Traveling Fool

  After the sunshine and light breezes of Easter Island, I was headed to the southernmost point of Chile, Punta Arenas, to see PENGUINS. It involved a lot of connecting flights and waiting, and even the possibility that the weather would be so inhospitable that I wouldn't get to see them. The weather in Punta Arenas was not that cold, not like the -11 F we have today, it was in the 40s and 50s. It was the wind that was ridiculous, so strong, swirling and blowing around the Strait of Magellan.  These particular penguins, the Magellanic Penguins live on Isla Magdelena, protected by rangers and a system that monitors visiting tour boats and how long people stay on the island. It's about an hour walking around on a path, do not wander off of the path and do not get too close to the penguins. Our little group actually had to stop and wait for a penguin to cross the little path to get to the other side. Even with these 'restrictions' I felt like we still got some good views a...

This was a day all about the Birdman ceremony and the places associated with it. The contest took place at Orongo and overlooks a precipitous cliff and the Motu Nui islet. We were up on the cliff and it was very windy. I'm not afraid of heights, but the thought of trying to climb down the cliff (or the concern of falling off) made me take a few steps back. We walked through the settlement and got to see the shelters that were created just for the time of the ceremony. They figured it was a better plan to build sturdy structures once, then have to build new structures every year. The contestants vying for the yearly title of Birdman climbed down the cliff, swam to the furthest islet, climbed up (there aren't any nice sandy beaches) and find an egg of the sooty tern, a bird that returned every year and was recognized as a way to mark the calendar. Our guide told us it was the only bird that had a regular migratory pattern at that time. Mirador Rano Kau Birdman point of view Motu ...

  P.S. I managed to publish this before I finished it, but it's finished now. Because the Moai and related sites are protected, you can't wander around most of the areas on your own, you need to be in the company of a guide and always bring your national park ticket (except in the Tahai). The cool thing is the ticket gets stamped and it's a nice souvenir. We saw so many things and I'm sure I'm not going to get everything right or identify everything, but I'll try. We first went to a site with some recreated dwellings and even a chicken coop and learned how they were created and how building materials were repurposed when necessary.  At Akahanga we saw many toppled Moai and some topple top knots (those are the red stones). In some cases, Moai were toppled because the people lost faith in their gods, in other cases it was because of fights between the different clans. They were originally built between 1200 and 1500, give or take a hundred years or so.  toppled Mo...

 I've always been intrigued by the mysteries of Rapa Nui or Easter Island as most people know it - how did they carve and move those huge statues and what happened to the people of the island? And probably questions I didn't know that I had. Rapa Nui is so far away I didn't think I would ever get there. Well never say never. After a couple of days in Santiago and a roughly five hour flight, I landed on Rapa Nui to be greeted by the tour operator and was whisked away to Takarua Lodge ; okay, maybe not whisked but transported over some bumpy roads and given a little rout of the island as we dropped other visitors off at their lodgings. The lodge had a view of the ocean and several Moai in a configuration known as Tahai, which I could walk along any time I wanted, or just sit on my little patio and stare dreamily, or listen to the flock of chickens, or is it a gaggle, clucking and crowing,  breakfast delivered every morning The lodge is a twenty minute walk or so from town, an...