Everyone seemed to have slept well and our second day was also a successful one. We have a busy work schedule and tasks continue to range from demolition to digging trenches to getting floors ready for cement being poured, assembling wooden casings for the cement to be poured into (forgot the real word for it) and getting materials from the store such as gravel and sand which has to be shoveled into our Habitat truck, then driven to the work site, and brought into the yard via wheelbarrows. All of our demolition garbage was on the sidewalk and the municipality sent a big container today that we could load all the garbage into, so it was wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of broken bricks, glass, dirt, wood etc to move the stuff from the front of the house to the container. Took a looong time.
Meals are great here, fruit tastes delicious and consists of apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi and then we also eat yummy tomatoes, avocados etc. Tea is a comfort drink here and is served often. We all got the kiss on the cheek by the Mom on our site (site 3) and felt very welcome on our second day...the other sites felt the same. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, and are bonding with the families and kids on site.
Ivan, our Habitat person here, joined us for dinner and we got a promise of going salsa dancing on Thursday night. Should be fun.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday July 30th: First Build Day aka. Demolition Day!
We met our team over a 7:30 breakfast of ``real`` coffee (Exciting after days of Nescafe), buns, fruit, yogurt (yum!) and excited faces eager to get the build going. So the 7 of us who had been on Easter lsland now met 12 others. Some were friends from home, and some were brand new friends...what a great group of people aged 18-60 from 4 different provinces and everyone seemed to mesh well already. We split into 3 groups of 6, 6, and 7 as we had 3 build sites and jumped into our vans to get on our way. The weather turned out great. It`s a bit chilly in the morning but was definitely t-shirt weather after 11am or so. Pants are a must here as the work site really is a place where you need your hard hat, gloves, a dust mask and either sunglasses or safety glasses. Things are being passed down from the roof, things are flying up from the floor as you try to chip away cement to make room for new floor being poured later in the week and to dig little trenches which would house new pipes and plumbing. It is a busy work site with limited room to move around.
Santiago is an interesting city to drive through. Very busy traffic, a bit crazy about driving and changing lanes. as we are building in a needy area, you can see lots of graffiti which is sometimes gang related (depending on neighbourhood), but often related to the various soccer teams in town. Chileans are crazy about soccer and in some areas, the colors painted on the bottom parts of electricity poles depict the team popular in that part of town. We`ve been told that in those places, you would never be seen wearing the jersey or colours of a competitive team. Too funny :)
Traffic is busy, lots of dogs everywhere, we saw a peddler walking up between cars in between traffic lights and instead of having a squeegee in his hand, he had an interesting assortment of bike tires, windshield wipers and a couple of other random things. Tons of corner and variety stores with many things familiar from home and lots of bars and fences in front of windows and doors.
The three build sites had three different stories. Chelsea had one group, Alex (who has also done a number of builds already) was kind enough to take on a second group and I had the third group. We all had separate vans and drives, and would only see each other again at the end of the work day. The houses all needed renovations so that in two cases, children could come live at home again as they were now staying in hospitals and in the other case would provide better living conditions for a child at home. Some parts of the homes had to be demolished and others prepared for new floors, walls etc. So tasks differed at the various sites and at my site, we took walls down with hammers, chiseled away on cement floors with hammers or crowbars, took roof trusses and metal sheathing down etc. Physically it was a tiring day day but the families made it all worth it. As a welcome, some of us had balloons waiting for us tied to the front gates, little signs on the wall welcoming us and name tags for our team, the family, as well as interpreters on site and Habitat staff. Amanda and Michelle are on my site, but Chelsea will be able to provide more detail on her work site once back to blogging on here.
Kids are super cute and the language barrier was quickly overcome by sign language and lots of smiles. All the 3 teams worked very hard and we got a ton done for the first day. Meals at the work sites were prepared by the families and ranged from soup to spaghetti etc. Our work day does not finish until about 5:30pm and dinner was at 7. After that, we all found corner stores, bought some Chilean wine at 2 or 3 dollars a bottle and sat around chatting and playing catch phrase. It was a great first day. Tiring and we would likely have some blisters and sore muscles the next day, but that is what this is all about :)
Santiago is an interesting city to drive through. Very busy traffic, a bit crazy about driving and changing lanes. as we are building in a needy area, you can see lots of graffiti which is sometimes gang related (depending on neighbourhood), but often related to the various soccer teams in town. Chileans are crazy about soccer and in some areas, the colors painted on the bottom parts of electricity poles depict the team popular in that part of town. We`ve been told that in those places, you would never be seen wearing the jersey or colours of a competitive team. Too funny :)
Traffic is busy, lots of dogs everywhere, we saw a peddler walking up between cars in between traffic lights and instead of having a squeegee in his hand, he had an interesting assortment of bike tires, windshield wipers and a couple of other random things. Tons of corner and variety stores with many things familiar from home and lots of bars and fences in front of windows and doors.
