TravelStream™ news feed for member dmp3380 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/dmp3380 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:35:40 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180800000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180800000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180800000/tpod.html Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:35:40 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Pucón, Chile

I woke in the morning feeling a million times better than I had done the previous day and I made a mental note never to drink red wine again. After a pretty cold shower it was time to leave Pichilemu, heading south towards Pucón.

Our first stop en route was in Santa Cruz and we visited the Museo de Colchagua. This is the country's biggest private museum, built in 1995 by an obscure local millionaire, Carlos Cardoen, who apparently made his fortune dealing with weapons. For many years he was in the top ten list of the most wanted criminals by the US government, although there has since been an amnesty, but it means he can't leave Chile without risking imprisonment.

The museum was pretty good and started with fossils that were millions of years old, before going through Chilean history until the modern era. On our trip, we had a trainee guide, Laura, who was very good at explaining things to me and Michael as we walked around the museum.

The rest of the day was spent in the mini-bus as we made our way towards Pucón, only stopping for petrol and toilet breaks. As we made our way south, our guide Nico explained that we had the option of doing a walk up the active and snow-covered Villarrica volcano the following day. It wouldn't be cheap (40 UKP), but it sounded really good fun. However, he noted that we may not be able to do it as the weather forecast wasn't good, e.g. rain was expected and we wouldn't be able to climb in the rain. Everyone put their name down to do the walk, all hoping that the rain wouldn't come.

When we arrived in Pucón it was straight to the volcano climb shop to get fitted for boots and clothing. As the volcano was completely covered with snow and would be pretty cold towards the top, having the proper gear was important. The guys at the shop explained what we would be doing and that they would make a decision regarding the weather first thing in the morning.

Once that was sorted, we headed off to the hostel, which turned out to be a really nice place and I was happy as not only had I secured a single bed, I was the only guy in the room, along with three girls (Mel, Helen and Laura)!!!

As it was late, we quickly headed out to a restaurant, where Nico tried his best to help me pronounce the food I was ordering in Spanish. Unfortunately my grasp of the Spanish language had not improved in the month I'd been in South America and the fact I can't roll my r's doesn't help matters either.

Due to the possibility of having an early start the following morning, I went to bed reasonably early, ensuring that I was in good shape for the volcano walk. In hindsight I shouldn't have bothered because it was raining the following morning and we got as far as the hostel's gate, before we were told that climbing was "impossible for today". Disappointed, we headed back to bed.

We had discussed the previous day about the possibly of rain and how if it rained on the day we were supposed to do the walk what our options were. The popular option was to do the walk on the following day, e.g. the day we were due to leave Pucón, and miss part of the lakes. I was more than happy to do this, but once one person said they didn't want to miss the lakes, the plan had to be ditched.

However, due to rain other options were being discussed, one of which was to get up at 4am and do the walk earlier, then leave for the lakes after wards. This way we'd still get to do the walk and see the lakes. I said I would be happy to do that, although the timing was revised to 5am. After having breakfast, I walked around the village with Michael and took a few pictures. It was then off to an Internet cafe where I planned the next part of my trip.

I had to have another early night because of the very early start the following day, which was a bit annoying as those that had opted against an early morning walk were having a few drinks in the hostel. They were still drinking when I got up a few hours later and I think that was the plan because when a few of us arrived downstairs, Shona made her way to bed.

We got into the mini-bus, went to the shop to put on our gear, then got back into the mini-bus and headed towards the volcano. Unfortunately our mini-bus didn't have snow chains, so we had to get out early and start walking. We quickly realised this was no ordinary walk and I think climb would be the better word to use.

The climb itself was really hard work, but very rewarding at the same time. As we started in the dark, we were guided by moonlight, which was very cool, then we got to see the sun rise. As we got higher and the climb got harder, all we had to do was look down and see the view and it instantly made us feel better.

As I mentioned earlier, we were climbing an active volcano and today it was very active. This was an early indication that we probably wouldn't make towards the top. On good days, we would be spending 30 mins at the top, looking at the lava inside the volcano itself. This was not a good day and after five hours we decided to turn back. To be honest, we weren't fit enough and the previous two hours had been straight uphill into a gale-force wind. That said, we had managed to get up to 2,200 metres (the summit is 2,750m) and had climbed a long way.

