Sunday, March 8, 2009

View from our patio....
Our patio.....breakfast is served..

We were not in the water with this one...


Fisherboy was intrigued with the turtle, too.




R apa Nui man rides the range...
Rapa Nui surfer boy ...

One morning we woke to find this big ship outside our door...


15 moai in a stunning setting...



15 moai and 1 seattle woman





Birdman Island in the Pacific...the cult that followed the tribal warfare on the island.
A bunch of guys...a part of a line of l5 moais...some with decorative ears..

Getting up close and personal...a big taboo...



The biggest caldera on an island formed by volcanoes







Ancient statues...moai they are called...nearly 800 of them on the island in various states
These 7 moai...called Akivi...are the only ones that look out to the sea.

Surfer dude


One of the few moai with a topknot in place .



Our next door neighbor...





Friday, March 6, 2009

Easter Island, March 6, 2009

This is our second full day here.....very amazing....starting with flying 2,500miles across the Pacific and then landing on this little spot of land that is 12x24 kilometers in size!! Two planes a day land here....one coming from Santiago and the other from Tahiti....this island is about equally distant from both. We deplaned onto the tarmac, it was a beautiful time of day...early evening, a soft breeze --and everyone just stayed on the tarmac taking photos and not wanting to go inside the terminal. I looked up to the pilot...he had his window open, so I waved and he returned the wave....kind of like he had brought us to paradise and everyone was just kind of dazed....a very memorable experience.
Our host from the b&B met us outside the terminal with a lei for both of us....where were we? Today we had a fine early morning walk to see moai...7 of these statues all lined up looking at the sea...they are so mysterious. They are in fields, scattered on hillsides, some lie sleeping the the quarry where they were only partly finished.
I think I have never been in a more isolated part of the world....about 4,000 people live here....only one village. We have a lovely location with bedroom and kitchenette, and the waves of the Pacific take us to sleep each night. This was the perfect place to end our trip.
I wrote a long blog on Monday from Puerto Mott, then the computer lost its connection to the internet so it was all lost!
For a short recap....we had beautiful scenery in the Chilean and Argentine Lake District...we moved from one to the other via a lake-land crossing of a series of buses and boats. While in Chile we had one night on a Mapuchi farm....a night we can now laugh about, but at the moment was hot, noisey, a number of farm animals around our supper picnic table, and we left early the next morning. Throughout our round of the Lakes we were driving a very powerless Puegot...a lot of driving was in first and second gear...a alot of rocks along the ubiquitous gravel roads grew very familiar with the underneath of the Puegot! There is more but may have to relate that in person.
We are here till Tuesday a.m.....and, depending on if the plane coming from Tahiti can find this little piece of earth...we will fly that day back to Santiago then home Wednesday night to arrive on Thursday...
I hope to get back to this computer to post some photos...
Bye for now...