Day 16, Easter Island full Day Tour

We slept really well and woke to no electricity once again. Apparently, the island is run by a generating station that was built in 1965 – so occasionally fails. We washed by flashlight with cold water and since there was no drying my hair I didn’t bother to wash it. A baseball cap was in order for the day and off we went. We have more amenities when we are camping.
The people at the hotel were very accommodating and tried to make the best of a difficult situation. Hot coffee was not an option but the chef  was working on heating water on the gas stove and getting some instant coffee  to the patrons.

It just made for another adventure on our trip to the most remote inhabited island in the world!!!
Our guide Matua picked us up at 9:30 am. He was definitely one of our most colorful and exuberant tour guides. He was born and raised on Easter Island and was a native Rapa Nui.


Our first stop was at  the archaeological center of Ahu Akahanga.


Ahu Akahanga
“This is a large area where there are structures of great importance and different characteristics. Stresses the Akahanga Ahu, a ceremonial center consists of several ahu.
Easter Island has more than 600 statues in human form, the moai. Although it may seem otherwise, these moai are not scattered around the island on a whim. Most of them are grouped in an organized manner, thus constituting a kind of shrine. And almost all are aligned and oriented back to the sea, facing the center of the island.
Ahu Akahanga settlements is one of the most numerous moai. It is an expanse of about 18 meters long in which there are a dozen statues with sizes ranging from 5 to 7 meters, although some have been unable to maintain balance throughout the centuries and are lying the edge of the sea. The area is decorated with red rocks, giving shelter to the statues. A little further away from the others, along the coast, is a solitary figure, the smallest of all, with only two feet high.
In addition to the statues in Ahu Akahanga are vestiges of ancient civilization, such as caves or primitive buildings.
Ahu Akahanga is popularly known as “Platform of the King”. According to one popular legend, in this exact point in the southeast coast of the island are the remains of Hotu Matua, the first king of the Rapanui, who came to govern the island by the fourth century AD. Apparently, the place chosen by Hotu Matua for his final rest is not accidental, since by its situation, Ahu Akahanga the deceased monarch allowed to continue spreading their good vibes equally to both sides of the island, to favor crops alike of the inhabitants of each side.”



“In 1960, an earthquake in Chile triggered a tidal wave, which hit the coast of Easter Island at Tongariki. The tidal wave sent the 15 Tongariki moai—some of which weigh 30 tons—several hundred feet inland. The ahu, the largest on Easter Island, was effectively destroyed. It wasn't until 1992 that the site was restored, under the direction of Chilean archaeologist, Claudio Cristino. The task took five years.”
When we arrived at Ahu Tongariki in the National Park we were all awe stricken. Here we were actually viewing these amazing carvings in person.

COOL SITE:
http://www.eisp.org/

After spending time in total amazement we moved on to our next stop.
A row of top knots.


Our guide was very animated and kept us laughing all the time. He was very knowledgeable and demanded our full attention. Our next stop was the Rano Raraku volcano. Easter island is made up of volcanic rock and has several active volcanoes.

“Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation, where 397 moai remain. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park.”

Once again we were awe-stuck at the enormity of what we were seeing. There were tops of moais everywhere and to think they were all carved out of the mountainside.



In the picture below you can see the largest unfinished  Moai (69 feet tall).You can see how large it is by looking at the size of the people passing by it. Totally amazing. Great picture Kelly!!!

Again, these were carved out of the mountainside. Then moved to their burial platforms!!!!!!!!

Al though this appears to be a very beautiful and serene place it is actually the cauldron of a volcano. The area was spectacular as has everything been.



Matua made an additional stop to show us an unusual rock formation with multiple holes.


It gets very interesting- watch closely!

We stopped for a boxed lunch of chicken and rice. It was quite good and filled our need for food at that time.

                    Beautiful Ocean Views at Every Turn

Energy Grids, Vortexes, Geometric Points on Easter Island

The magnetic rock attracts people worldwide who are searching for spiritual healing and enlightenment. They camp out by it, under the full moon, and receive magnetic vibrations just by holding their hands above the rock.

                     At the Beach
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A little snack shack on the beach comes with its own chickens.




