Tag: Chile

Santiago Chile to Guayaquil 1/22/2017 Su

The Ritz Carlton in Santiago upgraded our room to a junior suite. That meant that we got an extra set of chairs and a coffee table in the room. We arrived too late last night to enjoy the desserts and the after dinner drinks in the lounge, but we got breakfast this morning! This is a better picture of the honey comb. The honey dripped down, and you used the wooden tool to drizzle honey on your croissant or bowl of oatmeal.Aren’t these flowers in the lobby gorgeous?

We didn’t get much sleep last night as the temperature in our room never got below 23 C, which is 73.4 F. We usually like it best when the room is 67 or less.

We are off to visit the winery in Casablanca. I think that Rick and Ilsa have already departed.

9:30 is a great time to arrive. No one else is here.

We got to look at unripe grapes.

Also some grapes that looked more ripe. I didn’t try to eat any as there were guards everywhere.

Here is our guide JP with the crazy hands trying to explain something to Steve. Steve is just going “uh huh, uh huh. If you say so.”.

I was busy watching the marching ants going off it both directions.

This was in the gift shop. I thought it was pretty cool. You put it in your bottle of white wine and it automatically chills the wine as you pour. It’s great if you forgot to chill your white wine and you need some chilled white wine ASAP! I guess you could be a peasant and just throw some ice cubes in it!

Our table was all set up for our tasting.

Five glasses of wine at ten in the morning. Oh My.

First up were two wines from the Ritual line.

Next were from the Primus line.

This was our last bottle. It is their flagship brand. It is named in honor of the indigenous people, The Mapuche.

We were given snacks to eat with the wine. I ate the cheese and chocolate. Chopped liver or headcheese are things that I won’t eat. I don’t eat innards. We have a friend M, who is now a vegetarian. When she did eat meat, her favorite dish growing up was liver and onions. Can you imagine? Well if you are M, you can!

Here is our beautiful wine instructor.

You can see that I didn’t drink much. Steve did. Or wine instructor either caught Steve in mid blink or he is besotted with me! Or in other words a “love fog”.

James Suckling really liked their wine.

This is where some of the packing took place. We had a tasting, not a tour. If you want to goo on a tour you will have to read the rest of this blog post.

We had never tried Carmenere before we stayed at Coyhaique. We liked it very much.

The vineyards grow halfway up the hillside.

Let’s check out our next winery, shall we? Vina Casas Del Bosque. But you already knew that as all of you can read!

Steve looks like he owns this place doesn’t he?

Steve fell in love with this chair, and thought that I would look amazingly cute in it. I think that it is wonderful that he still finds me cute. Now if he found me adorable that would be even better as I would likely get away with more nonsense then! I stayed very still so that he could center me in the frame. If the subject is not moving he does very well with his picture taking. Steve didn’t even get his fingers in the picture!

I know many people that would like this coffee cup.

We joined a tour already in progress. We started after the guide talked about the grapes.

Everyone had a good laugh when we realized our tour guide was not saying “Friendship Barrels”, but “French Oak Barrels”! Did you know that China, Japan and Korea are the largest consumers of Chilean wines? Now you do!
“

Here is wine being aged in the barrels. There was something important to know about the red lines on the barrels. I did for about twenty seconds, and then promptly forgot. Maybe you should go on the tour next time, and remember for me. Steve’s expression is “Enough already, let’s try some wine!”.

You can see the wood chucks holding the barrels in place. During the last earthquake there was some damage to the winery. I will allow you one guess as to what is being stored in this barrel.

We are ready for the wine tasting. Those are neither my legs, nor Steve’s

This is our new friend G from Canada. She is trying to determine if she liked this wine. G and D flew into Santiago from Toronto to go on a cruise form Valparaiso around the tip of South America. They are with five other couples that belong to a curling club.

G was very much in thought regarding this wine. G and D couldn’t get on their ship until late afternoon as the ship had to undergo deep cleaning due to the presence of a Norovirus on the last sailing. We had a lot of fun hearing about the cruises that they had been on. They advised us to start with a river cruise, and if we like that go on a bigger ship. Steve does not want to cruise until he is every older and more decrepit. I must admit that now a few years have passed since we were on this trip and my body is decrepit enough to go on a cruise.

Here is D examining the wine’s color. It looked red to me. D drank all his wine.

Our tasting package only allowed us to sample three wines. These were the yellow buttons we were given.

D and G had ordered the deluxe package tour and got five wines to sample! I will miss D and G, they were a lot of fun.Lots of empty glasses after our tasting!

Our Canadian friends hopped on their bus and we went to have lunch at the winery.

