Leaving Easter Island.

On my last full day at Easter Island I woke at the campsite to a bright, crisp, clear, sunny morning, and decided that I would again climb to the top of Terevaka volcano for the amazing view. After a quick breakfast I was off on the scooter, and parked by the spectacular "7 Moai", and within the hour was on the summit again.

I really enjoyed the climb, and the view was so much clearer than the previous day. You really could get a feel for how isolated the island is. Take a look here:-


After a bargain empanada lunch at a takeaway van I went to the museum, which gives a fascinating overview of the history and culture of the island. From what is known they had a very rich society and culture, but the arrival of the European explorers in the 18th century changed things forever. Due to several combined factors, including famines, epidemics, civil war, slave raids, colonialism, and near deforestation, a population believed to numbered somewhwere between 7,000 and 17,000 was decimated, and in 1877 only 111 Rapa Nui people survived, and so much of their history was lost. Of these 111 only 36 had offspring, and all Rapa Nui people now claim to be descended from these last remaining 36.

Once again, more information, told in a much better way than I can explain it, can be found at Wikipedia here.

On my last evening Andres and I arranged to meet for a beer or two with Diana and her guests, and Roberto, the third couchsurfer on the island came along too.

It was the first night of a big Rapa Nui festival on the island, and we went along to watch some of the singing and dancing, and then at midnight, as the full moon climbed higher in the sky, Roberto, Diana and I decided to take a drive out to Anakena Beach. The full moon illuminating the dark and silent moai was very atmospheric.



The next morning I took my large bag to the airport and checked it in, and then kicked around at the campsite for the rest of the morning, I had a quick lunch and went to drop Andres's scooter off, and he very kindly took me up to the airport to see me off.

It really has been a fantastic week on the island. It is such a beautiful and unique place, and it has been great to see it through the eyes of people who live there. Huge thanks to Andres, who has made the week such a pleasure, and has been so helpful and generous. I hope I get to return the favour soon. Thanks also to Annette for our day out in her hire car, and to Diana and Roberto too, and of course, not forgetting the people of Easter Island for their wonderful hospitality.

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend you go to see Isla de Pascua.

"100 Goals" final day big party invite!!

With a bit of spare time on my hands over the past week or so I have been working on an idea I have had for some time now. I have pretty-much got things organised as I had hoped, and now I am inviting you, Dear BlogReader, to join me to celebrate the end of my two-year journey. Please read on....

I would like to invite you to come along to:-
"Ian's End Of 100goals100weeks Big Goal Achievment Celebration" !!

Date:
Sunday 4th July 2010

Location:-
Statue of Liberty, New York: 11.30am
Central Park, New York: 3pm
When I first started on my 100 weeks adventure, flying on Sunday 3rd of August 2008 from Perth in Australia to Dubai, to achieve my first goal there, I had not worked out what the actual end date of my adventure would be.

It was about eight months later, back in Perth again, after my first seven-month journey, and achieving over thirty of my goals, that I sat down to plan my second trip, and worked out when the 100 weeks would actually come to an end.

I have always seen this whole idea being controlled by the time period, rather than the goals themselves, and have always imagined ending it all at the end of Week # 100, hopefully with 100 goals completed, but satisfied if I have only managed 86, 93 or 97. It is the adventure and the people that have been more important to me. The goals themselves have just acted as a sort of framework to build my adventure around.

To me, it would be nice to achieve them all, but as well as being an optimist, I am also a realist, and accept that some things may be beyond my control, and may hinder the completion of one or more goals. And of course, I can always complete any unfinished goals at any time after the 100 weeks.

So I worked out the end date, 100 weeks to the day from when I first flew out of Perth, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it falls on the Sunday 4th July 2010. Now I am sure that most of you are aware that July 4th is a pretty big day in America, being Independence Day, when the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 is celebrated.

A large part of my first trip was spent in the States, and again on my second trip I spent several months there too. In fact, overall, USA will be the country that I have spent more of my 100 weeks in than any other, including Australia!!