The tour was amazing ad we returned to our hotel around 5:30 pm. We opted to sign up for dinner at the hotel. There was a basic price for dinner – $50.00 per person but since there didn’t seem to be any other options we were in.
The electricity was back on so a hot shower was welcomed. After our showers we met for dinner. The dinner was definitely gourmet – a great surprise.
Our friend followed us back to our hut and  kept us company once again. We really missed our little girl Jewel so it was nice to have a dog around.


RON NOTE:
This Dog reminded me so much of Moses Jewels friend from our walks at the Flea Market. He even maid the same clicking noise with his mouth!

It was a very good day and the tour was terrific. We headed to bed around 9 pm in preparation for our full day of touring scheduled for Tuesday. We could not imagine how much more we could see and experience  but we were looking forward to our next day’s adventure.

Day 15, Flight to Easter Island, Settling In

 

The alarm went off at 2:45 am and after only three hours of sleep we were dragging. The early morning flights are a killer. The night manager was great and had coffee, tea and cookies set up for those of us that needed to be out of the hotel before the chickens woke up.

We had a new person escorting us – a young woman whose name I have forgotten – to the airport. Patrick and Kelly managed to secure exit row seats so he could be somewhat comfortable.

It was an uneventful flight of appro. 5.5 hours. The really positive thing about LAN is they actually serve a very good meal.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage Site (as determined by UNESCO) with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park. In recent times the island has served as a warning of the cultural and environmental dangers of overexploitation. Ethnographers and archaeologists also blame diseases carried by European colonizers and slave raiding of the 1860s for devastating the local peoples.^[3]

Easter Island is claimed to be the most remote inhabited island in the world.^[4]

We arrived in Easter Island  and were greeted by our driver. He did not speak English so we had to use sign language. We had been driven around in very nice vehicles at the rest of our  stops so were surprised to see his van was in pretty bad shape.

The ride to our hotel was different. We traveled on mostly dirt, pot holed roads. Not a lot of infrastructure on the island.

Our hotel was also different with individual cement huts. Our room had just had the floor painted a bright blue and you could still smell the paint. Unfortunately, it was still wet. Ron and I were sticking to the floor and we got blue paint on the bottom of our shoes. The smell was pretty bad so we opened the sliders for some air circulation.

The view from the sliders was spectacular helping to dull the shock of the wet paint and fumes. I went to the front desk to ask if they could change our  room but no dice- the place was full. After some discussion on how to handle the wet paint I suggested putting more bamboo mats down. The people running the hotel were very nice and did give us additional mats. It worked out Ok and after two days the paint smell subsided. Kelly & Patrick had no issues. Their floor was not painted so no sticking going on there.

 

Keeping my feet on the mat!!!

 

 

 

 

OUR HUT

 

 

 

KELLY & PATRICK’s HUT

By the time we settled in it was time for lunch. Since we were unfamiliar with the area and very tired we opted to eat in the hotel restaurant. The food was delicious and well presented. After lunch we went back to our huts for a nap.

There were several cats wandering around and a lovely golden lab. Since we like dogs so much we befriended the dog. She was very mild manner and was looking for a belly rub.

She joined us at our hut and kept us company for the afternoon. In the early evening we went to watch the sunset. It was quite beautiful.

 

None of us were very hungry so we opted out of dinner. We decided to eat some energy bars and turn in early. Unfortunately, around 8 pm the lights in the restaurant/hotel went out. By 8:30 Ron and I were in bed and were awakened some time later when the lights came back on. I got up to shut the lights off and then fell right back to sleep.

We had an all day tour scheduled for the next day so catching up on our sleep was in order. Not sure who our tour guide would be. All have been great so we were expecting the same on Easter Island.

Day 14, Santiago City Tour and Folkloric Dinner Show

 

After a good night of sleep we were up and ready for our next adventure – a city tour of Santiago, Chile. Our guide, Rubin,  was also our driver.

It was raining pretty steady – a first on this trip – so taking pictures out the windows proved to be  a challenge. Santiago is a very large metropolitan city that has approx. 7 million people  - 8 million if you include the dogs!!!!!

Santiago also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation (Greater Santiago). It is located in the country’s central valley, at an elevation of 520 m (1,706.04 ft) above mean sea level. Although Santiago is the capital, the National Congress of Chile meets in the coastal town of Valparaíso, 120 km to the west.

