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!!!
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