And so it seems only fitting that my journey should end there on this big celebratory day. I have thought long and hard about where I should hold my celebration, and have eventually decided that New York seems like the best place.

Why? Well New York was place where I first arrived in the States back in October 2008, and my first US goal (Goal #9) was achieved here when I went to see the Statue Of Liberty. Lady Liberty has for many years represented, among other things, hope and freedom, and has for many people arriving from other parts of the world been a symbol of a fresh new start.

And that, I think, is what the past few years has been all about for me too. My life took a dramatic and unexpected turn towards the end of 2005, and still looking for answers and closure, a couple of years later I put my whole life up for sale on eBay. That led on to this goal-setting adventure, and I have certainly made a huge change in where my life was heading.

And the end of my 100 weeks is also going to be a new starting point for me. As I write this I have only the vaguest idea of what that new start might be, but do have some ideas and possibilities rattling around in my head.

So what better place to end my journey than in the city where my first American goal was achieved? At that time it wasn't possible to go right up the statue, and so along with a few others who joined me, I only managed to get to the pedestal. Now however, it is possible once again to go right to the crown, and a few days ago I managed to make a booking to go once again to see the statue, this time on 4th July 2010, and am planning on finally going up to the top.

You are more than welcome to join me in re-achieving my New York goal, in an even better way than last time, but I imagine that bookings for the 4th July will fill fast, so if you do want to come along, you will need to book as soon as possible. I am booked on the 11am ferry from Battery Park, New York, and propose, as last time, to meet anyone who can come along at the flagpole on Liberty Island at 11.30am.

I picked the 11am ferry, as there are 10am and 9 am ferries prior to that, which at the time of my booking were available too, so if you wanted to come and the 11am sells out first, I guess you could get an earlier ferry and wait on the island - see you at the flagpole at 11.30am. There is also the possibility of booking your ticket departing from Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side of the river too, and there are ferries available from there at 8am, 9am, 10am and 11am too.

Tickets, including ferry ride and access to the crown are a bargain $15 - what better way to celebrate Independence Day? - and can be bought online here:-
Statue Cruises

Whether you can make it to the statue or not, a big (hopefully!) celebration will take place afterwards, when I plan an open invite party in Central Park in the afternoon. Meeting place will be as marked on the second map, at 3pm. Please feel free to bring along any friends or family, anything you may care to drink, and perhaps some nibbles too.

I am a bit vague on New York's policy about drinking alcohol in public places, but I do plan to have a beer or two - might just have to keep it hidden in a brown paper bag in true Central Park style! Hey, but maybe getting arrested on some sort of public nuisance charge would be a fantastic end to the whole adventure, and perhaps the book too - which is goal #100, of course!

I really hope you can make it. See you there.

Best regards,

Ian


Details:-

11.30am, Sunday 4th July 2010, at the flagpole on Liberty Island, New York:-


3.00pm, Sunday 4th July 2010, Central Park, New York
(a short stroll from 72nd Street Subway Station on Central Park West):-


Google Map Link:
100goals Final Day Map

There may be trouble ahead ...

With my Easter Island goal well and truly achieved, I have been enjoying my time on the island, practicing my Spanish with Andres, and riding around on his scooter checking out things I haven't seen yet. I have also spent a bit of time catching up on emails and website tasks which I have let slip a little recently.

While checking my email yesterday I got one from Val, who I meet up with again very soon in Cuzco in Peru. He suggested that my next goal, our trip up to Cuzco and onwards to see Machu Picchu may present us with some serious challenges. He sent me a news link which reports that heavy rains and mudslides have blocked the train route that we will be taking, stranding tourists there, and causing the government to declare an emergency!! People were being airlifted out, and we are wanting to get in within the week. Oh dear!

"This year is absolutely atypical. This situation hasn't occurred in the last 15 years. ... the river has never been so high," Tourism and Foreign Commerce Minister Martin Perez said at a news conference.

What timing! More at Yahoo News here. Oh well, nothing we can do about it until we get there and see what the situation is. It has been suggested that Machu Picchu will be closed until the 8th February, and our flight out of Cuzco is on the morning of the 9th, so maybe all is not lost!