Getting down was a lot easier as we slid down on our backsides, well that was the idea. For some reason I was unable to slid down that easily - maybe I was getting fat. Once at the bottom, we got back onto the bus and gave the volcano a final wave.

When we got back to the hostel we found out that someone had broken in and stolen Julie's bag while she was on the volcano climb and while other people were still in bed. This put a bit of a downer on things and meant we had to wait around for her to sort through her stuff to see what was missing and visit the local police station. Apparently a couple of people had broken in through a downstairs window and Julie was unfortunate to be in the downstairs dorm and have the bed right next to the door. Once she'd sorted herself out, we made a our way towards the lakes.

D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1185552000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1185552000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1185552000/tpod.html Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:28:13 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

update later
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1185465600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1185465600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1185465600/tpod.html Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:26:23 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Foz de Iguacu, Brazil

update later
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180972800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180972800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180972800/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:22:30 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Puerto Varas, Chile

This would be the fifth and final day that I would spend on the bus and also my final full day in Chile. I was due to cross the border into Argentina with Mel and Helen on the following day.

We left the hostel early as usual and made our way towards our first stop, Puerto Montt. This is very much a fishing port, with numerous fish restaurants about and boats in the harbour. There was a major earthquake here in 1960 that destroyed the old port and city coastline. Since 1985 the commencement of salmon farming, the area has industry

(finish later)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180886400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180886400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180886400/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:20:49 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Valdivia, Chile

We left Pucón later than planned, which meant we only had enough time to see the lakes briefly and take pictures of them. He was hard knowing what to say to Julie, so I didn't say much. I don't think it would have made much difference anyway.

The lakes themselves were pretty stunning and I was able to grab a couple of good pictures with the mountains in the background reflecting on the water. At the first lake, we managed to get a group photo, which was good as we all seemed to get on well.

After our brief visit to the lakes we had to push on as we headed towards our over-night stop in Valdivia. As we stopped at traffic lights in the city, we noticed a group of sea-lions next to the road. As the good tourists that we were, we got out of the mini-bus and started to take pictures. That is until one of the sea-lions got a bit annoyed and stopped making loads of noise causing most people to jump back a couple of steps.

Once at the hostel I had a quick sleep whilst waiting for Nico and Marco (our driver) to sort out that evenings BBQ. After eating I chatted to a few people before heading back to bed - the lack of sleep and long climb up the volcano that morning was starting to take it's toll.

D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180627200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180627200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180627200/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:47:30 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Pichilemu, Chile

Having had very little sleep due to stay up most of the night drinking red wine, I was a bit annoyed when the mini-bus turned up late. Apparently they had been stuck in traffic, but all I thought of was that I could have had longer in bed and myself I wouldn't be feeling so rough. Anyway, I got onto the bus and thankfully it wasn't full so I found a seat at the back and tried to rest.

Our first stop was at a village called Pomaire, which apparently is an ancient village of Indians. We had a quick look around at the clay handicrafts that are sold there and I took a picture of a very big empanada - it was massive and weighted about 1kg! However, by now I was feeling very unwell and promptly started walking up the street whilst throwing up every 10 or 20 metres - not a good sight!

It was back into the mini-bus and off towards the hydro-electrical complex installed at the Rapel dam. The dam created an artificial lake, collecting water from the Cachapoal and Tinguiririca rivers. We had a walk around the top and took a few pictures before the rain got the better of us.

We reached our destination of Pichilemu early in the afternoon, by which time as we feeling better, if not great. A few people headed off to horse-riding, whereas I decided to hit the local Internet cafe and surf the 'net. That evening the hostel we were staying in provided us with food, so we just chatted as group after during and after dinner. Despite getting on with the group, my lack of sleep the previous night was catching up me so I headed off to bed early.

