Easter Island Days 1 and 2

Our flight schedule: LAX to Houston to Bogota to Santiago to Easter Island. Somewhere between LAX and Bogota my backpack was lost. I found out in Bogota, but had no time to report anything until I got to Easter Island. I had this huge weight sitting on my shoulders, but when we touched down on that airport runway, I was so happy, I was almost to tears. After over 25 hour of traveling, we had finally arrived. I had maybe 4 articles of clothing that would have to last me until Friday when the next flight came in from Santiago (if my bag could even find its way onto that flight).

Enough about my lost baggage though--we´re in paradise. Marta, whose family owns Camping Mihinoa, greeted us with leis. Her husband then gave us a ride to the campgrounds, a grass field overlooking the west side of the island. I felt so excited to be here, it was surreal. FINALLY, after all that anticipation. So we took a 10 minute walk into town (Hanga Roa) and rented two mountain bikes for the next 48 hours. It cost each of us around $32, pretty expensive eh? I thought it would be a good idea to head north, but my directional instincts must be clouded because we were actually biking south and east. We ended up at Vaihu, an ahu (platform) of fallen moai. The moai are all over the island, most have fallen, but some have been restored to their upright positions, like the ones we saw later on. After biking the 6 miles back we decided to grab some coffee in town. We paid $18 for two coffees and a brownie, which was more like a chocolate lava cake. But still, $18? Que ridiculo. Needless to say, the island is pretty expensive. Good thing we brought a ton of food to last us three days...top ramen, beef jerky, and mud buddies to name a few :) Anyway, there ends day 1.


Day 2: Jeff and Brit=Archeologists (and avid mountain bikers) We biked a total of 25 miles, which felt more like 100. Riding along the southern coast is incredible though. The water is an icy blue and the rocks are...scary actually. They look sharp and jagged and mean. But pretty. They´re like Regina George from Mean Girls. We stopped at a bunch of ahus to check out the moai then ended up at Ahu Tongariki, 15 standing moai. Jeff and I took pictures of each other in as many yoga poses and gymnastics tricks as we could think of. The ride back wasn´t as bad, maybe cuz we didn´t have the head wind against us. Back at camp we had dinner, talked to some campmates. Dana is from Boulder, and he used to work on a cruise ship. So cool. I think that would be a great job for Jeff. Sylvana is Peruvian but she lived in Japan for 13 years. Sach, a chileno who has been on Easter Island for 2 months, took us out dancing. We tried piscola, a chilean liquor called Pisco with coke. I think it tastes kind of like whiskey. The bar was really cool! It alternated between dj/dancing and live band/male polynesian dancers. HOT. Twas fun. I love dancing.