Blogs from Easter Island, Chile, South America - page 21

Well so much has hàppened since we last wrote, we´ve left Mendoza (nice place but it felt a tad rundown and the dust was something to behold). I did enjoy thier take on the humble Ice cream Sundae though. A dodgy coach trip over the Andes on the worlds bumpiest road with some stunning views of snow-capped peaks and change of coach at the border as the first one had run out of steam and smelt like it was cooking it´s internal wiring. Into Santiago for an overnight in a hostel in the BOHEMIAN area of the city where the homeless (and not homeless) use the pavement as a toilet, ATMs that won´t take my card and then an early start out to Rapa Nui. We arrived here at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and were greeted ... read more

A short lesson of history Once upon a time, far away from everywhere, there existed a beautiful, beautiful island with green hills and lots of trees on it. Then came the people and made their home here and life was good. Food was abundant and they could even afford to allocate a significant amount of their resources towards the erection of gigantic stone statues which would symbolize their wealth and power. But the way of life had its price and resources were limited on the beautiful but small island. One after the other the trees were felled until one day there were hardly any left. This upset the settlers and war broke out. Opposed clans tore down the stone statues which their ancestors had erected to break the spirit and power of their enemies until one ... read more

An early rise to catch the cheap Centropuerto bus to the airport and we were on our way to the very middle of the Pacific Ocean. Save for a spectacular view of chile's fog enveloped mountains, the flight was entirely over water so a fairly uneventful 5 hours. It was still funny to see our computer generated flight plan crop up on our personal TV screens showing a lonely little aeroplane on a big blue screen. As the plane eventually began its descent, we caught our first glimpse of the green rolling hills of Easter Island and then another even better glimpse as the pilot made an arse of the landing and had to circle again for a second attempt! At the tiny airport we strolled off the plane and towards the small terminal building where ... read more

Well, I made it here!! And it´s pretty spectacular. It was quite windy yesterday, and as the huge waves battered the coast, it really felt as if I was thousands of miles from anything. Which I am. The rock heads I´ve seen so far are every bit as impressive and absurd as expected too. Apparantly people arrived here about 800AD. How?!! About 700 years before some guy who thought the world was round found the world´s current favourite troublemakers, some other equally crazy people travelled even further to find a bit of rock. And not even the stuff from the seaside that you can eat, either. Why?!! Ah well, they did. And now so did I. Except I fly, and the captain knew where it was. Luckily. Not so luckily, the weather turned awful over night. ... read more

Journal No. 44 4/22/06 About 15 days ago we were in French Polynesia. We first stayed in Papeete, Tahiti and it was very boring. The hotel had no cooling system and I didnt get any sleep. The next day we took a ferry to the island, Moorea. When we got our bags off, they were covered with fish guts. We took a bus to a hotel on the water and stayed there for 6 days. All I did was kayak and do school work. I would kayak to the Sheraton Hotel to eat or do internet. We left our hotel and went camping on another part of the island. There I went snorkeling and had a traditional polynesian dinner with poi, pig, fruit and fish. We returned to Papeete during the Easter Festival and watched polynesian ... read more