The three build sites had three different stories. Chelsea had one group, Alex (who has also done a number of builds already) was kind enough to take on a second group and I had the third group. We all had separate vans and drives, and would only see each other again at the end of the work day. The houses all needed renovations so that in two cases, children could come live at home again as they were now staying in hospitals and in the other case would provide better living conditions for a child at home. Some parts of the homes had to be demolished and others prepared for new floors, walls etc. So tasks differed at the various sites and at my site, we took walls down with hammers, chiseled away on cement floors with hammers or crowbars, took roof trusses and metal sheathing down etc. Physically it was a tiring day day but the families made it all worth it. As a welcome, some of us had balloons waiting for us tied to the front gates, little signs on the wall welcoming us and name tags for our team, the family, as well as interpreters on site and Habitat staff. Amanda and Michelle are on my site, but Chelsea will be able to provide more detail on her work site once back to blogging on here.
Kids are super cute and the language barrier was quickly overcome by sign language and lots of smiles. All the 3 teams worked very hard and we got a ton done for the first day. Meals at the work sites were prepared by the families and ranged from soup to spaghetti etc. Our work day does not finish until about 5:30pm and dinner was at 7. After that, we all found corner stores, bought some Chilean wine at 2 or 3 dollars a bottle and sat around chatting and playing catch phrase. It was a great first day. Tiring and we would likely have some blisters and sore muscles the next day, but that is what this is all about :)
Sunday July 29th: ``In Transit`` Day
Early morning today. Our flight was leaving Easter Island at 7am or so, so we got up before 5am so that we could catch a ride to the airport at 5:15am
We got up, some showered, we got our stuff all packed and went to the front of the hostel...only to find out that the flight was delayed....by 8 hours! So back to bed we went. Our flight was delayed until 3pm due to weather over the Pacific ocean, so we got to hang out on this beautiful island for another day and we were lucky to have another nice breakfast, then check into our flight at the nearby airport, grab a ``bag lunch`` from the airline and then be able to stay in the hostel yard for a few hours. The weather was beautiful. not a rain drop in sight, t-shirt and shorts weather almost...which we had not experienced since getting here.
We caught our flight at 3pm with LAN airlines, a 4.5 hour flight to Santiago. Nice meal and wine on the plane and Amanda ended up charming the flight attendant so much that he somehow gave her a bottle of red to take with her...and we`re not talking baby bottles. Too funny. Michelle sat in the middle of two aisle seats and made use of wine carts coming down both aisles...I have to say: impressive wine talents, ladies. :)
We had changed plans earlier with our Habitat team as we were supposed to get in at 2pm versus the 10pm that would now be our arrival time. So the 12 team members who were already there had their orientation and supper with the local Habitat staff and we would meet them at breakfast the next morning. All went fine and by the time we got the the hostel around 11pm, most had gone to bed. Chris and Billy, part of our team, were still up and welcomed us which was nice. We grabbed our things and found our rooms and beds around midnight. Staff seemed incredibly welcoming with the customary kiss on the cheek and big smiles when we arrived. Loving the hospitality so far!
Santiago is a large city of about 6 or 7 million people. It was dark when we got in and quite chilly, but the city looked busy and big. Our hostel had charm inside and out. Lots of colors. Most team members had triple rooms, some had doubles and Chelsea and I ended up with single rooms. They were tiny with little twin beds, but really cute with warm colors, and little TVs. TVs are seldom turned on when available on Habitat trips, but with Olympics going on, it was nice to see the little screen. As it turned out, all channels were in Spanish and we are having trouble catching much Olympic coverage...but hoping to be lucky and maybe catch a volleyball game, some track or other fun events.
So the 19 of us were now under one roof and trying to get a good night`s sleep in preparation for our first build day. Can`t wait!!!
