Around the world

After a long year of staying at home, we got our shots and hit the road, so to speak, back to South Africa. Traveling in the pandemic is definitely not straight forward with unclear, ever-changing and unknown requirements. Regardless, we made it without any major issues, though definitely a couple of tense moments and a few extra covid tests because of timing.

We couldn’t do the usual stop somewhere on the way to South Africa, so it was a straight through shot with a flight from SFO to Istanbul, then an eight hour layover before going on to Johannesburg and four hour layover before finally getting to Cape Town. It was a long, long “day.” We pretty much crashed as soon as we got to our hotel. It did have a pretty awesome view of the waterfront.

The next morning we got to figure out how to drive on the other side of the road again. The last time we did that was also in Cape Town. Our first destination was Table Mountain. We took the cable car up to the top and hiked around the top of the mountain. This time, instead of foolishly taking the gorge trail down, we stayed on the top and hiked around on the southern ridge far away from other people. There were spots where it was just absolutely silent. Farther along, there was a lot of wet ground, it must have been from springs because there wasn’t enough rain recently. Frogs were calling out to each other everywhere, though we couldn’t actually see any of them. It was a magical sound.

Next we headed down to Camp’s Bay, where we stayed last time, for lunch. We decided to take the ocean side road back up to Cape Town proper, which took us past all of the ridiculously expensive luxury homes on the coast.

When we got back to the hotel, we’d planned on going out for dinner, but we both promptly fell asleep at 6:00, or maybe 5:30.

5/1/21

This morning we got up at half past five and took a ride out to Tongariki. It’s the big platform with 15 moai that is on the eastern shore, perfect for sunrise. We got there while it was still dark, found a small hill and waited. And waited. Waited. Finally colors splashed the clouds and we saw the sun lift up between the moai. It was quite pretty. We only ran into two people there that we knew, haha. It’s very odd being in foreign places and knowing people. This island is such a calm and relaxed place. Wild herds of well fed cows and horses roam a landscape dominated by the moai. Chicken are everywhere, constantly pecking and chatting. Super friendly wild dogs run around in packs having a grand time and running up to the humans when they want some love. This brief moment of island life was lovely.

Then back to Chile. Rapa Nui is also Chile but there is a lot of horrible history and bad blood between them, so the mainland is referred to as Chile and Rapa Nui a separate entity. Sat next to a lady on the plane we had met a couple days before at stargazing, and at our hotel we had drinks with a British couple we’d also met on Easter Island. Such a small world down here! Off for a five hour nap and then to begin our long flights home.

For once, we didn’t have to get up at any particular time today, so we slept in a bit until 9am. We didn’t have any plans, so we just lazed about and read for a while. It was raining all morning so there wasn’t much to be done anyway really. Once the rain let up, we went out in search of lunch, and found one of the few restaurants actually open today. They were pretty good, though out of many things on the menu. On the advice of our guide from the other day, I tried a Michelada which is a beer mixed with lime juice and some other mystery things, rather tasty. After lunch we visited both of the souvenir shops that were open today and then proceeded to read for the rest of the day.

The alarm started pestering us at five today, it was hard to get up. Off at 6, still pitch dark, some good starts though, haha. We arrived at Poike at 7. It is a whole corner of the island that is being rehabilitated to stop erosion and you can only go in if you are Rapa Nui or have a Rapa Nui guide. We hiked along the cliff edge for a couple of hours watching the dawn light paint the landscape in pinks and corals. It was spectacular, giant cliffs diving down to turquoise clear water. Then we climbed down the cliff edge, and visited an ancient religious cave. The cave was a lava tube that had been carved with petroglyphs depicting whales, fertility, and birds. Climbing in was an adventure, very small entrance on a cliff edge! After exploring the cave a little we hiked back up the cliff and started climbing to the top of one of the volcanos. It was still morning but hot! Our guide Jo-jo had no problem and did it in a straight shot but Matty and I took a few breaks along the way. At the top was a small caldera filled with Eucalyptus and stunning views of the whole island. You could see ocean on all sides and the beautiful green expanses of the landscape. We hiked down, running down sandy erosion ravines and went back to the hotel for a good long nap.

After an exhaustive search for a restaurant that was both open and had something other than Ceviche, we had some amazing empanadas for dinner. Then a wander around town and then time for midnight. We found a great spot to photograph the fireworks with two moai in frame. Coincidentally our hotel was right by the fireworks, I had no idea when I booked it. The let us get practice ones before midnight that helped Matty set up the framing perfectly. Midnight struck, the fireworks started their percussive music, and the heavens opened up with a deluge. All simultaniously. We tried valiantly for 30 seconds haha, and then fled to our nearby hotel. Under an overhand we watched the rest of the spectacular show. It was loud bright majesty.

Today we got to sleep in till 8, a luxury, and we were off to learn about the moai and the Rapa Nui people and the island that bears their name. First we started back at the Rano Kau crater and this time visited the Orongo village. This was a holy village that was only inhabited for less than a week each year for the birdman competition. The competition decided which of the 16 clans would rule that year. It involved groomed athletes that would do this grueling competition of physical activities. First they would climb from the village to the sea side of the caldera and further climb down that to the sea. Then they would swim on their reed surf boards to the largest island and snatch an egg from a sea bird and bring back the egg whole. It took between two to three hours. They started this competition to replace the carving of the moai after a brutal civil war that lead to ultra violence and cannibalism.

We then visited an unearthed and recreated village and saw how they lived. Their houses were boat houses, looking completely like a large upside-down canoe. Their gardens were fascinating, they built 1.5 meter walls around all their plants to protect them from wind and because they were made out of lava rock, moisture. Then we visited the quarry Rano a Raraku where almost all of the moai were made. It was a crazy landscape of giant heads sticking up out of the ground at odd angles. The moai would be made for an important person and erected in their village to watch over them forever. The more moai you had, the stronger your clan. Then a visit to Ahu Tongariki, the most famous spot on Rapa Nui. Here the Japanese restored the moai and platform, leaving 15 standing moai. It was impressive, all those stone faces staring in. Originally all the moai had eyes made of white coral and pupils of obsidian. After that we went for a nice dinner at a ridiculously small table of a pile of fries with meat and sauce, a Chilean specialty. Think poutine. A fun day where we learned a lot and got to see some amazing artifacts.