A fried bread with cheese inside on the left. Chilean rolls on the right. They were very hard.

Next up was a fried shrimp brie and nuts on a green salad. The waiter would always ask us ten minutes after we got our food if we wanted fresh ground pepper.

Three French fries, and a little filet with a fried egg on top.

My wines with lunch, their level didn’t change much.

Dessert was lavender Creme brûlée.

I thought you might want a closeup of the chocolate branch. I am not sure if it is hard to make or not.

Finally espressso and a little sweet. I promptly spilled my espresso all over after I took this picture!

At the end of the meal the waiter was there quick as a button with a big smile to tell us that tip was not included in the prepaid lunch.

On our way out we saw another bus load of tourists arrive for their wine tour.

Good bye wine tour, and one last crazy pose for Chile!

At one of the toll stations on the super highway there were peddlers selling stuff. Water, candy, soda, and food. Peddling is not allowed, but people love the convenience.

The peddlers would place their wares on the concrete and you would tell them what you wanted.

Sandwiches and in his hidden hand horse jerky.

Before we knew it we were at the airport in Santiago.

At the duty free shop, I found these bottles of Pisco. I wonder if I will find them in Poughkeepsie!

Will I be able to find these in the local liquor store?

When I saw this lady in the line at the airport I thought she was topless at first. No, just in need of a good bra.

Premium Economy on LAN from Santiago to Guayaquil is an empty seat between you and your seat mate.

Good bye Santiago mountains through the haze. Good by JP and your crazy hands!

Hello clouds that look like a snowbank.

Pork, pumpkin risotto, salad and gooseberry mousse.

Our flight path, the trip would take us about four hours.

Sunset in the air.

Somewhere above Guayaquil, Ecuador.

This map will give you a recap of our travels so far. We flew from NYC to Santiago, Balmaceda, Puerto Montt, Santiago, Isla de Pascua(Easter Island), Santiago and then to Guayaquil where we have just landed. We then fly to Galapagos, Guayaquil and then home.

Are you old and decrepit?

Would you rather drink three glasses of wine or five?

What size suite do you prefer, junior, one bedroom, or Presidential?

Easter Island, Chile 1/21/2017 Sa

Good morning from Easter Island!

Saturday morning and the chefs are busy in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

This will be our last day on Easter Island. We will fly to Santiago tonight, go to some wineries in the morning tomorrow and then fly to Guayaquil, Ecuador in the late afternoon. Then we fly the next day to the Galapagos. But enough of the future, let’s hear about what we did today.

Instead of more hikes, we asked to go look around the main town on the island. I will show you the highlights.

This is the Catholic Church. Most of the Islanders are Catholics. There was also a small Seventh Day Adventist Church in town. That was a small dog sleeping on the steps.

I asked if we had time to look inside the grocery store.

The market was small, about the size of a convenience store. I think most of the vegetables were grown on the island. You can bet that the ice cream and Lay’s potato chips were flown in from the mainland!

This is the post office, we would go here to get our passports stamped.At the post office you could get your passport stamped. Easter Island is not a separate country, but they do have a cool stamp! Many people were selling locally grown vegetables and fruits.

Here are ads for a dance performance in town. We didn’t go. Had we gone we would have seen lots of muscular men smeared with oil. Steve could have seen women with costumes barely attached. Maybe next time!

We passed by the boat launch. We had originally hoped to go on a fishing trip to catch fish like the islanders in the traditional style, but it was too windy. Although, had we gone fishing this morning I would have missed my grocery store.

There were beautiful pineapples for sale on the street.

In the gift shop I had to prevent Steve from buying a Moai. They were very expensive, about $300-800! They were also very heavy. Not to mention that these Moai, unlike the Moai on the island had penises. No, that is not a beer keg tap on the Moai in the back of the photo!

If it weren’t too heavy to travel with, the coral eye would have been pretty cool as a paper weight.

Steve liked the duck.

In the gift shop they had the DVD from last year’s contest for sale. This was not Lilly our guide for several days, she won the contest years earlier.

These Moai carvings looked pretty interesting. I told Steve that he could display them in Lake George but not in Poughkeepsie. We didn’t buy anything. We had arranged to have massages before our next two days of airplane flights and car rides. It was pretty magical listening to the rain during the massage. Lunch was a turkey and cheese on a baguette. This was the best salad at lunch, all baby greens and no escarole. I hate escarole! Outside the airport flower leis were being sold to put on arriving guests. Good bye fake Moai! This guy was all garbed out for hiding in the gardens!

