Taha Tai Easter Island

... one´s its like, ¨wow I´m actually on Easter Island!!´ We visited the quarry where they were carved and that was really, really impressive to see all these heads emerging from the ground, it was like some surreal graveyard. There´s even some still in the actual rock looking like they just need to be sliced off the ground and lifted up. They must have had some pretty special people to look at the rocks emerging from the hillside and decide they could carve it into a moai ...

... 4 students in total).<br><br>The rest of our Debate Team, Pilar and I sat an watched as the first 3 slowly CAME UNDONE!! It was like watching a train wreck. You know you should look away but you can't and you are paralyed even though you want to help. There was a 10 break so they could prepare for the summary. Pilar and I went to the stage to help scoop up what was left of their pride. The were smaller ...

... that concoction nearly made my left lung collapse and I think I went blind for at least 10 seconds. Drinking potions like that she should see 20/20. She convinced Sebastian to sing a song we move to the sitting room and listened to the jazzy soulful sounds of a Brazilian ballad played on an acoustic guitar. It was time to move on to the next destination so we tell Luz goodbye and she hugs me tight as if this would be our last meeting ...

... now been authorised. After finishing at the bank we headed to the car rental place to hire a car for the next 2 days to get around the island. We had to wait for 10 minutes until the office opened at 9am so popped to the shop for drinks. Once the office opened we rented a little Suzuki Jeep, as Zoe was the only one with a driving license on her she had to register as the driver which both she and the others were rather concerned about. Luckily thought the jeep was manual ...

... having the time of his life. Which is when one of our gang thought it about time we told him that the buxom Maori was, we thought, more like a Maurice underneath. I disagreed, primarily on the grounds that he-woman was a reasonable looking, err, thing, and I surely couldn't have been duped like the German guy so readily. It was the begininning of reconaissance activity that continued for the rest of the evening and into the wee small hours.<br><br><br>When the bar's ho-down ...

... generally getting more and more frustrated. After lunch and another attempt at sending emails we abandoned the idea whilst we went and listened to the fifth and final lecture from the Concorde Pilot. This time the topic was 'What made Concorde Special - the Secrets of Supersonic Speed' during which he talked about the unique differences between ordinary aircraft and Concorde. Upon completion of this ...

... two us only having 6 or so Spanish words between us. Lesson to self, take some lessons in the local language before travelling. We have become inseparable from our phrasebook, but we are also learning to do as the locals do to minimise the culture gap. We are having a challenging but exciting time and will next update you from Bolivia. Love and peace again from the culture shocked Bek and Jesse train.

... Plan). The second problem was to get on the plane with those tickets and I alone created that problem by locking myself up between two entrance doors early in the morning in Residencia Mery in Santiago. I read some books about mountain men on the Wild West and I knew approximately how trapped beaver should act so I tried to imitate it as best as I could. That worked and I was liberated and at the end managed to catch up with a plane, my tongue on my shoulders. It has ...

... throat, and flames no longer shot out of my nose when I exhaled. Next up was the town of Vicuna, where we found nothing much more than a central Plaza and a market. Nik and Jasimma had already seen the town on a previous tour, and as such, were even less enthralled than I was. They commented that it was boring the first time, and even worse the second time. Lunch was at a solar restaurant - nothing overly high-tech as you might expect, but rather simple ...