We got up, some showered, we got our stuff all packed and went to the front of the hostel...only to find out that the flight was delayed....by 8 hours! So back to bed we went. Our flight was delayed until 3pm due to weather over the Pacific ocean, so we got to hang out on this beautiful island for another day and we were lucky to have another nice breakfast, then check into our flight at the nearby airport, grab a ``bag lunch`` from the airline and then be able to stay in the hostel yard for a few hours. The weather was beautiful. not a rain drop in sight, t-shirt and shorts weather almost...which we had not experienced since getting here.
We caught our flight at 3pm with LAN airlines, a 4.5 hour flight to Santiago. Nice meal and wine on the plane and Amanda ended up charming the flight attendant so much that he somehow gave her a bottle of red to take with her...and we`re not talking baby bottles. Too funny. Michelle sat in the middle of two aisle seats and made use of wine carts coming down both aisles...I have to say: impressive wine talents, ladies. :)
We had changed plans earlier with our Habitat team as we were supposed to get in at 2pm versus the 10pm that would now be our arrival time. So the 12 team members who were already there had their orientation and supper with the local Habitat staff and we would meet them at breakfast the next morning. All went fine and by the time we got the the hostel around 11pm, most had gone to bed. Chris and Billy, part of our team, were still up and welcomed us which was nice. We grabbed our things and found our rooms and beds around midnight. Staff seemed incredibly welcoming with the customary kiss on the cheek and big smiles when we arrived. Loving the hospitality so far!
Santiago is a large city of about 6 or 7 million people. It was dark when we got in and quite chilly, but the city looked busy and big. Our hostel had charm inside and out. Lots of colors. Most team members had triple rooms, some had doubles and Chelsea and I ended up with single rooms. They were tiny with little twin beds, but really cute with warm colors, and little TVs. TVs are seldom turned on when available on Habitat trips, but with Olympics going on, it was nice to see the little screen. As it turned out, all channels were in Spanish and we are having trouble catching much Olympic coverage...but hoping to be lucky and maybe catch a volleyball game, some track or other fun events.
So the 19 of us were now under one roof and trying to get a good night`s sleep in preparation for our first build day. Can`t wait!!!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Saturday 28th: leisure day!
Today was our first day without a `program`. We had all day just to kick around, maybe get another hike in and do some shopping. We went to the post office where they give you a cool stamp for your passport. Alex arrived on Wednesday after we did and missed the Orongo hike, so he decided to get caught up on that while the rest of us waited for him to get back and wrote journals, got caught up on blogs and journals and went our for lunch. We tried the popular and traditional sweet potatoes which are served with a Teriyaki type dipping sauce and are more like chips almost...or for those who eat at Boston Pizza: they are like the cactus fried potatoe you can get there with that hot jalapeno dip. Good! Then we walked a couple of hours up the coast again where we saw the sunset the day before. Nice hike, but gets very rocky and then has little rock walls everywhere made out of volcanic rock...so a darker version of what you would see in England or Ireland maybe. Really pretty with horses throughout and of course our arsenal of dogs following us. There were 3 regulars, and then there were another 6 or 7 that joined, and we played ``fetch the rock`` as there were no balls or toys of course and my attempt at throwing a stick earlier ended up in the dogs crouching down, so I assume sticks are not as attractive to dogs here as they are at home. :) Our rock game unfortunately ended up in the first dog fight we saw and one little guy got bitten in or through his tongue. Lots of blood...we talked about taking him to a vet and explored our options but by the time we got back into town, it seemed to look a bit better. I felt terrible as I had thrown the rock...but all ended up ok, phew.
Chelsea had seen a place earlier which we ended up choosing for supper which had an almost 5 course meal for $20US. Drink, soup, salad, meal and dessert. Again, likely a 3 hour meal and as the town had issues with electricity that day, we actually ate by candle light. Our romantic dinner a la 7 :) Nice night, we were almost upset when the power came back on.
Sunday would bring an early departure so it was a packing and getting ready night to head to Santiago, the next leg of our journey which we are super excited for as the build starts soon!!
Other Rapa Nui facts:
Chelsea had seen a place earlier which we ended up choosing for supper which had an almost 5 course meal for $20US. Drink, soup, salad, meal and dessert. Again, likely a 3 hour meal and as the town had issues with electricity that day, we actually ate by candle light. Our romantic dinner a la 7 :) Nice night, we were almost upset when the power came back on.