Steve is wearing the necklace that we got from Explora. It was made from shells. When we get home we will probably throw it in a junk drawer and forget it. Then we will pull it out in five years when we do a cleaning purge and wonder where we got it. Good bye Easter Island airport!

Steve had a Pisco Sour and I drank water. It’s five o’clock somewhere isn’t it? Good bye Easter Island! I called these Moai clouds! Dinner on the plane, the beef was tough and the cake overly sweet.

After we landed we were met by JP and our driver and whisked off to the Ritz Carlton in Santiago. Did you know that there was a two hour time difference between Easter Island and the mainland? That’s what happens when you are on a five hour flight!

JP told me that the shirt that I had left in the hotel in Valparaiso was found. However it would have cost us $50 US to have it sent to us. We said “No thank you.” I was hoping that JP would have been able to pick it up at the hotel and keep it for us until today as he goes to Valparaiso every day from Santiago to give tours. We were given an option of getting up an hour earlier to pick it up before our adventures tomorrow but I treasure an hour of sleep more than the shirt.

Do you prefer Lays or Wise potato chips?

Do you prefer male bodies oiled or natural?

Do you have junk in your junk drawer?

Easter Island, Chile 1/20/2017 F

Another beautiful day begins.

Today we are going to visit Ahu Akivi.

Ahu Akivi is said to represent the seven men who first came to Rapa Nui. It is very interesting to note that the seven are all of equal size and shape. It is also a celestial observatory, that was set up in the 16th century. They exactly face the sunset during the spring equinox and their backs face the sunrise during the autumnal equinox! You can see the cement where the heads were reattached.

Here is a baby pineapple!

Our first hike of the day was to a lava tube, Anu Te Pahu. Have you ever been in a lava tube before? Well come along.

These horses along the path were quite healthy.

With all the recent rains the path was quite muddy.

The cave is hidden by the trees and the banana plants. Bananas do not grow on trees as the plant has no woody tissue!

The cave was used as a dwelling place for the early people. It was also used during the tribal wars and a hiding place during the raiding for slaves.

Down we go! This is the largest cave on the island. There are several interconnected chambers totaling a length of seven kilometers. It was damp. Water was dipping down from the ceiling. Lilli drank the water and said that we could to, as it had been purified by going through so many layers of basalt rock. I didn’t want to risk any indigestion of any kind, and passed on the opportunity. Ah, the end of the tunnel appeared. I was so happy to see the end of the tunnel. We could have gone further through the tunnel and seen the ocean through lava windows, but I knew that we had to return and would have another hike in the afternoon. Yay! Steve came out right behind me. We had to use a flash light on our walk in the cave, and the flash light app on Lilli’s phone. The sharp lava rocks made the hike very difficult. I was hot, tired and sweaty and we still had to hike a long way to get to the van. Lilli found a sweater left by a guide on a previous walk. She was bringing it back to where we had left our van. The path was really muddy and slippery. I never fell completely in the mud, nor partially, but it was tough going in a number of spots. You can see the guava fruit growing on the tree in this picture.

Lilli showed us a guava. The horses love to eat them.

They were easy for Lilli to twist open. My sneakers were a mess, along with my pants of course. Good thing there was a shoe cleaning station back at Explora!

I am wearing one of Elliott’s old fishing shirts, as I left my white one on the white bed in Valparaiso, I was happy to have this one! I felt as bedraggled as I looked!

We got back in the van and traveled to see…More Moai! You were not allowed to go past the markers as the ground is sacred. These guys might have had a story but i forgot what it was.

Here is Steve studying the two Moai. This site was restored in 1974.

This one got really eroded over time.

He is the only Moai on the island with coral eyes. The eyes are a restoration. Don’t the coral eyes make him really seem alive? He also has the top knot. He is called Ahu Ko Te Riku.

Didn’t Lilli take a great picture of us? Someone’s keeping an eye on us!

You can see the crane in the distance unloading goods to be brought to Easter Island.This picture has all the Moai in it. On our way to town we passed by a cemetery. If you didn’t have much money you could go camping. Remember me telling you about the richest man on the island? He owns this car rental agency. He also rents mopeds and motorcycles.

We drove into town and saw this Moai. I had mentioned in a previous post about the festival that was going to be held in a few weeks. Part of the preparations was erecting a painted Moai.

Lilli is explaining to Steve that it is made of concrete. Lilli said he would be painted yellow, the color that the original Moai were painted.

This shows the coloring a little bit better. It will be quite dramatic when it is finished!

I was hoping that I didn’t get the van too dirty. I really was a mess!

Soon we were back at Explora and it was time for lunch.

Minced vegetable tortellini.

