On-the-Road Tales

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 history and visited all sorts of important places on the island. The volcanic quarry, where the Moai were carved, was absolutely amazing. There were all sorts of Moai hundreds in fact in various forms of completion stuck into the hillside. Some still attached to the rock inside the volcano, some on the outside, some not completed bc they were flawed and many line up and scattered about the island in the process of being moved tot heir platform. Wild. Very surreal

Stopped in Anakena beach where one particularly well preserved platform is framed by white sand, palm trees and a blue-green sea. These statues were buried in sand for years, hence in better shape than most. They are the only ones with carvings on their backs and they were representative of where the king originally. We went for a swim and soaked up the amazing panorama.

I had been all sorts of worried that St. Patricks Day was going to come and go without a proper celebration (not really but it had crossed my mind to toast a slainte to my saint on the day). It is hard enough to find people in say, Arizona when I lived there to know that St Paddys day is an Irish national holiday but hey on this island in the middle of the pacific? I did not hold out much hope. Luckily, I made friends with a guy who came around the house often, a friend of the family. He is from Chile and is a Marine stationed in Easter Island for 6 months. He volunteered to hwlp me celebrate so we headed out on the town – all two streets of it! We went to the local hotspot around 2230, it was Saturday night so things were to be hopping when the locals finally came out around midnight. There was a Rapa Nui band playing and when they took a break, a music called ‘suk’ was played. Kind of a latin, reggae type deal. I do not have the magic hip fluctuations all latin americans seem to possess but I srtill had a great time dancing and trying – looking like a sorry gringa no doubt. No green beer but beer in a green can sufficed for the toast. I had a great night even though different than the usual mass, parade and corned beef and cabbage feast. The Chileans like to stay up late and party so I finally rolled in at 0600. Way too old for such nights but once in a while will not kill me I guess.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.