We had a moment.
It was great.
Well until he tried to make me go back into the bag.
Which we all know that wasn’t happening.
I worked on being persuasive –
I guess it worked.
Voice of reason, this bear is. Voice of reason.
Tag Archives: rapa nui
Hitchhiking in a the rain
Remember that time I tried to hitchhike in San Pedro de Atacama?
Well I didn’t even have to stick out a paw this time.
Pokin and Nick were walking back from sunset in the pouring rain while I huddled in the backpack and I guess a guy took pity on us all, pulled over, and offered us a ride.
Coincidentally, he turned out to be the owner of our hotel, and he’s lived on Easter Island his whole life, as did his grandfather and his grandfather’s grandfather.
Only the Rapa Nui are allowed to own land on the island.
So much for my plans for island buying domination for this place.
Well I guess my bear tin funds need some recovery time from being decimated by Nicholas anyway!
Waiting for Godot – or at least a sunset
So all afternoon it would rain, and then it would look like it wasn’t going to rain anymore. Which was of course a lie because inevitably it rained again.
Which left us with the quandary. One of the main purposes of coming here is of course to see the crazy rock statues constructed by the Rapa Nui (the easter island natives). And of course a most spectacular way to see the Moai would be over a sunset.
I would say indecision got us more soaked than not.
Here we are in-between a rain drenching. (Note ominous rainclouds in the distance)
(Note also Nicholas’ expression of pure joy)
Well eventually we waited long enough that we did get to see it.
Nicholas even perked up a little.
Because it kept raining, we were really lucky to be almost the only people there.
By almost, I mean we were pretty much the only people at Tahai.
Yeah I’d say we got pretty good front row seats.
Stormy clouds on the horizon
“You’re lucky” said our host at the time she picked us up from the airport. “It’s been raining the past few weeks but it looks really nice right now and I think you’ll have beautiful weather all week.”
Well she ought to eat those words. She almost caused me an unnecessary bath.
Cabanas Rapa Nui Orito wasn’t exactly located close to anything, so after I got tired of parading around in my new leis, we packed up and started the 30 minute walk to town.
In that time, the horizon went from light and bright to slightly grey to really grey to grey with definite appearances of impending rain.
I had just enough time to dive back into my plastic bag inside the backpack before a downpour hit everyone.
Fortunately I stayed dry. Can’t say the same for Nicholas or Pokin but at least it was warm. Well at least it was warm for me inside the bag.
They dried up sufficiently by the time we got close to town, and we got to have our first glimpse of the coast up close.
I like this place.
Welcome to Polynesia aka Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
I’m still not sure why airlines ever fly before noon, but at around 6:00 in the morning on Canada Day (I think it was 6:00 because I wasn’t fully conscious), Nicholas rolled me into a bag and we boarded our 8:00am flight for Easter Island.
Despite the early flight time, I arrived in good spirits, though I was mildly bemused and then irritated by the other tourists blocked my path to paradise by posing on the ramp for photos. Of what? The plane? Why?
But my good spirits quickly returned when our hotel, Rapa Nui Orito greeted us at the airport with flower leis.
They made the mistake of putting them on Pokin and Nicholas, and I had to wait for the brief city tour to finish before I could rectify this oversight, but as soon as we got to our rooms I got my leis. 🙂
I got them right where they are supposed to be.
Around my neck.
I climbed a fake tree to show them off. 🙂
The rooms here seem nice. There’s a mini kitchen to make me hot chocolate and a mini fridge to keep my chocolate from melting.
I think I’m going to enjoy this week.