Creme anglaise with caramel for our dessert! Yum, yum!

Since our next hike wasn’t until four, we decided to have massages.

Too bad you close your eyes during your massage. The view was really nice. The massage therapist played native music. It was a blissful afternoon!This is the way back to our room where we got ready to go on our afternoon hike.

Now it is time for you to learn about top knots, or pukao. What are those strange things on top of the Moai? They are pukao, the top knots. How did they get up there?

Puna Pau was the quarry where the top knots were from. The stones were cut and then rolled to the site where they were carved and then erected onto the Moai. There are several different viewpoints on how it was done.

A Chinese group joined us at the site. They do love to do the crazy photos!

Here is our guide Stephen telling Steve the story of how the top knots are created. Believe it or not, but Stephen stayed with an uncle in Saugerties for a year. Saugerties is about an hour northwest of us! More information regarding the pukao. This is how some of the archeologists believe how the top knots were placed on top of the Moai. We headed back to the van and passed by many top knots that never made it to the tops of the Moai. Our guide carried a back pack filled with emergency gear, and he always had a walkie talkie with him to contact the hotel.

Then we were off on another short hike to see some pictographs in a grotto.

Unfortunately, going down would mean going back up also!

The pictographs had been very badly damaged by the elements and natural breakage over time. The drawings were on the ceiling and just flake off over time.

My last picture of our hike for the day. I was so tired of walking around. Steve got out of the van at our next stop. 11,000 steps were enough for me! We still have a week left on our vacation in South America! Yikes!

Lovely green salad. I had the duck confit.

Steve had the seafood pasta, hold the octopus. My dessert. It had bananas in it. Steve doesn’t usually care for fruit.

Dessert number two. Which was guava cake. I asked the waitress which dessert was better. She told me to have both. I actually only ate 3 bites of each. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Do you have an uncle in Saugerties?

Have you ever been to Saugerties?

Do you know where Saugerties is?

Easter Island, Chile 1/19/2017 Th

Good morning from Easter Island!

Before we eat anything, let’s take a look at the kitchen. Here is the display of all the fresh juices and fruits available at breakfast.

There are many seats to choose from. We will have our dinners and lunches here also.

Steve appears to look a little worried. I would be also if I was married to myself!

Ah, nothing to worry about, his beautiful omelette has arrived!

The red marker shows you where our hotel is located. Orongo is the crater and the little island south west of it is Moto Nui, where part of the Bird Man ceremony occurred. Ahu Tahai is the restored ceremonial site. The quarry or Rano Raraku is located in the eastern part of the island. Near there is Ahu Tongariki, where the 15 Moai are located.

Here is a topographic map. The green areas are all National Parks.

I have left off at the three stages of of cultural development of Easter Island. Most scientists think that the first peoples arrived in the eastern Polynesian triangle from some point west of here around 800-1100. The eastern Polynesian triangle consists of Easter Island, Hawaii and New Zealand. The first people to settle Polynesia left 3000 years ago from Taiwan, then spread to the Philippines, then Micronesia then East to Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti and other islands. Oral history tell us that a group of seven explorers were the first to arrive to Rapa Nui.

The men saw the land was a good place to live and returned with women. Great stone Moai were carved which transferred mana, the spiritual power of their ancestors. Below the Moai, the bones of revered ancestors were buried. Moai were erected facing the town, and eyes were installed last, to guide and protect the people. Only when the eyes were inserted could the Moai’s mana protect the people.

Later when the European sailors arrived they spread disease. The first European on Easter Island landed on Easter Sunday in 1722, hence the name Easter Island. Europeans all wanted to see the Moai. Then slavers from Peru carried off a large portion of the population. The Rapa Nui people felt that they were no longer being protected by the ancestors. So the Moai were destroyed.

Our first stop of the day was the Hana Roa lookout. We had a great view of town and the freighters carrying cargo that were out at sea.

Our next stop was Orongo, the ceremonial village for the Bird Man challenges.

A yearly bird migration flew to a small rocky island off the south eastern tip of Rapa Nui. During the 16th and 17th centuries the carving of the Moai was abandoned and the Bird-man competition began. Thus began the second stage of development on the Island.

A competition was held to be the first man to return with an egg from the island. The very first competition elected the king, we have heard from our different guides that there was a new king every year or that the subsequent completions were for pride. Notice on the head of the warrior an egg holder. These guys look like our modern day hipsters with man buns.

Here is a picture of the island, Moto Nui, that the participants from all over the island would swim to. It was believed that the ancestors chose who would win the contest by giving that warrior extra strength and the Manutara (Sooty Tern) would lay an egg nearest the divine choice. The participants would stay for days or weeks waiting for the first egg. The last competition was in 1867.

