at Indian weddings; and we witnessed the union of two beautiful people at the ceremony and reception. And my god, the attention to detail! Fans — in the wedding color scheme — for guests during the balmy afternoon ceremony, tasty vegetarian options, which I can’t imagine are that easy to find in pork- and SPAM-loving Hawaii, and jars of local honey for wedding favors. Such a love-filled, beautifully planned event. Here, some snaps from the weekend:

Eaman, taking part in event one during beach day — a paddle-boarding competition moderated by Craig’s uncle, ESPN’s Brent Musburger:

Dinner at Iolani Palace, the official home of Hawaii’s monarchy:

Sangeet at Kathy Ireland’s home in Honolulu, which she rents out for weddings:

See? Kathy has an obsession with Liz Taylor, as I saw with all the Liz Taylor pop art in the house. Weird.

My cousin’s adorable daughter, Janaki, on the d-floor:

Lavender-cucumber water:

With the bride-to-be and my other cousin, Runjini. There are 20+ cousins in my family, so I understand if you’re confused:

The couple’s getaway vehicle, a 60s VW:

Ceremony and reception at — wait for it — a home owned by Dolly Parton:

Typically, an Indian groom enters the ceremony via white horse and a drum band. Craig came in on a boat!

The happy couple!

Janaki, again:

Mochi ice cream:

Hair straightener, I’ve missed you:

Sunset before dinner and dancing. I dare you to find a more beautiful setting.

• We found an apartment! It was simultaneously easy and mind numbingly difficult to get. I’ll explain in the next post — and share pictures of our new place, which we moved into on Tuesday.

• I found a job!

The idea in coming to Honolulu — a place not really on most RTW trip itineraries — was to push pause on the constant movement, take a break from the whole “here’s what you need to do in [insert country here] in two weeks,” slow down and live in an island paradise. We considered the Caribbean but figured that’d be much too expensive. Hawaii would give us what we wanted and, being a U.S. state, we wouldn’t have to get work visas. (It didn’t hurt that Craig and Pratt are a wonderful resource and live here.) Because you see, friends, Hawaii ain’t cheap and in order to stay for a few months, I’d need to get a job to alleviate costs.

While Eaman is still considering what kind of job he wants, I, of course, could’ve tried for a magazine gig and gone back to what I know. But the idea was to do something different. I applied to jobs at Whole Foods (mostly to get a discount for groceries), Barnes and Noble (though they wanted someone for the cafe, and I wanted to be around books and work the floor), a cupcake shop (that could’ve been dangerous) and a local juice/smoothie shop. Both Eaman and I had that instant feeling of knowing that the last one — at the smoothie shop — would be the job I’d get. And as it turned out, our hunch was right! I started training this past week and will be working part-time so I still have time to 1.) blog, 2.) get back in shape,  3.) get back into cooking and 4.) enjoy Hawaii. So far it’s a blast — working with fruit, learning recipes — but don’t kid yourself, it’s actually more work than you’d think. I’ll tell you about my adventures in juice-making as my time in Honolulu goes on.

Speaking of, I have work tomorrow, so time for bed. So that’s all for now…mahalo!