The People You Meet

Friday morning I headed straight for the airport to check on the status of my bag. SUCCESS!!! I found out my bag was arriving on the flight! The day was already starting out great, then I went into the little shop outide the airport. This is where I met Benito. He was selling jewelry and things and asked me if I was from California. I was so surprised. How did he know? He said something like he could feel me through his mind or something like that. At least, that´s how I translated his Spanish. He told me his name meant fuego as he hovered his hands over my hand and pressed his palm to my forehead. Interesting man. What´s really cool though....he collected shells for the Smithsonian and one of the shell species names is named after him. We then talked about the end of the world. It was an interesting and engaging yet confusing conversation, you kno, with the language barrier and everything.


As we left the shop, Enrique and his friend approached us. He asked us where in CA we are from because his son lives in Long Beach. We spoke for a few minutes and as we were about to say bye, he invited us over for lunch. We put our bikes in his truck bed, got into his backseat and let him show us where he lives so that we could meet him there a few hours later. And yeah, the thought of us getting kidnapped crossed my mind, but deep down I knew he was just being friendly. Oh man, was he that and more. I love traveling and seeing the amazing kindness and generosity from people you´ve just met. Enrique invited us into his home, the one which he called ¨muy sencilla¨. There was ceviche on the table. My first reaction...YUCK. I hate raw fish. But I had to eat it. It wasn´t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think if I was my brother or someone else who really likes raw fish, this would´ve been the best I ever had. Not only did he give us ceviche, but also fresh limeade (delicious), avocados from his tree at his OTHER house in town (even more delicious), and a stuffed eggplant type dish with rice. He hardly spoke any Engish but the conversations went well and the company alone was refreshing. Enrique had to suddenly leave for work so he fed the leftovers to his chickens and we quickly exchanged contact information. While doing so, we learned that he was the former governor of the island. Wow. And also that he was adopted and later taken care of by a french priest. What a crazy life. It was absolutely wonderful crossing paths with Enrique, and I hope Jeff and I can treat his son to a meal back in CA.


The rest of yesterday was great as well. We returned the bikes and rented out an ATV instead, knowing we wanted to get to the opposite side of the island this morning for the sunrise and we didn´t want to bike any more miles. We took the ATV to the trailhead of a hike to Rano Kau, a crater pretty close to Camping Mihinoa. We hiked up, checked out this massive crater, and stopped by Orongo but it was closed. At Orongo, we did get to see a tiny museum that explained a ritual between tribe chiefs. They would swim out to the rocks where the bird tangata manu laid its eggs. The chief to bring back the first egg won. I got a sticker of the tangata manu for my nalgene :) When we got back to our ATV, it wouldn´t start. Jeff figured out a little trick and we got it going but then it broke down. Not embarrassing or anything, especially when two Irish girls we had met before passed by asking us what happened or when a local and his family pulled up and just stared at us for 10 minutes. After pushing it a while, a nice man helped us and got it to start. The little stinker gave us troubles in the morning too when we left at 5 am to catch the sunrise on the east side. Broke down abou 5 times before Jeff started driving and it ran perfectly fine the rest of the way. I guess I just wasn´t driving it right. Sunrise was cool. Then we went to Playa Anakena...more moai. Then on the plane we got to fly back to Santiago. Iorana, Rapa Nui. It´s been real.