Sunday would bring an early departure so it was a packing and getting ready night to head to Santiago, the next leg of our journey which we are super excited for as the build starts soon!!
Other Rapa Nui facts:
- 3 schools, one public and 2 private. School day is 8-4:30pm and Fridays you get off at 1pm. Kids wear uniforms. Only the public school teaches the language of Rapa Nui which obviously many want to keep in their families versus only learning Spanish.
- $50 entry fee into the national park
- with only 6000 people living on Easter Island, people here are mostly friends and often related. So no one ever fights for long or don`t get along as it gets too awkward and I guess a bit hard to escape with the island being 11 miles across and 7 miles long. :)
- you can get water ``with gas or without gas`` and didn`t really know the difference until some had purchased it and got a surprise with the first sip...until our last day when we found out the red cap means no gas, blue is gas (aka. carbonated)
- my phone keeps trying to update the time for here and has no idea where I am. Am getting a mix of time zones depending on time or day and weather likely
- roosters make good alarm clocks, but have no snooze buttons....
July 27th..Monsoon day!
Friday
No sunrise tour today so we enjoyed a great breakfast in our hostel. We love this place, by the way: Vaianni is run by Joanna and we have double and triple rooms which area clean, have great showers, a nice inner yard, with a section that is covered so that we can use it day and night and it comes with roosters, sparrows and a cat which was quite friendly but has fleas so we are somewhat cautious about it jumping up on us...which it regularly does. We seem to also attract all kinds of dogs, one kept coming into the yard by jumping over the fence somewhere and we got into a bit of trouble for paying attention to them...they obviously love tourists and tag along for walks and even long 5 or 10k hikes. So those of ones with dogs at home felt right at home as we felt like we were taking them for walks half the time :)
We decided to hike Televaka, a volcano which was the highest at 510m. Obviously no volcanic activity here either for many, many years. We got 2 cabs which took us close to the area and started our jaunt up. I think that day's hike was bout 11k or so maybe. We figure that during the week, we hiked 10-15k a day maybe...good little practice for Machu Picchu in 3 weeks.
We walked through a nice area with some horses and made it up the hill....in the midst of it, we heard my phone ring which was in my pocket, and surprisingly I had enough reception to talk to one of my accounts in Halifax who needed something. Too funny. but kudos to the telco providers here for providing reception there whereas many other places on the island outside of the town of Hanga Roa have no reception at all. The weather started off fine but then the rain came and by the time we were almost at the top, it was like a monsoon. We had to lean into it, Amanda had a poncho around her pack and we thought that this ``cape`` may lift her right off the mountain...it was wild. I didn't want to take my good camera out, and felt my underwater camera was more appropriate for this kind of weather. Half the group went back, some of us stayed behind to look at one more hill to see if it might hold the crater...you literally couldn't see a thing and ta_do: we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the water all the way around us on the various coasts and sunshine. Weather here turns on a dime and you never know what might happen in 10 minutes.
We got back in time for another half day tour with Cecilia, our ever so popular tour guide. We saw the place where the top knots are made (those flat things that look like hats but are actually the head dress or hair of the moais). then we went to see some cool caves which are formed from volcanic tubes, I think they call them. 7 km`s long and provided shelter for many families, especially in the time of unrest which happened when the island was depleted of natural resources and families, tribes turned on one another which even ended up in cannibalism as there was no wood to build canoes so that they could fish, no wood to cook, rodents ate a lot of nuts from trees so that they could not generate etc. Really interesting history actually which changed a once thriving island to almost implode.
There are only 7 moais which face the sea, all others face inland. The 7 facing the sea sympolize 7 explorers which were sent from the Polyneasian island Hiva by a king and who actually found Rapa Nui. Likely the only ones facing the ocean as that was where they came from and to symbolize their importance in having done so. Later we went to a place called Tahai for the sunset. there are some moais closer to the water and we got some nice pics while hanging out on a field above. Very peaceful. We saw a whale way out in the ocean blowing out some water which even our guide had not seen before.Cecilia`s husband spear fishes and has seen killer whales nearby when fishing, they apparently ended up circling them. Otherwise there are no dangerous animals in the water...they get reef sharks and once in a while a somewhat skinny, likely disoriented great white will come by, but it is not a problem in the community.