Chile’s steady economic growth has transformed Santiago into one of Latin America’s most modern metropolitan areas, with extensive suburban development, dozens of shopping centers, and impressive high-rise architecture. It has a very modern transport infrastructure, including the steadily growing underground Santiago Metro, an effort at modernizing public bus transport and a free flow toll-based ring road and inner city highway system, part of which is tunneled underneath a large section of the city’s main river Mapocho connecting the Eastern and Western end of the city in a 25-minute drive. Santiago is the regional headquarters to many multinationals and a financial center. Santiago has a diverse, cosmopolitan culture.

There are dogs everywhere and from what our driver told us the dogs have rights. And they are very smart. They hop on and off the buses and even cross the streets on a green light!!!!!!!

The architecture in the city was quite impressive. We stopped at the local horse race track and managed to get some great pictures of a race horse that were being exercised.

The rain eased up and we took a walk around the city stopping at the Presidential Palace for a picture. A picture with the guards at the Presidential Palace. Very serious looking guys!

We stopped at the local museum ad enjoyed looking at the artifacts on display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to stay dry in the rain.

 

 

An Apothecary Shop with original jars and artifacts from years ago. Looking at some of the artifacts reminded me of the equipment we used in nursing school at Pondville Hospital in 1965. Oh, am I really that old!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old cash register. Ron remembers salvaging  similar cash registers when he worked for his father at Tremblay Movers – also eons ago!!!

 

 

 

 

 

As we walked and drove around the city we noticed there was graffiti everywhere. Rubin told us that  the graffiti was done for no particular reason – just to be destructive. I guess the government is trying to crack down and clean up the mess – but it is everywhere.

Our day would not be complete without a tour of a cathedral. Initially we thought we couldn’t take pictures inside but when I was talking to Rubin about how beautiful the church was – and too bad no pictures – he said it was OK to take pictures without a flash.

 

After visiting the church, Rubin took us to the highest point in Santiago so we could get a birds eye view of the city and the mountains surrounding the city.

 

We were back at the hotel in time for lunch. We walked to a local  Ruby Tuesday and despite the language barrier – no one spoke English - we managed to order our food. Patrick had an app on his phone that allowed us to communicate a little easier.

We had several hours before Rubin would be picking us up so we opted to  chill for the rest of the day. We had been notified by our travel agent that our return from from Santiago to Miami had been changed from a  7 pm flight to a 9:00 pm flight getting us into Miami too late to make our connection. Ron and I had booked our flight from Miami to Boston using our FF miles.  Mary at SA Vacations was extremely helpful but in the end we were on our own trying to get our flights changed. We used Google voice to make our calls to AA. Thank goodness because  an international call would have been a fortune and Google voice was free. It was not without some stress since Google voice gives you 30  minutes then cuts out the call.  Seven phone calls – the last being a desperate plea to a supervisor and we had our flight adjusted and changed  so we would be able to make the connection in Miami.We did have to purchase more air miles and there was a change fee but in the end we were happy to know we had seats on the plane home.  We learned a valuable lesson- let the travel agent book all flights for you from beginning to end!

The rain was clearing and we were hoping to get a good view of the mountains. Unfortunately our room faced the city so no mountains for us.

Around 5 pm Kelly came to get us to show us the view out her window. WOW – it was spectacular!!!

 

After being enthralled by the mountain views we went back to our room armed with great pictures.

Rubin picked us up at 8 pm  and brought us to our dinner show. at the Bali Hi Restaurant. I chose to try something different and had a seafood appetizer. Not sure why – because  am really  not a seafood lover. I didn’t like it so left it behind.

The meal was excellent and the entertainment quite good. We had a lot of laughs especially when Ron was pulled from his seat to participate in a local dance. Watch for his signature move! LOL

The overall entertainment was really good and we were enjoying ourselves so much that we stayed until after 11 pm knowing that we had to get up at 3 am to catch our plane.

More fun dancing going on. Rubin stayed at the restaurant while we partied. On our way back to the hotel we noticed people everywhere. He told us the party was just getting started in the city and most of the young people would be out all night.  Oh, to be young again.

Back at the hotel I set the alarm for 2:45 am – Uggh – another early flight and the very last destination of our journey - Easter Island.