Here is Lilli, our guide for the morning. She was the female winner of the Koro Nui Tupena festival in 2012. This sporting and cultural event was introduced to establish a bond between the young and the ancestral traditions, It gives tourists a chance to witness what Rapa Nui rituals and competitions were like before the colonization period. We will have to comeback another year for that! We saw many young people out running in preparation for the coming festival in February.

We walked to the ceremonial village. There was a gigantic Moai here that was removed and presented to Queen Victoria and is in the British Museum.

This house is opened to show tourists what the homes looked like inside. Very dark and confined inside, but the people only slept in their houses.

Over time the petroglyphs in the homes have been damaged or removed.

Most of the stones for the walls were very thin. They were from a special kind of basalt. Other stones used in different buildings or platforms for the Moai statues are different types of rock.

This was a short walk morning.

A closeup of the islet. This is where we would have done native style rock fishing if the wind had allowed.

The island has a wet and dry season. we are at the tail end of the wet season. it rained every day, but not at every place we were on the island.

At last we arrive at the crater. The crater was 600 feet deep filled with water 30 feet deep. With a mat of reeds floating on it. In some places it was said that the mat was so thick cattle could stand on it without sinking.

It was a long way down. The crater was 1.6 Km wide.

There was an option of hiking up to the crater. Only 5.4 miles one way with an ascent of 896 feet. We opted for the van ride!

Crazy pose!

Here is Lilli, Beauty was not the only reason she won the contest in 2012. She said that she is a great dancer also.

On the road to the crater was this house with signs on it. I asked Lilli about it.

In previous years the Chilean government collected all the visitor fees. This made the Rapa Nui people very unhappy and they barricaded all the parks. This naturally was very bad for tourism.

Those hotels who had guides from Rapa Nui could enter the parks. The strike was settled and all monies collected to visit the parks now do not go to Chile, but to the Rapa Nui people. I’m sure Chile taxes the airlines and collects its money one way or another.

All our guides were of Rapa Nui ancestry.

On the way back to the hotel we see the business of the richest man on the island. He has a business of renting cars, ATV’s, motorcycles and other types of bikes!

We pass by a farmer who is selling pineapples off the back of his truck. There are no stop lights or street signs on the island. It makes it difficult for those visiting the island to know where to go or where they are!

Here we see a freighter parked at sea. There is no large wharf so smaller ships must bring back the cargo to town. It can take many days to unload a ship. Those black dots are people surfing!

There was a bit of a traffic jam in town. Streets were very narrow, and the drivers were crazy. I observed much sign language among drivers!

Here are the boats the fishermen would go out to sea and fish from. We were hoping to do some ancestral fishing but the wind was too strong. After seeing them I was happy that we couldn’t go. That would be very dangerous with any type of chop in the water. The fishing was with hooks, line and rocks. Bait was pieces of chicken. This is the same method as the drop-shot that Steve has such good luck in Lake George. However Steve uses artificial bait.

Lots of different businesses in town, these guys offered tours. There is no standard for being a guide, so if you didn’t stay at a reputable place you might end up with a guide spouting nonsense, All the guides from Explora had several months training and supervision. All our groups were to have a maximum of eight travelers. Steve and I were often the only ones on our outings.

Here is the Catholic Church. Priests who arrived from Europe were able to convert most of the people to Catholicism. Offering schools, hospitals and food, they filled the needs of the people. The population had decreased to around 110 people! Now there are about 7000 people of whom 3000 are Rapa Nui.

This is someone’s Christmas tree!

More free range or town horses.

The countryside is so green. They even grew big puddles with all the rain!

Here is one of the many cows that we saw on our travels on the island. Many were still nursing their newborn calves and often many of the teats would be engorged with milk. It looked painful.

In the afternoon we are heading in this direction to see the 15 (15 Moai on a platform) and then walk along the cliffs to a beach. I hope it stops raining by then and our walk is a stroll and not a hike!

But first, we see some kind of pit and a fire back at Explora. We heard that there was to be a special dinner tonight…

Carrot soup for lunch. Black and white sesame seeds as a garnish.

I had the lamb chops.

Steve had fish.

Who can resist chocolate guava cake? I couldn’t.

Steve’s and my leis were looking uglier and uglier as the days progressed. I threw them out after I took this picture.

In the van with us this afternoon are two new incoming guests. They are S and G from British Columbia. I take an immediate dislike to them as they look like real hikers. They have serious hiking boots on, we have just sneakers with us as we have a weight limit on our trip to the Galapagos. Yes, we could have worn hiking boots, but then where would the other shoes go?

