The Dawn of a New Day on Rapa Nui

Monday, March 14, 2016 WTRD 66

Kake told us that sunrise was at 6:30 the following morning, so we decided to leave at 5:45 to give ourselves enough time to drive to the east side of the island.  Well, it turned out sunrise wasn't until almost 8:00!  Just an hour and a half early.  It was pitch black when we arrived and there was no lighting except for the stars.

With our cell phones and flash lights we made our way in the direction the park gate keeper had pointed.  The morning was cool, we could hear the surf.  The Milky Way was spectacular and we got to enjoy it for nearly an hour before the inky blackness of the night sky started to grey up as the sun started its ascent.  

There were low clouds on the horizon obscuring the sun's rise, and while the colors were not spectacular, the emergence of the Moais against the dawn was impressive.  

We spent a good part of the dawn moving about trying to get photographic angles and experiencing the spectacle of a new day from different perspectives.

We returned to our cabanas just before the end of breakfast service at 10:00 am.  After our coffee, breads, cheese, jams, and fruits, we took off again for the day.  We had already been awake for 6:00 hours.

We visited caves with indigenous art, 

fishing villages, 

Unlucky sailors ran aground

Unforgiving coast line

and an extinct volcanic crater, Orongo where bio-diversity thrives in the sweet water and the flora is protected from wind, and salt spray.  

Always in Awe of our Beautiful Earth

It is unknown, but estimated, that the Rapa Nui were part of the Polynesian migration around 800 CE.  These water travelers founded civilizations in the the Marqueses, Tuomotus, Society, Cook, Tongan, New Zealand,  and Hawaiian Islands. The people who came to Rapa Nui were the outer edge of the south eastedn migration.  It is not known whether this was an intentional navigation or one blown off course.

Either way, the people who came here with their king, landed in an environment that was remote from other islands, and not hospitable for sailors or protected by barrier reefs.  The winds, surf, and currents were deterrents from returning in the direction from which they came.  In the beginning, the natural resources for the small number that came to the island were abundant for survival, but were limited.  There were no mammals except rats that inadvertently escaped with them when they sought a new place to live.  There were birds and fish and trees.

As the population expanded, sons and daughters moved to different areas of the island.  There were numerous chiefs and villages.  Each village had its Ahu to memorialize their dead chief.  Initially, the statues were small, but as the communities grew and thrived, there was more time for art, petroglyphs, cave paintings, and the statues grew bigger.  

Village chiefs raised chickens and chickens were payment for working on the Moais.

Chicken house (cave) 

Chickens were rocked in at night, protected from thieves, and kept warm

Eventually, though, all but one of the natural resources of the island could not sustain the population.  Wood from trees had been used for making boats, cooking fires,  (perhaps moving the moais on rollers and housing).  Without the forest providing evaporation to make clouds, the rains became sparse, and the vegetation and flora dried.  The birds had been eaten, there was no wood to build boats to fish or migrate elsewhere.  The only remaining resource was rocks, lots of rocks.  Even the chicken houses were ingeniously made of rocks.

As resources dwindled, chickens were stolen.  Without chickens, life would cease.  Villages allied themselves with neighboring villages and became clans, warring clans over remaining resources.  People died from war and starvation.  Only the strongest survived and a new small population and organizational structure emerged, that of the Bird Man.

We visited the area of the new order.  The Bird men were fierce athletic competitors, scaling rock walls, swimming long distances through the surf to collect eggs from nearby islands.  Often the competition resulted in death or being a winner.  It reminded us of the Hunger games.

After a busy morning, we returned to town, got our passports stamped at the post office, ate lunch, and got back on the road to visit another Ahu and set of Moais.  

We brought the car back to our Cabana by 5:00, cleaned up, drank wine with our new friends, and all went to dinner and dance show in town.  On our way to Chile, we sat next to the owner of the best restaurant/dinner show in town. Consequently, we got front row seats for the show.

 The dinner was delicious too.  By 10;00 pm we were dead on our feet.  It was time to turn the lights out.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Rapa Nui - The Rise and Fall of a Civilization Built on Rocks by Rocks

March 13, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 65 (continued)

Sunday, March 13, 2016 - Afternoon

We arrived on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) at 12:50 in the afternoon, after a five hour flight from Santiago to Hanga Roa.

Hanga Roa is on the Southwest side of the island.  The air strip is very long and was built by the US as an alternative landing site for the space shuttle.  The shuttle never had to land here, but the strip can accommodate the 787 Dreamliner (which we were on), and has been a boon for tourism on this small island.

