No bunnies on Easter Island...

So.... Before we embarked on our little journey we had to get to the departure gate. This should seem simple enough. We are told to go to the International gate, but being a domestic flight she points to the domestic departure zone. We found our gate number, wandered on down to find our gate and saw it was on the other side of the glass doors. We mutually decieded to do some shopping to waste some time (since we have 3 hours until our flight leaves). We return to our gate with about a hour until our flight leaves...... The doors, to our asmazment are locked,

¨Kevin, I told you we should have went through the doors to our gate first¨

¨Its fine lisa, just sit down and they will open the doors, the plane wont leave without us¨ (as lisa paces back and forth looking in astonishment at the locked doors, trying to figure out the password to the security panel and open the door... (Just imagine a locked up puppy trying to escape a fenced off yard and you will be seeing what Kevin is witnessing) all along Kevin is re-ashering Lisa that it will be fine, when the plane crew shows up they will open the door for us, or let us on the plane through this gate since they connect). Finnally out of frustration Lisa sits down, and is upset that Kevin is not concerned at the fact we may miss our flight, But all is settled down after the stewerts and stewertes show up, and Lisa is re-ashered that the other side of the glass doors are for international destinations only.

The awful paragraph above was written by Kevin and Kevin alone. I am sure that was made evident by all the horrendous spelling errors and terrible grammatical content. That, my friends, was his version. The following is mine.

I always like to see my gate before we head into the Duty Free just for my own peace of mind. It´s narotic, yes, but it´s what I prefer to do. This way, if we get tied up with something and lose track of time, we can haul ass to our appointed gate without any problems. So when Kevin made me simply glance at Gate 21A through closed glass doors instead of walking directly to the gate itself, I was a little annoyed that he didn´t allow me to be me ... but I accepted it because he was so excited and in a hurry to find a big bag of gummy candy. Sure enough we go back to the doors and try to open them, and yes, they were locked. We were at Gate 21B instead of 21A and there was no way in and no staff to answer any questions. Plus, we were informed by our check in clerk that we were to be boarding an International Flight but Gate 21B is in the Domestic Flight section. In addition to all of this, the signs posted in our section showed that it would be boarding rows 1-28 only, and we were in row 32. So, you can imagine my slight frusteration when it appeared as if we were stuck at the wrong gate. These feelings subsided when I looked at the television and saw our flight number appear on the screens of both Gates 21A and 21B. At no point was I afraid that we would miss our flight. It´s just that when all the signs you originally see seem to prove that you are in the wrong section and the right section is just behind some doors, the average person would get a tad bit irritated. Kevin´s laughter was in no way constructive. Yes, he reassured me that we would get on the plane (and that we did) but he also reassured me that the doors would be open. And they never were, were they Kevin?

Once again words cannot describe the sights we were witness to. Arrival to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was unlike any other airplane landing we´ve had. The runway stretches from one side of the island to the next. And since it´s 3700km from the coast of Chile, all you see is the vast ocean. So when you are preparing to land, you can´t see the island and it´s looks like you are heading straight into the water. The triangle shaped island is only 117 square km. (with 25km from furthest point to furthest point) and a mere 3900 inhabitants. We were greeted at the gate by our hostel staff who put leighs around our necks and welcomed us with open arms and a friendly smile.

We spent the first 3 days bootin´around on a scooter we rented for cheap and checked out most of the ancient head statues (maoi). If you haven´t heard about Easter Island, google it. Some of the heads are only 2 feets tall and stuck in the ground, about to tip over. Others were put on platforms and towered over us at 23 meters high. It was just so amazing to be in the presence of such immense mysterious statues. In fact, the mystery is so deep that even the musuem admits to having no idea what went on here thousands of years ago. In all the write ups, the post script included ¨Remember, these are merely theories. There hasn´t been evough evidence to conclude these as facts¨

On one of the days, we discovered a magificent beach so we decided to return the next day with swim suits and snorkel gear. The beach had rows upon rows of towering palm trees, wild horses roaming free and white white sand with sparking tourqoise water. Kevin saw a pufferfish. He was very excited.

On our last full day, we took an 8hr hike to see a row of 7 maoi standing in a row looking out to sea as well as the highest peak on the island. It is a strange sensation to be able to stand on top of an extint volcano and see water 360 degrees around with no other land in sight. Along our hike we saw the most wild horses we´ve ever seen. Hundreds of them roamed the rolling country side we were hiking and when you got back to the main roads crazy bull-cows blocked the streets so that you couldn´t pass. Kevin honked at them with the scooter horn which proved un-successfull and Lisa was terrified they would charge.

We saw lots of crazy fruits on Rapu Nui as well. In our journeys we stumbled across a huge pineapple plantation, our hostel was home to many papaya and banana trees and at Anakena Beach we managed to break open a coconut. It took a lot of effort smashing it against rocks and sticks but we finally broke through and had a nibble of the disgusting white fleshy stuff inside.

When we left, the hostel didn´t want to take pesos for some reason so they charged up $40USD more (same price as a night spent) to accept pesos instead of american dollars. She kept insisiting the dollar amount was higher too. Kevin argued with them and said we were only paying the proper amount of $100,000 pesos and that was that. We headed into town to do some last minute shopping then came back where the clerk was waiting with the internet loaded to a page showing the most recent currency exchange. She was right, the dollar randomly flucuated. We were wrong and in all fairness should have paid the extra. But the woman simply said ¨It´s no problem, you´ve paid enough ... I just wanted to show you, that´s all¨ Then she called us a taxi so we could get to the airport and then draped free maoi head necklaces around our necks. This just goes to show how care free and innocently pleasant the Rapa Nui people are. Not at all like the rest of the continent we´ve seen thus far.