We had an amazing dinner close to the water in town. we splurged as they accepted Visa. Anything from Ceviche, to tuna carpaccio to qunioa salad for Chelsea (not much choice for her at a seafood place), seafood pasta, salmon caesar salad...it was yummy. Dinner here takes about 3 hours or so and some menus will say `Fanta or Cristal` as a choice for an included drink, so beer must be about the same price as water or pop. So you can guess which one we usually drink. Cristal is a Chilean beer, quite good. The local beer here is called Mahina. They also have Corona which is $1 more usually. Not bad at all.
We walked home behind 3 teen aged boys holding a little ipod dock or something and blasting Leona Lewis. Too funny. we felt like breaking out in a flash mob..but contained ourselves.
Great day!!!
No sunrise tour today so we enjoyed a great breakfast in our hostel. We love this place, by the way: Vaianni is run by Joanna and we have double and triple rooms which area clean, have great showers, a nice inner yard, with a section that is covered so that we can use it day and night and it comes with roosters, sparrows and a cat which was quite friendly but has fleas so we are somewhat cautious about it jumping up on us...which it regularly does. We seem to also attract all kinds of dogs, one kept coming into the yard by jumping over the fence somewhere and we got into a bit of trouble for paying attention to them...they obviously love tourists and tag along for walks and even long 5 or 10k hikes. So those of ones with dogs at home felt right at home as we felt like we were taking them for walks half the time :)
We decided to hike Televaka, a volcano which was the highest at 510m. Obviously no volcanic activity here either for many, many years. We got 2 cabs which took us close to the area and started our jaunt up. I think that day's hike was bout 11k or so maybe. We figure that during the week, we hiked 10-15k a day maybe...good little practice for Machu Picchu in 3 weeks.
We walked through a nice area with some horses and made it up the hill....in the midst of it, we heard my phone ring which was in my pocket, and surprisingly I had enough reception to talk to one of my accounts in Halifax who needed something. Too funny. but kudos to the telco providers here for providing reception there whereas many other places on the island outside of the town of Hanga Roa have no reception at all. The weather started off fine but then the rain came and by the time we were almost at the top, it was like a monsoon. We had to lean into it, Amanda had a poncho around her pack and we thought that this ``cape`` may lift her right off the mountain...it was wild. I didn't want to take my good camera out, and felt my underwater camera was more appropriate for this kind of weather. Half the group went back, some of us stayed behind to look at one more hill to see if it might hold the crater...you literally couldn't see a thing and ta_do: we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the water all the way around us on the various coasts and sunshine. Weather here turns on a dime and you never know what might happen in 10 minutes.
We got back in time for another half day tour with Cecilia, our ever so popular tour guide. We saw the place where the top knots are made (those flat things that look like hats but are actually the head dress or hair of the moais). then we went to see some cool caves which are formed from volcanic tubes, I think they call them. 7 km`s long and provided shelter for many families, especially in the time of unrest which happened when the island was depleted of natural resources and families, tribes turned on one another which even ended up in cannibalism as there was no wood to build canoes so that they could fish, no wood to cook, rodents ate a lot of nuts from trees so that they could not generate etc. Really interesting history actually which changed a once thriving island to almost implode.
There are only 7 moais which face the sea, all others face inland. The 7 facing the sea sympolize 7 explorers which were sent from the Polyneasian island Hiva by a king and who actually found Rapa Nui. Likely the only ones facing the ocean as that was where they came from and to symbolize their importance in having done so. Later we went to a place called Tahai for the sunset. there are some moais closer to the water and we got some nice pics while hanging out on a field above. Very peaceful. We saw a whale way out in the ocean blowing out some water which even our guide had not seen before.Cecilia`s husband spear fishes and has seen killer whales nearby when fishing, they apparently ended up circling them. Otherwise there are no dangerous animals in the water...they get reef sharks and once in a while a somewhat skinny, likely disoriented great white will come by, but it is not a problem in the community.
We had an amazing dinner close to the water in town. we splurged as they accepted Visa. Anything from Ceviche, to tuna carpaccio to qunioa salad for Chelsea (not much choice for her at a seafood place), seafood pasta, salmon caesar salad...it was yummy. Dinner here takes about 3 hours or so and some menus will say `Fanta or Cristal` as a choice for an included drink, so beer must be about the same price as water or pop. So you can guess which one we usually drink. Cristal is a Chilean beer, quite good. The local beer here is called Mahina. They also have Corona which is $1 more usually. Not bad at all.
