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Published: October 2nd 2006
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Moai heads
On the way down from the quarry Hola from South America. Here I am 7 months in, so over half way through my time away and it feels like I'm heading homeward bound. I said after NZ it would be half time and now its here it really feels like it. All my flights are going to be heading homeward! I know I know stop complaining I´ve still got 5 months left which and I'm not working 60 hour weeks, 6 days a week and generally being in the wonderful Reading, but I am a whingeing pome after all! Anyhow to the interesting stuff.
I flew into Santiago, Chile 5 hours before I left Auckland. Best way not to recover from jet lag: sleep all day and then wake up at 2 in the morning. Luckily I had to be up at four to catch my flight out to the middle of the Pacific to Easter Island, Rapu Nu, Isla Pescu or whatever you want to call it. Great when your trying to work out what gate your meant to be going to! My confusion was shortly forgotten as I finally got the upgrade all travelers are waiting for and much deserved! Flat beds and a personal
service, perfect, how I deserve to travel. The flat bed was very much appreciated after last nights sleepless night! I'm sure I looked the epitome of a business traveler with a thousand bags (I keep trying to scale down but I DO need EVERYTHING!!) and my Shoestring Lonely Planet.
Arrived into the island and went in search of my first Moai, the big stone heads the island is famous for and I found them. They are dotted along the coast and all stand looking inwards overland. I figured I would learn all the answers to my questions to why they are there and how they got there on the trip so I head to the museum to find out. My Spanish is ok but as the museum was all in Spanish and I'm not that hot at it I ended up walking around it reading out of a booklet, and still didn't find the answers I was looking for, apparently no one knows why or how they got there but I did learn some new theories and also a lot from the Rough Guide to Chile no less. I ended up getting around the island with a lovely English
Umm...
Which one was my fave again? couple who drove me around in there hire car. It was great, we saw all the Moai big, small, fallen, standing great until the wind and rain came in. Made it feel and look like Craggy Island. Time for afternoon tea. Next day we really saw all the Moai and in the sun, we saw them on the beach, in a huge line and the quarry they built them from. Its the side of one of the volcanoes that has made up the island and you can see them all 'walking´ down the side of the volcano. There are so many all of different sizes and all individual, it was an amazing site. It was also amazing to see the size of some of the ones that got abandoned during carving, simply huge 20 some of them, how they ever thought they would transport them. Souvenir shopping made me realize I really need to improve my Spanish, as soon as English slipped out of my mouth the price went up by 4,000 pesos.
Back to the mainland and sadly now upgrade, back row no less. Checked into the cutest hostel, so homely and satellite TV so I managed to
The beast!
I wouldnt look so happy if I knew what was ahead! Oh and I DO look sexy in that outfit! watch the wicked 1-1 draw with Man Utd, very happy Pill! I went for a quick nightcap with a couple I had met purely to drown out out the sound of the club next door and ended up in another karaoke bar. I thought I had left them in Oz and NZ on the backpacker trail. The next day with a Sunday head on had a very lazy day sightseeing, went up the funicular (cable car) to see the city, hardly an awesome view but some cool snow capped mountains behind. Then spent the day chilling in the park in the sunshine after my attempt to be cultural in the museum Bella Artes left me very bored. That night went for a stunning typically Chilean meal and topped it off with lots of Chilean wine, wine tasting of course all in the name of culture. From this moment on I realized I was going to like Chile and its wine. The next day, all fuzzy headed was a day of chilling out. I spent the day just watching the street entertainers, all very good. Its funny how western Chile seems to be except for the dodgy panpipe music pumped out
throughout the streets in downtown Santiago.
I decided that I should make a move or I would spent the whole time, mooching around and sleeping in, so Pucon in the Lake District would be my next stop. Its a really cute little town where every ting is made from the local wood and sits on the edge of lake Villarrica and with volcano Villarrica watching over the town. It also homes an alarming number of stray dogs, that seemed to be drawn to me after I was nice to the first one I saw. Time for action, Volcan Villarrica it was, all 2,847 snow covered meters of it, what a climb! 9 hours of pure hiking, crampons and ice pick much needed. It was one hell a steep climb at times, a little scary, and at times knee deep in snow. After lots of chocolate, all for energy levels I didn't even want to be eating it I was so tired, I made it to the active crater at the top. One of the five that made the top out of 12 that started, still not sure how I made it, but the views made it all worth it,
awesome, truly. The walk down was just as challenging at times, but sliding down on your arse was much more fun and so much easier. More action in the name of white water rafting down Rio Liucura, wicked fun, was a class 3 1/2 but felt like much more sitting at the front getting soaked. The waters clearness was only matched by its coldness as the guide got us all in the water. So to warm up a trip to the thermal hot springs was called for and the wine, purely for medicinal reasons. When your chilling in hot springs under the stars with a nice wine in your hand you realize life as a backpacker is hard. We felt it only rude not to carry the party on so head for the local disco that the guide said was the place to be on a Friday night, seems it would be if your a teenager, it was some high school night out, all of them drinking away quite happily. It was this point I realized even when drunk, I'm not going to be able to keep up with the dancing out here!
Unfortunately I had booked and early bus out (why??) and head for Puerto Varas the next day on the promise of more adrenalin pumping action. It seems there is lots to do here, but not now only high season, so I have been left looking at all the cool things I would be able to do if it wasn't low season. Great fun. Time to move on, as yet im not sure where to, may go South from here or head in to Argentina, will decide over dinner and beer.
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