After collecting our luggage, we and two other American travelers, Kathleen (Seattle) and Angie (Oxnard) both retired United customer service agents were presented with leis as a welcome and transported to the Cabanas Vianni by our host Kake. (Pronounced cake eh).  We presented Kake with the donuts which she happily received.

New West Coast Friends, Kathleen and Angie

Kake in the Middle

We got settled quickly in our rooms and returned to reception to strategically plan what and how we we going to see all that we wanted in 2.5 days, this being the .5 of the days.  Russ and I decided to rent a car and invited Kathleen and Angie, both intrepid and fun spirits, to join us for days 1.5.  Kake arranged for a car to be delivered to the guesthouse at 7:00 pm.  We would have the 4 door jeep for 24 hours so that we could watch the sunset on the west side of the island tonight, sunrise on the east side of the island the following day, and have a full day of sight seeing on our own.

Before the car arrived, we walked downtown for a late lunch or early dinner in the late afternoon.  We picked a little restaurant at the minute harbor on the point.  Rapa Nui lacks a protective barrier reef.  There are only a few small bays that accommodate fishing boats.

All other boats must anchor offshore.  It's a dangerous place to anchor as the waves can become quite large and if the wind changes from offshore to onshore, sailors can easily find themselves being pummeled against the rocky shoreline.

Two sailboats were anchored offshore and we were glad not to be one of them.  We enjoyed watching the waves come crashing in and the surfers catching waves that were breaking too close to the rocks for a long ride.  Most of the rides looked short and deadly.  

The waves were coming in sets.  After the biggest wave in the set, the harbor calmed down for about three waves, where fishing boats and sailor's dinghies could get through the surf to the open water.

The smell of the ocean, the warm trade winds, and tropical flowers flooded us with memories.  As the sun got lower in the sky, we headed back to the cabana to pick up the car and head out to Tahai to watch the sunset behind the monolithic statues that have captured the imagination of so many people around the world.  These statues are call  Moais.  Each represents a dead village chief.  Long platforms of rock  (ahus) are built near the sea, and the memorial statue of the chief faces away from the sea towards the people.  Statues are believe to hold an inner spirit or manna of strength and survival.

We sat on a green grassy area drinking wine as the shadows of the Moai grew longer and the sky began to burn with the setting sun.

It was magical watching the sun set as it has done for billions of years, here and with the ancient Rapa Nui with the Moais looking down on us. Rapa Nui are not as old as the earth and sun.  It is believed they migrated here around 800 CE. We were in the presence of the ancestors.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel Rs on Easter Island

Santiago and Flight to Easter Island, Chile

March 11-13, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 63-65

On Friday, March 11, our AirBnB Host Algae, picked us up at 7:30 am for a ride to the airport.  We had plenty of time, so we were not to worried when we got into heavy traffic despite the shortcuts, Algae was taking, but then we came to almost a standstill, and our 20 minute ride was taking an hour or more.  We turned on the radio and learned the airport road was closed due to some sort of protest.

Seems like in Argentina and BraZil, there is always some sort of protest. We were expecting one on March 13, but not today.  Our driver was getting visibly nervous as we were, but if no one was getting to the airport, the flights would have to be delayed.  Just as Algae was going to find an alternative route to get us to a taxi stand close to the airport (thinking taxies might get through the blockade), an announcement on the radio indicated that the blockade had been lifted.

It was a little tight, but we made our flight to Santiago, Chili.  Bernardito, our new AirBnB host picked us up after and easy pass through immigration and customs.  We were expecting to pay a reciprocity fee at immigration, and were delighted to find out that just seven days earlier the USA and Chile came to an agreement rescinding the reciprocity fee that would have been about $130.00 each.  Good timing for us!

Bernardito, Bernie, lives in a duplex in the suburban area of Santiago, across from the mounted police academy....a very safe neighborhood.  She has her own drapery and home textile business that she operates out of her home.  Our bedroom, had beautiful handmade draperies, bed covers, shower covers, and enhanced white brocade Egyptian cotton sheets.

It has been a bit of challenge for us communicating because of our limited Spanish and Bernie's limited English, but we are laughing a lot and using the translator.  We watched a daily 4 hour soap opera with her for about 1 hour.  It was a good way too try and learn a little soap opera Spanish with her translator.

Saturday, March 12, 2016, WTRD 64

With some assistance and guidance from Bernardito, Russ and I took the subway into downtown Santiago, and spent the day seeing some of the historic sights,

downtown area,

government plaza,

central plaza with entertainment and children playing in the fountains and park

and street performers,

Santa Ana Cathedral,

pedestrian market streets,

and the fish and agricultural market.