We jump in the van and head off to see Tongariki, the collection of 15 Moai.

We pass by the house of Mr. Richest Man on the island. You will remember that I had mentioned earlier in this post that he has the largest rental car dealership on the island; 100 vehicles!

We saw lot of horses that were laying on the ground. We were told that since the horses were free to roam all over the island they frequently ate plants that would make them sick, and then die.

Our trip often took us along the coast where we had great views.

On our way we pass the quarry, Rano Raraku. I hope you remember that there were over 450 Moai in different conditions here. No where near that number were in good shape. Some were probably used for practice or experimentation.

This is a popular place!

Why don’t my pictures look like the professionals’ ?

Anu Tonariki is the platform with 15 intact moai. Behind the platform is what is called a crematorium. It is the resting place for the bones of revered ancestors. A group of German archeologists paid to have the moai erected. In 1960 a tsunami knocked the Moai 100 meters inland! They were re-erected on the platform, which the tsunami did not move.

Remember all of the erect Moai are a reconstruction. Only those at the quarry remained erect, as they held no mana in them and therefore hold no power or value.

Here is Natalie, our guide. She is telling Steve the stories. In front of us is a Moai. You can see the serious hiking boots of our fellow guest. This Moai is quite eroded.

It is all so dramatic!

The 15 are all different.

Only one had the Pukao or top knot. It was formed from a different stone than the rest of the Moai, and represented long hair dyed red and styled into a big bun. Only men with powerful mana were allowed to wear their hair this way.

The archeologists can generally tell which Moai are older by the characteristics of the Moai. The early Moai were all different. They later became more stylized with the ski jump nose exaggerated jaw and elongated ears.

Notice how they are all different. This platform was used by two neighboring tribes that got together and said let’s make something special! Now what I hadn’t realized before, was that over the years the Maoi were constantly knocked down and new ones were erected. These two tribes designed the platform to hold many moai.

Here is the back side view. The lady with the red hair was not from our group.. She was concerned about the rising of the worlds sea levels and that the Moai would be soon under water.

Some old Moai that had been destroyed.

Here you can see the cement line where the Moai on the right was put back together again after it was damaged by the Tsunami.

This guy was one of my favorites!

The closer I am, the better he looks!

Here is Sharon. She was really into the lighting and her husband had a serious camera. Most of my pictures had to be brightened as it was so difficult to see the details of the Moai.

We started our walk along the cliffs. Here is a piece of obsidian that Natalia found. It is illegal to take any rocks from the park.

Our hike begins.

Here is a sick horse. He ate lupine. He shouldn’t have. He will get sicker, drink sea water and then eventually die. We saw two recent victims on our hike.

The walk went on for a long time. I think we started just below those three hills on the left of the picture.

We gathered here to look at something, I have no idea what it was!

Natalia kept on leading us onward.

We arrived at a rock called Te Pito Kura. It is believed that the high iron content in the rock makes compasses go crazy. The four small stones mark the points of the compass. Rumors are that touching it increases fertility. I’m to old for it to do any good.

I was never so happy to see our van! Our short easy hike was actually 3.6 miles! We hopped on the van for a short drive to Anakena Beach.

At Anakena Beach were a group of seven Moai, called Ahu Nao, Nao, not to be confused with Ahu Akivi or The Seven, that we will see tomorrow! You can see that two of the Moai have deteriorated.

Those with heads have the top knots.

This is Anakena beach. It is the only beach on the island. Although we hiked all afternoon with our bathing suits under our clothes, we didn’t have time to take a dip in the ocean. We had to hurry back for the special dinner.

Steps for the day were 13367! We will now head back to the van and go back to Explora. Natalia is really cheating here. She has a flower in her right ear signifying that she is single. She has a husband, so I was teasing her that she was actually doing a “Lemme, lemme, upgrade!”

The pit where the special feast was cooked.

Dinner’s ready!

Taro, sweet potato and chicken. This taro must have been mixed with banana as it tasted like banana!

We had a dance performance. With many costume changes!

Let’s watch a video our talented dancer, shall we?

I teased Steve about what would happen if her knot got loose!

At the regular dinner which was next I had invited ourselves to dine with C, the elderly French Canadian woman and her friend F, and a couple from Georgia, that we had seen yet not met. They were very kind, and said “Please do!”.

I had the fish for our main dinner. I was so full from all the other food. Our couple from Georgia was very interesting. They have traveled all over the world.