We walked home behind 3 teen aged boys holding a little ipod dock or something and blasting Leona Lewis. Too funny. we felt like breaking out in a flash mob..but contained ourselves.
Great day!!!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
July 26th, Moais at Sunrise
Thursday,
Susanne reporting for blog duty...
Our first full day in Easter Island started early as we were trying to make the sunrise at the Ahu Tongariki, the largest shrine of the island with 15 statues which are all in a row in a beautiful spot at the water. After a fairly decent sleep, only interrupted by torrential downpours overnight (usual for this time of year) and roosters in the morning, we made our way with our tour guide Cecilia who took care of us for today and also a half tour the next day. Cecilia was half Rapa Nui and half American with perfect English as she lived in the States most of her life and then got settled here after becoming a Mom to 3 little kids. She couldn't have been more than mid to late 20`s and obviously knew her way around the land and people.
We got the shrine in the dark around 6:45 or so and waited for light and it was amazing to see the statues appear in the morning light. We spent an hour or so taking pics and taking in the scenery and continued on our way to see several sights for the day. Next was the volcanic cone Rano Raraku where almost all moai were carved. Almost 400 different statues are around, showing different steps of carving. It would take about a year to make one and they were basically carved into the volcanic rock, face up, then slid down and then the theories differ how these statues, up to 70 or 80 tons in weight made it to their final destination, as far as 10-15 km`s or so away. Theories now say, they were stood up and ``walked`` upright as ropes held them. All face the land versus ocean except for some we`ll see later.
The moai quarry or ``factory`` was amazing....the fact that a number of moai were literally left just when they seemed ready to be moved. From the quarry, we went up a hill to also look at a place where they held triathlons including running around the crater`s edge barefoot, swim across the crater lake and then run around again holding banana plants etc. The competition was held centuries ago and is now held once a year to uphold the tradition. We also saw the magnetic stone also called the bellybutton of the world which is actually a meteorite and is magnetic so if you put a compass on the top, it works correctly. Anywhere else on the stone the compass needle spins around ``confused`` which was neat to see.
Then we went on to a beach Anakena which is packed during summer months. It also had some moais, most with the traditional red hair knots called ``pukao``. The beach was beautiful and some folks were in the water. I think we would have gone in if we had bathing suits with us. Weather is so strange here....not cold but damp and rainy off and on, so that you are constantly changing clothes and layering even though it is likely 20 degrees. We had empanadas for lunch, the Easter island fast food it seems (around $5 or so) and then went out for a nice dinner later, accompanied by wine which was also continued in our backyard when back at the hostel. Fun night but I bet we were in bed by 10pm or so. Days are packed, long and even though the time difference is only 3 hours or so for us who are used to AST, all the activity and the hiking had us craving a good night`s sleep.
Some Easter island facts:
Our first full day in Easter Island started early as we were trying to make the sunrise at the Ahu Tongariki, the largest shrine of the island with 15 statues which are all in a row in a beautiful spot at the water. After a fairly decent sleep, only interrupted by torrential downpours overnight (usual for this time of year) and roosters in the morning, we made our way with our tour guide Cecilia who took care of us for today and also a half tour the next day. Cecilia was half Rapa Nui and half American with perfect English as she lived in the States most of her life and then got settled here after becoming a Mom to 3 little kids. She couldn't have been more than mid to late 20`s and obviously knew her way around the land and people.
We got the shrine in the dark around 6:45 or so and waited for light and it was amazing to see the statues appear in the morning light. We spent an hour or so taking pics and taking in the scenery and continued on our way to see several sights for the day. Next was the volcanic cone Rano Raraku where almost all moai were carved. Almost 400 different statues are around, showing different steps of carving. It would take about a year to make one and they were basically carved into the volcanic rock, face up, then slid down and then the theories differ how these statues, up to 70 or 80 tons in weight made it to their final destination, as far as 10-15 km`s or so away. Theories now say, they were stood up and ``walked`` upright as ropes held them. All face the land versus ocean except for some we`ll see later.