D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180454401/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180454401/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180454401/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:31:24 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Easter Island, Chile

I had to be up reasonably early on my last day as I had to do the necessary packing of the bag and checking out things. Once the bag was packed, I had breakfast then headed into the village to sort a few things out. First of all I needed to take a couple of pictures, before trying to locate the post office.

I'd heard that you could get passport stamps from the post office for Easter Island that were in three different languages - English, Spanish and Rapa Nui. I Eventually found the post office and after paying 500 Pesos I was the proud owner of three new stamps in my passport. The guy in the post office asked if I wanted them on a new page, damn right I did! The task with any passport is to fill as many pages as possible!

After getting my stamps I had to get back to the hostel, ready for my transfer (two mins) to the airport. There was a fair few of us going to the airport and it required three taxi loads to get us there. It took all of three minutes to check in and we quickly realised that there was absolutely no need for us to have arrived at the airport as early as we did.

We just sat outside and chatted, whilst looking out for the plane to land (something that only happens here six times a week). While we were waiting, we noted that people kept going up to this bloke and giving him flower necklaces and having their picture taking with him. I thought that would be a good idea, so grabbed an Australian girl to take the picture and asked him for a photo. He was more than happy for me to do so and I latter found out that he was a famous Chilean guitar player called Orlando Martinez.

Soon after the plane came into land and I managed to get a picture of it landing. It was now time to go through security and get onto the plane. As I walked onto the plane, I joined a few people taking pictures of the plane of the runway. The flight back to Chile was enjoyable and we were on one of LAN Chile's new planes. It had a great entertainment service that included all 24 episodes of the first series of 24. If only the flight lasted long enough to watch them all.....

D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180454400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180454400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180454400/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:18:23 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Easter Island, Chile

My fourth full day on the island was a Sunday and the main village was very quiet during the morning. The previous night, Christina and I had met randomly with Jorik and he mentioned that there was a festival on today, where they would be giving out free food. I had a quick look around, but wasn't sure where it be. Then after meeting up with Christina, we were randomly walking along the road when a local woman asked us if we were hungry. Never one to turn down free food, I said yes and she led us to where the free food was.

I had been expecting the food to be in a hall or near the church, but where we ended up looked more like someone's back garden. It was full of people standing in line, so we joined them and tried to avoid sliding in the mud at the same time. The friendly woman also gave us a plastic bag to put our food in. After a few minutes I spotted Jorik and his friends, so I had a quick chat to them as I watched people leave from a hut carrying loads of meat and fruit. I just hoped they wouldn't run out before we reach the hut.

It seemed that most of the village had turned out, including people playing musically instruments and singing - so we weren't short on entertainment. It was also noticeable that there were very few tourists there, probably only Jorik and friends, plus Christina and myself. That said, no-one seemed to mind and after about an hour we reached the hut. Despite the large queue of people in front of us, there was still plenty of food left.

After a quick goodbye to Jorik, we headed back to my hostel to enjoy the meat and other bits and bobs we'll acquired. We were very popular with the local dog population as we walked down the street - not a huge surprise. For saying the food was free, it didn't taste too bad.

We decided to head back to the moai that were just north of the village, that we'd tried to see earlier in week, but got soaked trying. This was a lot better day to take pictures of them, which we duly did. As there are moai further up the coastline, we decided to walk up the coast and as we did we met up with Tanya from my hostel.

She mentioned that she was visiting one of the caves that was nearby, so we tagged along with her. I'm glad that we did, because the entrance to the cave is quite small and hidden well. It was very dark inside and my Maglite was not that helpful as we made our way over the wet rocks. The cave opened out after a short while and there were two exits that overlooked the sea. We just stood close to the edge and watched the big waves smash into the rocks - it's a very impressive sight and helped by the waves traveling a fair way before they hit land.

Tanya left before we did because it was getting dark, but Christina didn't seem to bothered about it and she claimed we'd have no problem walking back in the dark due to the moonlight. I wasn't sure if I should trust her, but as she works as an astronomer for a living (she'd been working in the Danish observatory in the Vicuña region) I gave her the benefit of the doubt. It's only when she started telling numerous stories about the occasions her and her boyfriend had got lost in the dark due to mis-reading the setting sun back in Europe, I started to question my judgment.

