On-the-Road Tales

I took a 1/2 day tour to get up the middle part of the island. The locals who give the tours are very interesting. They tell you the party line they learned in tourism school. Then they tell you the stories they grew up learning and what parts of history the missionaries decided would be better not to propagate. Thankfully there are families left that remember those things. We visited one of the platforms that had an elaborate base. The platform design contains rocks that interlock in a design similar to those at Machu Picchu. Thor Hyderall (sp) believed Easter Island was settled by people originally from Peru, not Polynesia. He wrote Kon Tiki which ‘put Easter Island” on the map and actually built a reed boat and successfully made it from Peru. He used the interlocking rocks to help substantiate his theory. Unfortunetly, despite all that effort – it has since been disproven. While there may have been some explorers from that area, DNA tests have established the people came from the Polynesian isles. We also visited a platform where the 7 statues face the ocean, only place on the island. These are meant to represent the first 7 explorers and they are looking back towards their homeland. Every other Moai face inland to protect over the people. We also stopped at the Topknot quarry, a volcanic quarry of a red material. The topknot which fits perfectly on top of the statue was made only from this special quarry, the red representing the royal blood. They were cylindrical and are believed to have been rolled to their destinations.

In the morning, I heard a truck out back. Since there are only woods behind the house Iit registered as strange but I did not investigate further. Bad mistake. I opened all the windows to air the place a bit from the musty, tropical air. I sat on the porch for breakfast – Lucia mixed it up everyday for something different – breads, eggs, fruits. I stepped back into my bathroom for something or another and was aghast to find several cockroaches hopping about. Blahhhh! I boltted onto the porch where Lucia was shooing more around with the broom. Aghh. Apparently that truck like sound was the island fumigation. And well since the houses are not sprayed, it is a natural refuge for the slimy buggars. So they flocked into, on and around the house to basically die. Ugh – I was mortified, They are not super big and scary like florida ones but still kinda vile. I rushed around closing my windows and sat at the table trying to avoid them crawling over my feet. I was coping until one dropped from the overhang above right onto my toast and headed straight for my lap. I nearly flipped the table trying to get up and avoid a lap pet. One of the girls living in the house looked at me like I was ridiculous because it was just a cockroach but hey, not accustomed to them in my space. So my appetite over – I headed into town.

Met up with my friend Dominique whom I had met in Argentina along with another new friend from Chile. Anneke. We went to find some massive turtles supposed swimming in the harbor but no joy. There is a film about Rapa Nui directed by Kevin Costner, based loosely on some legends that they show during the week. We went to check it out, interesting – nice to see in the setting but a little stupid to see supposed locals running around shouting in English. We went for cocktails to a swanky bar afterwards and all made fools of ourselves at one point when, surprise, a cockroach jumped down onto the couch and we squealed and bolted. They got a good laugh out of the silly, scared of an insect tourists.

Lucia was waiting up for me when I returned since I was late – nice to have someone watching out for me! Her family makes jewelry and shell crafts to sell at the local tourist spots. Every night, sitting on the porch, I learned how to punch holes in several types of shells, string up some necklaces designs, watched them work with feathers and sand carved wooden statues. Local craft 101 – just up my alley! Loved it. Alicia made me a lovely pair of earrings and braclet. Great reminders on my time on the isle.

I bolted out of bed a mere few hours after settling into it and rushed into town for mass. Been in a lot of churches on this journey but actually getting my travel schedule to coincide with a Sat/Sun ... [Continue reading this entry]

I took a tour with Tauraa to visit the south coast of the island. The guide, Helen, had lived in the UK for many years but was a local so I could actually understand everything. Learned alot of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Went hiking down towards the airport in hopes of finding some Moai as shown on my map. After hours of walking in the sweltering heat and running out of water, I still had not achieved my goal. Rapa ... [Continue reading this entry]

Headed in the 15 minute walk to check out the main and only town, Hanga Roa. Explored the extent of the town, beachside, some more ruins and the airport. Turned off onto a hiking path, ended up in ... [Continue reading this entry]

After all sorts of years wondering about Easter Island, I was finally seated on a Lan Chile 767 ready to travel there. Too exciting. The aircraft was class. Had 30 movies to choose from in my seatback ... [Continue reading this entry]

Well - I will put Santiago on the list of cities to return to. Looked like a beautiful place but I just did not have time to explore. I had loads of errands to run like restocking supplies ... [Continue reading this entry]