The moai quarry or ``factory`` was amazing....the fact that a number of moai were literally left just when they seemed ready to be moved. From the quarry, we went up a hill to also look at a place where they held triathlons including running around the crater`s edge barefoot, swim across the crater lake and then run around again holding banana plants etc. The competition was held centuries ago and is now held once a year to uphold the tradition. We also saw the magnetic stone also called the bellybutton of the world which is actually a meteorite and is magnetic so if you put a compass on the top, it works correctly. Anywhere else on the stone the compass needle spins around ``confused`` which was neat to see.
Then we went on to a beach Anakena which is packed during summer months. It also had some moais, most with the traditional red hair knots called ``pukao``. The beach was beautiful and some folks were in the water. I think we would have gone in if we had bathing suits with us. Weather is so strange here....not cold but damp and rainy off and on, so that you are constantly changing clothes and layering even though it is likely 20 degrees. We had empanadas for lunch, the Easter island fast food it seems (around $5 or so) and then went out for a nice dinner later, accompanied by wine which was also continued in our backyard when back at the hostel. Fun night but I bet we were in bed by 10pm or so. Days are packed, long and even though the time difference is only 3 hours or so for us who are used to AST, all the activity and the hiking had us craving a good night`s sleep.
Some Easter island facts:
- very bumpy roads
- dogs everywhere, but friendly, well fed and super friendly
- meals not cheap at restaurants
- 2 medallion``120``Chilean wine about $6 or so a bottle..we finished the whole row of bottles at the Supermercado....
- conversion from Chilean pesos to US dollars works like this: pretty well drop 3 zeros and double. i.e. 9000 Chilean pesos is about $20US
- the seafood here is delicious. `ceviche`might be my new favorite dish: raw fish (often tuna) served in small cubes with cut up tomatoes, onion, avocados and some spices with lemon juice over top. soooo good!
- gas is about $1.50 a litre
- most big things come by ship, 3 cargo ships a month. everything by plane is about $3 a kilo. the islands need everything to be brought in, as they only grow a few things like pineapple, sweet potatoes, papaya, banana etc. very dependent on Chilean goods to be brought in.
- they have Lays chips (only regular, about $4 or so) and really scary looking chip puffs which had 3 or 4 colours showing on the bag...so we stayed away
- Nescafe for breakfast...Mom, you`d be proud: am drinking your favorite coffee every day!
- Internet is unfortunately not the most reliable and super slow...so hang tight until we get to Chile and we can hopefully upload pictures, too.
- horses pretty well run wild here...otherwise a little light on wildlife after last year`s safari...we DID see a field mouse! :)
Thursday, July 26, 2012
It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Birdman!
Well, kind of! ;) 28 hours after leaving Canadian soil we arrived on Easter Island yesterday! After checking into our hostel we decided to do a little sightseeing around THE town (yes, most everyone on the island, all 5000 people, live in Hanga Roa). The entire island is only 58km and aside from the landing strip and one main street, the rest of the island is a national park. We headed down to the coast and saw our first moai standing tall beside the ocean- quite a sight!
From there we got a little adventurous and decided to hike the Orongo Trail up to one of the 3 volcanic craters that shaped the island. It's also where the historical Birdman competition took place! In ancient times, the tribes on the island would hold a competition to see which tribe would have control. One man from each tribe had to race down the side of a cliff and swim across to an island on a long thing made of straw through strong currents and big surf. They had to retrieve a particular bird egg from the island, swim back, and scale back up the cliffside to win control for that year. Its beautiful up there but it's awfully windy- luckily the wind was blowing us away from the crater! Pictures to come!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The best journeys are not always in straight lines
In less than a week we will be on our way to South America! We'll be zig-zagging across the "Southern Cone" by leaving Halifax on July 24th and flying through Newark and Lima before landing on Easter Island where we will spend a few days hiking the island and scoping out the moais. From there it's over to Santiago, Chile where we will be meeting our awesome Habitat team for a two week build full of hardwork and fun. Then it's on to the last leg of our journey in Cuzco, Peru where we will be doing a four day climb up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!
We're excited and can't wait for the adventure to begin! We hope you enjoy following our travels and remember, we love to hear from you too so leave us comments on the blog!
Adios amigos!
We're excited and can't wait for the adventure to begin! We hope you enjoy following our travels and remember, we love to hear from you too so leave us comments on the blog!
Adios amigos!
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