As it was, she was right and the bright moonlight (almost a full moon) gave more than enough light to easily make our way back to the village. Once back in the village, I bought some beer and made dinner - more tuna and pasta. As the weather forecast was good for the following day, we decided to get another rental car and explore the other side of the island more.

The following morning also happened to be when Derby County were playing West Brom in the Championship play-off final, so-called 60million pound match. I got into the Internet after full time and shouted with joy when I saw the main headline on the Beeb's sport website - "Pearson goal send Derby into the Premiership". Promotion back to the big time and I was going to be a very happy chappy for the rest of the day.

By the time I met up with Christina, it was already midday and neither of us had sorted out the hire car. Getting a cheap one was a problem, but one of the hire car guys asked if I wouldn't mind having an automatic. Liking a challenge, I said yes and we ended up with an automatic people carrier - not exactly a 4x4.

First stop was Puna Pau, which was supposed to be the quarry site for the hats that some of the moai have. To be honest, I was very unimpressed with looking at a couple of boulders and craters, and we didn't stay there long. Before we left we did have a look at our people carrier as I'd heard a couple of rocks hitting the underside of the car (I was now on driving duty). Apart from a large amount of mud, the car looked fine, so we continued onwards we a focus on avoiding any substantial rocks or to be honest, any sort of rocks.

We continued on, but the road got worse and very muddy. Being adventurous and a bloke, I decided to drive through the mud, which isn't the easiest thing to do in an automatic, non-4x4 people carrier! However, I didn't have any problems and just did the usual thing of maintaining are reasonable speed and revs. I think Christina was slightly impressed, or most likely she was just relieved that I not bogged the car.

We reached our next destination, which was the seven moai at Ahu Akivi. These moai are unusual as the actually face out to sea (most moai face inland) and apparently at equinoxes their gaze meets the setting son. We managed to get some good pictures of these statues with the ocean in the background, before attempting to go further along the dirk track. We went 50 metres down the road before it was obvious we weren't going to get any further. The dirk track became really bad and even I know the difference between adventure and stupidity!

After a nine-point turn we were heading back where we'd come from and soon reached the really muddy part of the track again. I had a quick look for the best route through it and just went for it. We slid around a bit but made it to the other side, while another car looked on. The face of the other car driver told 1,000 words, which I'm sure included, "what are you doing driving through mud in that thing!" He was probably right, but I didn't care.

We then moved back onto the proper roads heading to the north coast and explored the beaches and moai there. As we were on one of the beaches, Jorik and his mates come along, so I chatted to them for a while. They'd also got a hire car for the day, although there's looked a bit better than ours (not really that difficult considering).

Once we'd had enough of the beach we got back in the car and headed towards the far east of the island and the location of another volcano. Previously people used to be able to drive up this in a 4x4, but this was stopped in an effort to protect the landscape. So I parked up and we decided that we would walk up instead. The problem was, there was no obvious route or path to take. We ended up climbing a fence and walking through a field of curious looking cows.

As with the previous evening, the sun was starting to set and hill seemed to go on for ages. Whenever we reached a ridge there was more and more of the hill to climb. We eventually got to the top and despite a bit of light rain, we could see a lot of the island, which I thought was very cool! At the top is a forest, so we walked around that so we could see the very edge of the eastern side of the island. Once around we grabbed a quick photo next to the weather station, before heading back towards the car.

As we walked down, it started to get dark quickly and there was no moonlight to help us this time. There was one scary moment when a couple of cows with young calves took more than a passing interest in us, but having walked around them and waved hello to the farmer (who didn't seem at all bothered we were walking on his land) we soon reached the car.

I had to drive carefully on the way back as it was dark and at one point we had to stop as the road was blocked by a big group of wide horses - not something you tend to see back home! Once back in the village, we filled up with petrol, dropped the car off and agreed to meet up later for food.

