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Published: April 24th 2005
Soooo much has been happening in the last week. I headed back from Valparaiso and in the bus terminal decided to check my emails and do a bit of surfing as you do when I found a ticket to Easter island for a bargain price. I then spent the rest of the afternoon backing up photos etc and sorting myself out for an early morning flight. It was a perfect week and has been named the ´holiday from the holiday´. At the airport I bumped into 5 other travelers and we used out collective power to get a bargain price for accommodation. We were very lucky and had a great place to stay at the family owned Chez Joseph. We were also whisked off on a 12 hour tour the following day to see the whole island and get a feel of what there was to see. The only slight downside was that I sprained my wrist very badly climbing out of a cave via a smoke hole (as one does!) and ended up in quite a lot of pain and with a fairly useless arm for the rest of the week.
However nothing was going to stop me enjoying
the tour and it was great fun. The next day we rewarded ourselves by spending the day on the one beach on the island (volcanic island = lots of rocks). The rest of the week was spent revisiting the sites we enjoyed the most. The quarry where the statues were carved out was amazing. They are literally scattered all over the place never having made their final resting place. There are a couple of sites where the statues have been restored but for the most part they have been left as they have been for hundreds of years, broken and scattered around the island. The history of what took place has been lost as many of the islanders were captured as slaves and when they returned they brought back diseases which wiped out all but 114 inhabitants. This has left a lot of theories as to what took place and of course everyone has their own favorites. One taxi driver’s version was that everything was phallic and related to procreation. That was probably one of the longest taxi rides as I uhhmmed and agreed to everything he said! Oh and it should be said that this taxi ride was to
At the quarry
Scattered everywhere....return from the top of a volcano which I had climbed with one of the other travelers. I tell you it was hell! I made it though and it was a great sense of achievement despite being covered from head to toe in red earth and sweat!
Hanga Roa the only settlement on the island is a sleepy little place which certainly has the tropical island feel to it. I was fascinated by how everything operated since Easter island is slap bang in the middle of the pacific 4000 kms from Chile and about the same from Tahiti. It really is all alone out there. Everything is either flown in or shipped in (and no port). Needless to say the price of everything reflects this fact and the weight of an object has an impact on the price - not good for cans of beers is all I can say! Luckily we found the empanada place (with everyone else on the island). The empanadas were cooked constantly with rotating flavours so we had our favourites though tuna topped the list. I think I ate tuna just about every day on the island. Caught fresh and bbq on the beach, or served up in lots of different ways. Had lots of ceviche (cooked by the acid of lemon juice) and sashimi. The best meal so far of this whole trip was on our last night when we went to a restaurant which served tuna sashimi with avocados, tomatoes and corn. My favourite combination served up fresh with a garlic and sesame oil dip or wasabi and soya to choose from. I was in heaven. There was also the fresh banana bread bought at the local market each morning and the guavas picked fresh off the trees on the side of the road.
I was a heavenly week and just what I needed!
PS There are more photos though not all in the following album:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/foodiefloozie/my_photos
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anonymous
non-member comment
Lost for words....are you sure?
So excited to hear your latest. Sounds like you had a fab time out there 4000km from South America (about the same distance as you are from Houston). All the family came over to see the newly decorated home. You missed out on a roast beef a la roger and we all missed your company but we could not wish that you were anywhere else. With all our love, three randies and a half - Mary, JC, Michelle and Vomit