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Easter Island that way!
Mom and me. Not sure why there was a sign pointing to Easter Island, seeing as how we were ON the island.. but we'll go with it I'm getting behind on posting... Makes it a little harder to remember the details but as I'm in Santiago this weekend it is a good time to catch up on things.
Ok SO.. the parents came to Chile! They were here for 10 days, 4 of which we were on our own trip out to Easter Island, which was an awesome, very rare opportunity. I'll see if can describe it adequately...
Before applying to the Chile program, I didn't really know what Easter Island was. Weird to think back to when a friend told me about it for the first time and that 2 years later I would actually BE there. Basically, Easter Island has been part of Chile since 1888 but has much more of a polynesian culture than latinamerican. It was a 4 hour plane ride from Santiago, and it reminded me a lot of Hawaii- the ocean of course but an abundance of flowers, relaxed attitude, palm trees. It's triangular shaped, with 3 volcanoes at each of the points, none of them active. Our guide told us there are 4000 people and nearly as many horses. There were rolling, grassy hills, with cows and horses grazing,
Mom and Dad in the hotel
..with the flower lais we were given upon arriving at the airport! caves hollowed out from lava, crater lakes and little bays.
We were greeted with lais upon arriving at the airport, and the first difference between traveling with friends and parents hit me when we walked out of the little airport and had a tour van holding up a sign with our names on it, waiting to load up our stuff and take us to the hotel. Granted, there aren't really hostels on the island but still. New concept to have everything arranged before arriving.
We arrived Saturday morning, the day after Chile's president and a really popular music group Los Jaivas, plus 2 others, had come to the island to celebrate "The Month of the Sea," the first time it had ever been celebrated on the island. From the shore we could see the huge ship that the different groups had stayed on. We had the day to ourselves to walk around the town, Hanga Roa. Sunday morning we went to the 9am mass on the island (after some arguing with our tour company, Kia-Koe, to pick us up at the church instead of the hotel.. one would think they would have run into this proposition before, considering
Flower from a Flame Tree
My favorite flower on the island. These Flame Trees (as our guide called them) were all over the island the church mass on the island is in all the guide books as a must-see thing). When we walked into the church there weren't that many people there, but they were all singing in Rapa Nui, the language of the island, and it was truly beautiful and echoed throughout the little church. The mass itself was said in Spanish, but all the responses and prayers were in Rapa Nui. Even more incredible when the church was packed and everyone singing together. I bought a CD of the music, but even that doesn't really capture it, unfortunately.
Anyway, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning we were taken around in a little van with others to see the
moais around the island. The moais are these huge ancient statues that were erected on platforms around the island, and their great mystery is how the islanders were able to transport such statues from the quarry, where they were made, to platforms throughout the island. Each was built after the death of a nobleman, and they eyes were not put into the statues until after they had been successfully errected because the eyes were thought to be the source of the "maná," or energy.
View from the church
We had a nice first day to walk around the little city a bit This is also why they were put up with their backs to the ocean, because they were in a sense protecting the island. Only one moai on the island currently has eyes, and those were only put in a few decades ago. One of the real eyes is in the little museum on the island. If the statues fell while being transported to the platform, they had to abandon them. This is why there were fallen moai scattered throughout the island. There were, actually, a few female moai but we only saw one, and to be honest it wasn't that distinguishable. The moais varied in size a lot, the smallest one being about 2m and the largest one, never erected because that would be impossible, was about 20m! One other thing about the moai- many of them also had these "top-knots," these separately carved hats that were rolled from the quarry to their final destinations. We saw many top-knots around the moais, and only one has been replaced on top of a moai.
It was a nice, relaxed trip, and good to spend time with the parents even though I had a history paper to do hanging over me.
Only church on the island
It was packed for 9am Sunday mass We got back Tues. night and Weds. morning were heading up to Valparaíso for the day. The congressman we had met a month or so ago said we could get a tour of the Congress building, and so my parents and I met up with Tomas, Paco, Matt and Kelsey. It was awesome getting a tour through the building, and I'm grateful that Tomas is obsessed with making connections so that everything worked out. We got to see the House in action, and they even announced "We'd like to welcome the students from Notre Dame, in the state of Indiana, United States." Matt got it on video. We thought it was exciting 😊. We spoke with our congressman awhile over cookies, and my mom talked with him about family law a little bit because he was on the the family council. We were also taken up to the very top of the building with a great lookout over Valpo and the bay. Afterwards, we were taken out to lunch to this little low-key restaurant on the beach, on the Congress's tab! Apart from the great tour, I was really glad that my parents were able to meet some people in
the group and have lunch with us.
Thursday I finally went back to classes after missing Mon-Weds. (yes, only one day of classes that week..), and I was surprised how much I missed everyone after not even a week. That night we had the most AMAZING meal I've had since I've been here- my parents took Michelle and I out to dinner at this Italian restaurant DaCarla in Vitacura.. we had the whole nine yards down to incredible chocolate dessert. After seeing how incredibly in heaven we were with the meal, my mom said, "Wow, you girls don't get out much, do you?" Haha.. oh we do but our $ is not directed toward meals like that. It was great though.
Two nights my parents came over to meet my Chilean family and have dinner, and while I had to translate a lot they did pretty well understanding each other, fortunately. It was nice having them here to show them where I lived, the campus, my friends, and around Santiago a bit. Good week, but I also had to get back to classes! It was also nice that they didn't have room in their suitcases for the huge
Me, mom, dad, moais
Our first view of the many moais on the island box of chocolate treats my Chilean family gave them... my friends and I are still enjoying those. 😊
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