After dinner we decided to try the hot tub, and to see if we could also see the stars. Unfortunately it was overcast. We did see lots of bugs scurrying around the towel baskets. I was freaking out, as I hate bugs! Upon getting out of the pool I made sure to shine my iPhone camera app on my robe and sandals to make sure that no bugs had crawled into my clothes during our soak!

What is your honest opinion on man buns?

Do your hips lie?

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Valparaíso to Easter Island, Chile 1/18/2017 W

We had to get up early to drive south from Valparaiso to the airport in Santiago to catch our flight to Easter Island. It wasn’t hard to wake up early as we barely slept. The gulls outside our windows drove us crazy all night long! Wake up call at 5:30 for a 6:00 car pickup.

Good bye Valparaiso graffiti!

This was a picture of a haunted street. I really didn’t understand the story but you were not supposed to linger here, but to drive by fast. So we did.

The sun began to rise on our way to Santiago.

Steve tried to sleep in the car as he had a bad night’s sleep. Between no air conditioning, the gulls, and my snoring-I mean purring, and a sore throat Steve had a very bad night. Even with the soothing sounds of a fan on the app on his iPhone, he slept very poorly. He went to bed at 9:30. I went to bed at 10:30. I woke up at 12:30, and thought great, I have five more hours to sleep. Which I told myself every hour decreasing the amount of time to sleep the rest of the night!

The pretty drive to the airport.

Steve got us some coffee so we could stay awake on our flight. As the hotel was not open for our early breakfast we were given a bag breakfast of a ham and cheese on stale bread and a nectarine. All we really wanted was coffee! The Dunkin’ Donuts had no milk and only artificial sweetener. I tried to pretend I was drinking a large espresso.

Orange juice and ibuprofen. Manna from Heaven for a sore throat.

You can see the smog hiding the mountains! The doodles represent the mountain edges!

We were flying business class to Easter Island. Did you know that it will take us 5 hours to get there?

I loved seeing our plane’s shadow as we ascended!

We leave the mainland. Next stop Easter Island! It is called Easter Island as it was discovered by Jacob Roggeveen,a Dutch Explorer, on Easter Sunday in 1722.

Plane breakfast. Easter Island is in the middle of nowhere! It is a long way from there to any other inhabited land.

You can see where Valparaiso was. On the coast and north of Santiago. Look at all the mountains!

Easter Island.

Yay! We have arrived! We have landed! Looks like I could use a brow lift and possibly an under eye tuck. Would you believe that a hair dresser I once went to suggested I get an eye lift, and Botox in my cheek folds? I always call them Fred Flintstone’s as his face had some really big ones.

Wilma doesn’t have any at all. Maybe she had Botox! Her hairdresser will never tell!

Steve looks like his hair has a lot of volume today. Do you see my grey hair? Not bad for 60, turning 61 in May. Although I am really 62 in real life as I am blogging about a trip that happened two years ago.

Just follow the signs.

We leave the airport and head to our hotel. There are many kids camping here. Not for me!

After a very bumpy ride we reach Explora Rapa Nui. https://www.explora.com/easter-island-chile/

There are other Explora hotels. One is in Antacama, the Chilean Dessert in Northern Chile. It’s elevation is very high so it is doubtful that I will ever visit there. Another location is in Torres Del Paine in the south of Chile. We hope to visit there someday. Two more are in Argentina and another in Bolivia. They are all boutique all inclusive hotels with guided group activities. There appear to be about 20 guests here now. Each day a few leave and a few arrive. The largest hotel on the island has 90 rooms (not Explora).

There is wifi service only in the main bar and lounge. Each day you can select two half day or one full day activity. The one full day activity is a strenuous 7 hour hike which includes a pack lunch. You can be assured that I will not be doing that!

Here is Steve checking us in. Everybody gets a lei!

Don’t I look lovely with my beautiful lei? At least my chin looks firm! Unfortunately the flowers looked good for only about 30 minutes!

The walkway between the buildings is thankfully covered. They get a lot of rain here. It is a good thing that I bought my Patagucci rain jacket. It is very humid here. My hair doesn’t know if it should lie flat or rebound! Oh, my rain jacket was found and it is being sent to the Ritz Carlton in Santiago where we will pick it up on our return trip from here.

Let’s see what our room looks like. We were staying in room 12.

The view out our window. Thankfully the room was air conditioned as it was quite humid here. There was a lovely chaise built into the window.

The view of the ocean and the pool out our window. Do you see the rain cloud? Rain, rain go away.

Our room with luggage all over. We had to hurry to unpack as we were going to have lunch and then go on our first hike. Were we going to wear our sneakers our Keens and socks, or Keen’s and no socks. We decided on sneakers.