We ate dinner at the central market.  Russ had salmon in a cream sauce with something fishy in the sauce (not a pleasant surprise for him) and I had scampi swimming in garlic butter.  It was a good, but not the best meal we've ever eaten....maybe a little too much butter and fishy taste for us.

After our late meal, we returned to Bernie's and spent the rest of the day  catching up on photo editing, computer backup and repacking our luggage.  We will be returning here in 4 day visit to Easter Island.  We are taking one small checked bag and two small backpacks, leaving the rest at Bernie's.

Sunday, March 13, 2016 WTRD 65

As we had pre-arranged with Bernie the night before, we got ourselves and ready for breakfast by 6:30.  She is taking us to the airport at 7:10.  We are supposed to present ourselves 3 hours before the flight.  This seems a little early, but after our last flight and the protest, we wanted to give ourselves a wide margin.  We woke up at 5:45 and went downstairs at 6:30.  It was dark.  Where was Bernie?  We heard her bedroom door open and she came out with her phone.  It said 5:30.  Oh no!  Time changed last night.  We are an hour too early.  Well that widens the margin even more.

Bernie comes downstairs in about 10 minutes.  By that time, both Russ and I have had a chance to turn on our computers and phone.  Weird, our clocks are still behind.  I google what time is it in Santiago?  6:45  Turns out that Chile's last daylight savings time was in 2015.  This year there is no falling back, except Bernie's cell phone isn't programmed for the recent political change.  Haha!  The margin narrows again. Nevertheless, we make it to the airport an hour and a half before our flight.  

I am glad we have checked in on line.  We only need to go to a kiosk get our boarding pass, then drop our bags.  The bag drop line is 20 times shorter than the hoards of people standing in the check-in line.  Security is long too, but we get through and still have 20 minutes before the plane boards.  There is a Dunkin Donuts at our gate.  We can't resist, and buy 1/2 dozen to take to our Easter Island Hosts.  We're betting dollars to donuts there isn't a Dunkin there.

So now we are 40,000 feet in the air, on our way to Easter Island.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's Flying High!

So Long Brazil

Thank you Luiz for being such an outstanding person and guide!

March 9-10, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 61-62

Our time in Brazil is essentially over.  We leave tomorrow, March 11 for Santiago,  Chile from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Today is a kickback and transition day.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday) Luis picked us up at 4:30 in the morning (we were up by 3:30 a.m.)  We said our goodbyes to Luis at 5:00 am at the embarkation entrance of the airport.  We were airborne by 6:30, out of the Amazon and to Sao Paulo.  We took a taxi to an Airbnb not too far from the airport and right across from a large shopping mall by 1:00 pm.  

Having not had breakfast and only a light snack on the plane, we headed over to the shopping mall where we intended to eat at the food court, but the Outback Steak House looked much more inviting.  We had a tasty, carb-loaded lunch, and a couple of beers.  Russ got a haircut, we made a quick stop at the supermarket for dinner snacks, and breakfast food, went back to the apartment, showered, and took naps.

When we woke late evening, we chatted over snacks, and a game of cards.  We all had a wonderful time together and built some strong memories of our experience.  Archie leaves for Rio tomorrow where he will spend one night before heading stateside.  We leave the following day and fly to Santiago for one night, before flying to Easter Island.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

After breakfast while I stayed at the apartment, Russ and Archie walked back to the mall.  Archie wanted a haircut and both of them wanted to use the internet.  The Internet server for our apartment is not functioning and probably will not get fixed during our stay.  Consequently, we are forced to the Mall's free Wifi service.  The guys came back around at noon to pick me up, and we walked back for lunch and some very frustrating Wifi time again at the mall, particularly as we needed to get mail, send mail, post blogs, and check flight, taxi and other stuff for our trips.  The long and short of it, we got very little done with a lot of grief.

Archie left by taxi at 3:30.  Since everyone else got a haircut, I decided to trim my hair as well.  I worked on the front and sides, and Russ took care of the back. 

Guess what?   We are back at the mall, still trying to make wifi connections.  Russ and his computer are doing well.  My Ipad is having issues with the "not secure" free wifi is balking at every step.  Grrrr!

Our Airbnb host is driving us to the Airport in the morning at 7:30.  Tomorrow, we will be in transit most of the day.  

I will try to post photos to go with the blogs in Chile if we have some working internet.  Right now from here, posting photos seems like a monumental task, when I can barely get my email text to go through.

So that's it for now.  

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in Brazil.