Dinner that evening was very good and the restaurant we found had spicy food on the menu - chicken curry no less. As mentioned previously, Chileans don't do spicy food, so the waitress made sure I was aware that I was eating something spicy. I told her not to worry and requested that it be very hot. They did not let me down and the Pisco I had with it was nice also! It was then goodbye to Christina and I thanked her for her company over the past five days, before going back to the hostel.

D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180108800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180108800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1180108800/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:03:41 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Easter Island, Chile

The weather forecast was correct and the second full day I had on the island was very sunny. After breakfast and a stop at an internet cafe (expensive), Christina and I went on the hunt for a hire car. This isn't difficult to do as every man and his dog (of which there are plenty on the island) is quite happy to rent you a car for a few hours or the day. The snag is that there is no insurance on the island, so if you crash the car, you're liable for potentially a lot of money. That said, there isn't too much traffic on the island, so you shouldn't really be crashing the car.

The first place we tried said they'd give us a 'basic' jeep (most of the hire cars are 4x4s as the roads aren't great, especially when its wet) for 50USD for the day. We managed to get it for 40USD, although we had to return it at the end of the day. When it arrived, it was an old, very basic jeep, which Christina described as the worse she'd ever seen. She was happy enough to drive it though, so I let her drive and we headed towards the south coast of the island after a quick stop at the petrol station.

We stopped along the coast before finding our first moai as the coast looked stunning and it was. The waves that hit the island travel a long way to get there, so it made for a few good pictures as the waves hit the rocks and spray went everywhere. It was then onto the sites at Vaihu/Hanga Te'e and Akahanga, where we found moai statues that had been knocked over and left where they fell. Being the good eco-tourists, we didn't encroach on the platforms or touch the statues themselves.

Our next stop was the Rano Raraku volcano, which is where all the statues were carved out of the rock (before being transported to the various resting sites). Apparently there are around 600 different statues here, including one that is 20 metres in total. We did see loads of statues, although it was difficult to tell if we'd seen the longest one as most of it isn't visible. After taking numerous pictures of moai, we headed up to the rim of the volcano, which gave us good views of most of the island. We also headed into the base of the volcano, but there wasn't too much to see there.

We continued onto the 15 moai at Tongariki. These have been restored (with help from a Japanese conservation organisation) and have been replaced back on the original platform. Seeing the 15 statues all in a row is an impressive site and one that makes its way onto a number of postcards.

From here we headed to the northern part of the island and the statues next to the beach at Anakena. By now the sun was starting to set, so I was able to get a few pictures of the sun setting behind the moai. We had a quick walk on the beach, before heading back to the village and handing the car back.

The following day was also good weather, so we decided on a walk towards the Rano Kau volcano and the historical settlement at Orongo. At the start of the walk we went into a cave at a cove and had a look at the rock carvings there. At various stages of the walk, signs told us that we had arrived at certain sites, although some seemed to be more impressive than others.

Once at the volcano, we were able to see that the crater was filled with a swamp, which looked pretty cool. We walked around the rim for as far as we could, taking photos as we went, until we reached the Orongo site office. Here we had to pay 10 USD for access to the historical village. Our pass covered us for all the sectors of the national park (which is most of the island), although this is the only place you can pay for it.

The village has a very strange to look at and consisted of a number of very low buildings built into the hillside over-looking the sea. They also had stone carving here and as well as this being the starting point of the birdman contest. We spent a bit of time here, before heading back into the village. On our way back we walked around the port area and watched the sun setting over the sea.

That evening we met up for a bite to eat at one of the restaurants and I had raw fish (tuna) for the first time. I would say that it tasted different! Obviously, being an island, fishing is a good source of food and the restaurant menus are full of various fish dishes, with tuna being the most popular option.

More from the island in a subsequent post....

D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1179936000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1179936000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/dmp3380/world_tour_06-7/1179936000/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:04:32 -0400 David's Sporting World Tour 2006/07 - South-East Asia, Australia (The Ashes!), New Zealand, Fiji and South America.

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Easter Island, Chile

The flight over to Easter Island takes around five hours and it was ok, although the entertainment was the same as I'd seen on the flight from Auckland to Santiago. I got chatting to the girl sat next to me (Christina from Germany) and we decided to meet up the following day to do some exploring of the island together.