However, these pictures suggest otherwise - that railway is certainly going to be tricky to repair:-


I once read that if you are worried about something, there are two possibilities:-
1). You can do something about it - if so then get on and start doing something!
2). You can't do anything about it - then you may as well stop worrying!!
I think that this certainly falls into the category of "There's not much I can do about that at the moment!"

So, in the meantime, I still plan to enjoy my last couple of days on Easter Island, and then a couple of days in Peru's capital, Lima.

Last night Andres took me on a bit of a tour, and we explored a couple of caves that I didn't know about. One was very interesting, with a tiny little crawl-hole entrance, leading to a cavern which split into two, each branch opening out in a spectacular window halfway up the seacliff, looking out over the ocean.

This morning I headed out on the scooter to the foot of Terevaka, the highest volcano peak on the island. I climbed towards the summit, and teamed up with Janet and Jose, mum and son from Santiago who were just ahead of me.

At the windy summit the horizon was a bit cloudy and hard to see, but the view on a clear day must be awesome. You can see the whole island, and then beyond in every direction, nothing but the vast Pacific Ocean. Easter Island is so incredibly isolated. The nearest populated land is Chile, 3,510 kilometres away to the east, and to the west the next populated place is Tahiti, at around 4,000 kilometres distance. It was a bit hard to make out today, but apparently the curvature of the Earth is easily discernable from the summit.



This afternoon it was back to more immediate practical matters, as I had nowhere to sleep tonight. Andres's sister and brother-in-law return home today, after a week on duty at the fire station, and the house is full once again, so I need to find alternative accomodation. At least I had the scooter for the afternoon to go searching!

My first port of call was a campsite I had spotted down by the beach, pretty close to Andres's house. I had soon managed to rent a tent for a couple of nights, and got myself settled in and connected to their wi-fi.

Around Easter Island.

I still had Annette's hire car the next morning, and deciding to make the most of it, got up at 6am and drove north-east in rainy darkness to see sunrise at Ahu Tangariki, on the east coast. Quite a few others had the same idea, so there were quite a few of us wandering around in the gathering dawn enjoying the atmospheric spectacle.



I had planned to go out later in the day on Andres's scooter, but the rainy weather continued, and I decided to use the rest of the day to relax and unwind instead. I read my book, dozed a bit, watched a movie and read some more. I think I must have been pretty run down, as I ached a bit after my bike crash, and despite sleeping for a couple of hours during the day, after another Spanish lesson with Andres, I slept for ten hours!

I felt wonderful when I woke this morning, and headed out on the scooter to see more of the island. It was a great ride in the sun up to the north coast of the island. I took the scooter down some narrow, unmarked tracks, and enjoyed the rugged coastal scenery. It is all very wild and spectacular.



My main goal was to see Anakena, on of the island's very few beaches, and another fascinating and picturesque moai site.



I also swam at the beach, as it was such a nice day. There was a decent surf rolling in, and I did a bit of body-surfing, but gave up when I lost my goggles - don't want to lose my contact lenses too!

Goal 74 - Rapa Nui.

Last night I was invited to Diana's house for dinner, the second of the three Easter Island-based couchsurfers that I have met, and she made a fantastic spagetti bolognese. She is from Switzerland, and has been living on the island for a year and a half, working as an alternative healer. I met five of her Swiss friends who were visiting, as well as Annette, another couchsurfer staying there.

Annette is from New Zealand originally, but has lived and worked all over the world. She is right at the end of her own incredible journey, having just rode a motorcycle all the way from the tip of Alaska, down through Canada, USA, Central and South America. She made it to Tierra Del Fuego, and with the end of the momentous journey in sight, only 200 kilometres to go to the very tip of South America, remembers nothing more until she woke in hospital five days later.

She has a broken collarbone, and her crash-damaged bike is currently in a repair shop in Buenos Aires. She still has no idea what happened to her, and how she crashed the bike. You can read more of her adventures on her website:
www.alaska2argentina.co.uk

We found we had alot in common, and spent the evening comparing travel experiences, injuries and adventures. We met the next morning for breakfast in a cafe, and Annette had decided to hire a car for her last day on the island, but needed me to act as her driver, as her shoulder isn't up to the job.

