Raining in the worlds navel

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Monday 2.8.2010 day 292
Raining in the worlds navel
The locals call Rapa Nui, ‘Te Pio o te Hemua’ the worlds navel.
Today we had planned to get up early and take a packed bfats to Tongariki to see the sun rise but it rained all night and at sunrise there was a heavy downfall, so we decided to sleep in a little. We still had to take the scooter back at 10 am and we were going to exchange it for a quid bike but due to the rain we will do that tomorrow. On the way back from dropping the scoter my friend got talking to the locals about their right for independence and they want their tribal land back. They gave some land to the Chilean government to build a cultural centre but they did not and now use the land for other uses. The locals say that more than half of the inhabitants on the island are from chilli and they get free land and do not pay taxes in Rapa Nui they are living on tribal land and the traditional owners have not been compensated for the use of their land. My friend helped them with a sign for when tourist go by and for the media that they were expecting to come soon.
We also moved cabins today as they did not have 4 days in any of the cabin we agreed to do 2 days in one and 2 days in the other.
Te’Ora is the cabins we are staying in and it is a Rapa Nui work meaning ‘What a relief’. Our new cabin is fantastic with 180 degree ocean views the bed is facing the ocean and we have our own private balcony and a kitchen like our last cabin had.
Rapa Nui is 3,700 km from Chile the nearest contentment and 4,000 km from Tahiti the nearest inhabited island. The island is 117 sq km. Dutch admiral Roddeveen landed on the island on Easter Sunday 1722 creating the name Easter Island it became Chilean territory in 1888.
It rained all day so we went on the very slow internet and read our emails but it was too slow to upload our photos. My friend went out and got some chicken and veggies and did dinner for us. There was a lot of activity from the locals all night and they were putting up lots more of their flags everywhere.

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