Martin y Anita Hotel Easter Island

... VALIENTE(Very Brave) y estoy muy orgulloso de usted (and I am very proud of you)." That lifted their spirits a little because I think they thought I was mad at them but I could never be mad as someone that was TRYING something new. Then I said, "How nervous would I be if I were saying a speach in SPANISH. They started Laughing. A LITTLE TOO MUCH IF YOU ASK ME! Here I am thinkin my spanish was getting better ...

... words as he said them.

We take a bus to the museum we were the only people there. We take pictures and later a tour guide sees us, and Sebastian explains that he is a History teacher at the university and I am an English teacher from the USA teaching in Parral. She takes us on a tour and the first room is a chaple. The museum is sponsored but the Catholic University so there are a lot of religious artifacts here. I feel that I have ...

... place became a reality.

Getting here wasn’t as easy as we had hoped – after a 6 hour flight from Ecuador we arrived in Santiago and then bordered our plane to Easter Island some 2 hours later. After an hour we were asked to get off the plane to due to problems with an engine sensor. Not what you want to hear after the recent Air France tragedy but better to hear it on the ground than in the air! Eventually we landed in Easter Island some 14 ...

... had to dodge horses and cows blocking the road to get to our next destination, Puna Pau. As it was raining and Zoe was the only one with a raincoat we decided to wait in the car for a bit to see if the rain eased. With the rain not easing we decided to send Daniel out with the raincoat to take pictures. We continued up and around the west of the island but with the rain not stopping we didn't get out to look around we just stopped took some quick pictures and carried on ...

... the workers got hacked off with their 'masters'. Most of the statues are still face down - the only ones standing have been restored relatively recently, by archaeologists. At its peak, the island supported an advanced society of 15,000 people, before they wiped each other out. The Moai. These massive stone statues were carved by the Islanders as tributes to their ancestors & were erected on stone altars, or "Ahu". There is one Ahu with ...

... cabin and successfully sent a number of emails, before retiring to our balcony for cocktail hour. Tonight we were going to the Steak House grill with a couple of people we had met on board, the meal was good but the service disappointing. Having eaten a large meal we wanted to allow time to digest it, so we headed into the show this evening, performed by the Princess production team called C'est Magnifique.

... the map and finally got to the place where I bought some water at exorbitant price and hailed a taxi which was just a bit more expensive. In hindsight, a taxi was a remarkably prudent choice. It got me to Ahu Akivi - the place where seven moais stand facing the ocean (quite far from it though). As of most of the standing moais on the island, their setup and posture were suspiciously photogenic. No doubt I could not help but exploited this fact as countless other ...

... sunscreen and without using a hat very much, and never had this problem. The sun in Chile must be unusually strong, because it has never felt excessively hot since I have been in this part of Chile. I managed to eat breakfast relatively easily, though it was a little painful to chew, as it irritated the sunburns any time I moved my face. Unfortunately, I have an early tour to the Elqui Valley today, so there was no time to go buy any aloe vera or some ...

... on some pants and shoes. I wasn't very prepared today, and would pay badly for this later on ... ooh ... foreshadowing! We stopped first at a gas station to pick up some drinks and snacks, as we wouldn't be having lunch until 4 or 5 PM. The tour guide had some coffee there, and advised us that gas stations were some of the best places in Chile for coffee, because they actually make it fresh, and don't use Nescafe. I sat next to a ...

... like our previous tour they were really helpful during the booking process.

We were given a lai on arrival and welcome drinks and fruit at the hotel. We had a little rest time and then our 1st tour started.

Our tours were with Kia Koe and once again no complaints. Tours were informative and ran on time. The first one was to the Birdman cave and the Rano Kao volcano and the now deserted village of Orongo.

As you can see from the photo the ...