Once we'd landed and I'd grabbed my bag, I decided to stay at the HI place on the island. After being given the option of a dorm bed for 20USD or my own room for 25USD, I opted for the latter. I was told that I could only stay for three nights (I was on the island for six nights in total), as they had bookings for the weekend. I was offered the sister's place, but decided I'd worry about that later in the week. I also told Martin from Martin and Anita's Place that he was a rip-off merchant, so I hope that Kym and Chris will be proud of me (they stayed there a few weeks before and he tried to rip them off). We then waited for our 'free transfer' to the accommodation, which took all of two minutes to drive - this isn't a big place.

The Lonely Planet introduces the island as follows:

"Far from continents, this isolated world of wonder is a fun house of archeology, an eerie landscape of cultural clues to mysteries that resist easy explanation. Its landscape of enigmatic statues (moai) overshadows subtler assets like crystalline surf, wild horses and grass-sculpted landscapes. Known as Te Pito o Te Henua (the Navel of the World) by its inhabitants, tiny Polynesian Rapa Nui (117 sq kms) is entirely off the map for most South American trekkers, but those who stretch to go the distance rarely regret it."

"The first European to set foot on the island was Dutch admiral Roddeveen and his timing (Easter Sunday, 1722) sealed its moniker. After becoming Chilean territory in 1888 it became known as Isla de Pascua. It is 1,900kms east of even punier Pitcairn, the nearest populated landmass, and 3,700kms west of South Amercia."

"How such an isolated island became inhabited has long stumpted historians and archaeologists. The most widely accepted answer is that they came from southeast Asia, populating the Polynesian triangle of Hawaii, New Zealand and Rapa Nui."

"On Rapa Nui, two civilisations formed who both built large stone altars, ahu, and moai to honour their ancestors. Warfare led to the destruction of the ahu and the toppling of the moai (many were recently restored upright). Legend offers that priests moved the moai from carving site at Rano Raraku volcano to the coast by the power of mana, with the statues themselves 'walking' a short distance each day. Most say that a sledge was fitted to the moai, which was then lifted with a bi-pod and dragged forward. The use of the timber to move the statues would partly explain the island's deforestation. Another religious cult, that of the birdman, equally intriguing, had its ceremonial centre at Orongo."

I awoke the following morning to it raining, which apparently it does a lot on Rapa Nui. After breakfast I walked into the only village on the island, Hanga Roa, and found Christina's hostel. Due to the rain, we decided that a trip to the museum would be the best option. Here we learnt about the history of the island (the early explorers), how it was form (three separate volcanic eruptions over the past 200 million years), where the locals came from (e.g. Polynesia), the various theories about how the moai were transported around the island (the one mentioned by Lonely Planet seemed to be the most realistic method), and more information on the birdman cult.

Unlike me, Christina had done some research about the island before she came and she explained the birdman cult legend further. Apparently its an annual race that the men of the island used to take part in (a while back). There are a couple of very small islets just off the south edge of the mainland, which are the home to the Sooty Tern. Once these birds start to produce eggs, the race can begin. The guys taking part start at the top of the cliff, have to make their way down to the water (they are pushed if they don't want to go), swim across to the small island (aided by a raft), find a bird egg, and bring it back to the mainland. The first one back wins and is made the chief of the population for the next year. Legend also states that this person is also rewarded by being given seven virgins to enjoy/keep him company during the year, as he spends his time isolated from the rest of the population with food provided for him.

Christina also mentioned that the runway at the airport is big enough for NASA'a space shuttle to land on and was built this way for emergencies only. I suppose it makes sense as there is a lot of ocean and not a lot else that surrounds the island. That said, I don't think any space shuttles have ever landed on Rapa Nui!

Once finished at the museum, we tried to walk around and take pictures of the moai that are in or close to the village. However, the rain wasn't stopping, so that was abandoned for the day. We decided to meet up again the following day and agreed that if the weather forecast of sunshine was correct, we'd rent a car and go exploring further....

D.
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