We had lots of nice storage on the shelves. Behind the bamboo portions was a toilet on the left, sinks in the middle and a shower to the left.

We had iced tea, it was very lemony.

Lunch started with a lovely green salad.

Followed by ham and cheese on a baguette.

After lunch we met in the lobby with the other guests who will go on our walk in the quarry. We arrive at the park entrance where our guide Natalie produces our park passes, and we set up for what is supposed to be a short walk. This area is called Rano Raraku.

The quarry is not a big hole, but the side of a hill. All of the Moai on the island are from this quarry except for one that was made of basalt. We do not know where that one was from yet. The Moai are made of tuff, a rock made of compressed volcanic ash.

There are 840 Moai on the island. 400 are located in the quarry. We didn’t see that many, and there are bits and pieces of some that are broken. All the Moai that were finished have been toppled . The only erect finished ones that you can see have been restored.

It was very moving for me to come to Easter Island. As a young girl I read the book Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. Steve has read it also and was quite excited to come here also.

None of these Moai have eyes as they are unfinished. They did not get eyes until they reached their final location elsewhere. If you get a chance watch the video on you tube that discusses the theories on how the Moai were moved.

Here we see half of the Brazilian couple that went on the hike with us. The lady on the left is from Quebec. We think that she was in her 80’s. She was in tremendous shape. She leaves her husband for two weeks at a time and travels the world with her girlfriend. Her husband stays home with the dogs and tells her to “hurry back home!”.

Several of the Moai were toppled over and broken into many pieces.

Down below you will see a rider on horseback. He is there to make sure that people stay on the path.

Here you can see a Moai in the process of carving. It was probably half done before it was abandoned. You can make out the face and the body.

This Moai was different than all the other Moai on the island as it was kneeling. It had been excavated. Originally only the head was visible.

I persuaded the Brazilian woman to sit sideways and to pretend to kiss the Moai. It made a great picture. I would rate this picture as adequate.

Far away you can see the 15 Moai. I hope we will learn more about them!

Moai were carved both vertically and horizontally out of the rock.

A view down the hill and toward the ocean. Somehow my walk turned into a hike!

You can see how eroded this Moai is.

You can see how big the quarry is in this picture.

There are lots of horses on Easter Island. More about them on another blog post.

We were supposed to go on a walk to a crater filled with fresh water, but due to all the recent rain it was forbidden. It was declared unsafe due to all the red clay mud.

We had to drive through a humongous puddle on the way back to Explora.

Back to the hotel.

Let’s take a walk to the pool. The man swimming was from Korea. He and his friend elected to have massages and hang out at the pool instead of doing an activity this afternoon.

The pool was too cold for me. I had read in one of my guide books that it was supposed to be a surreal experience to be in the pool and look at the stars at night. Perhaps I will do that from the hot tub instead.

The water looks inviting but it was so cold!

The hot tub looked very inviting.

We arrived at the bar to discuss our next day’s activities with our next day’s guide. I had a scallop on something green and creamy to whet my appetite before dinner. Doesn’t it look disgusting? It was yummy. I want to vomit just looking at it now. I actually ate that thing? Yuck!

The tortilla chips in the bar got stale quickly in this humidity.

Steve ready for dinner. Lots of wine glasses to drink out of, and windows to enjoy the view. I think that Steve is looking at me like Fred looked at Wilma!

We met a lovely couple from England before dinner and had fun talking politics with them.

Bread to start.

There is always a salad isn’t there?

Followed by soup. Before and after they ladled the soup in the bowl. I love soup that is a production in the presentation!

Our fish.

Yummy dessert.

Look how far west we are!

Did you read Kon-Tiki as a child?

Do you like two part soups?

Do you need Botox injections in your fore head, cheeks, lips, an eye lift and a tummy tuck?

Valparaíso, Chile 1/17/2017 Tu

After a fitful sleep at we woke up and went to breakfast. Unfortunately the room had no air conditioning and it was quite warm outside. We left the windows open so that we could have a breeze, but the gulls were always squawking! In addition, there was a park below with lots of people hanging out late into the night!

Here is another view of the hotel. Our room is on the third floor of the building on the upper left by the arched window.

This is a picture of the outside of the restaurant where we had dinner last night and breakfast this morning.

Off we went with JP, and Maxima our driver in our Peugeot van. Valparaíso is so colorful!

I am used to signs showing evacuation routes from super highways due to snow closures. This was the first time I saw a sign for a Tsunami escape route.

Houses were built anywhere there was a place to support a house. Even though Chile has lots of earthquakes, there are not many deaths, due to the strict construction guidelines.