By 11am we were in a Suzuki 4WD and heading out of town for Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater on the north-east side of the island, which was known by the original inhabitants as Rapa Nui, the navel of the world. The crater was used as a quarry, and it was here that many of the amazing stone heads, called moai, were originally quarried and carved, before being transported to their standing locations.




The place is absolutely extra-ordinary. There is a lake in the volcano crater, and dozens of wild horses roam around freely. On the inside slopes of the volcano crater, many moai stand looking westward. Some have fallen over, some are only half finished. We wandered around between them, marvelling at the work involved to put them there. On the outside of the crater there are many more heads, even bigger and more impressive. The whole place has a strange, slightly surreal feel about it, and we happily soaked up the atmosphere.



Not far away at the coast we stopped to look briefly at Ahu Tongariki, where there is an impressive, and much photographed line of fifteen heads standing silently side-by-side. It is quite breath-taking.



We followed the road all the way around the island, stopping at several other sites, including the spectacular Ahu Akiva, where another line of 7 moai face directly towards where the sun sets at the equinoxes.



The whole island is steeped in history, and much mystery still surrounds the moai, and the reasons for building them. Read more about what is known of Rapa Nui's unusual and fascinating history at Wikipedia here.

We returned to town, and ate wonderful empanendas, a sort of huge pie filled with meat and cheese, and watched surfers on the popular surf break, and then it was time for Annette to pack her bags and I dropped her off at the airport.

Back at home I met Andres, and as promised he was ready to give me my first Spanish lesson, and we spent an hour or so working through numbers and colours, using pool balls as teaching aids.



Annette had only needed to hire the car for the minimum 8 hours, but for 5,000 Pesos more (about $10) the hire could be extended to 24 hours, so I had paid the extra, and have the car until tomorrow morning. Andres had some work to do, so headed up the hill out of town to watch sunset at the lovely high point at Orongo. Viewpoints here look down one side into a huge volcanic crater.



on the other side there is also a wonderful view westward over the sea to the two tiny islands offshore where clans would compete against each other in a dangerous "Birdman" competition. This involved climbing down the steep cliffs, swimming out to the further of the two islands, getting a bird's egg, and being first back to shore and up the cliffs with an unbroken egg. A representative of the winning clan would hold the powerful position of "Birdman" for the next year.



Just before I arrived on the island I downloaded and watched the 1994 Kevin Costner-produced movie "Rapa Nui" which wonderfully dramatises the making of the moai, and the birdman competition. It is well worth watching, particularly for some historical context and the spectacular locations.

My thanks to Andres for kindly providing accomodation, bicycle, Spanish lessons and more, to Diana for a wonderful dinner. And of course, huge thanks to Annette for taking me along with her on her last day on the island, allowing me to achieve goal 74 with her. What a wonderful day.

Andres has said that I can rent his scooter over the next few days, and I plan to be out as much as possible, exploring more of the interesting locations on this fascinating island.

Basic bicycle blunder.

Do you ride a bicycle? I'd like some feedback from you on a question I have, which I'll come to shortly.

I have ridden bicycles since I was a kid, and have ridden motorcycles since I was 15. I've had my fair share of falls and scrapes, even breaking my collarbone in a spectacular cycle incident at the age of 12. And although I don't consider myself any sort of cycling expert, I've always thought of myself as pretty capable on a bike.

And so yesterday, when I found myself off the bike and on the ground, sliding quite painfully and, I imagine, quite spectacularly through the gravel, I cursed myself for making a error so basic as using the front brake on a gravelly surface. How could I be so stupid? I knew better than to use the front brake, even in a quick automatic reaction when a car suddenly appears around the corner. I could ride better than that, couldn't I?

I am starting to think that this type of photo of myself is becoming a little to common:-



Andres, the couchsurfer I had heard from just before flying to the island, came to visit me at the hostel on my first day on the island, and that evening we went out for a couple of beers. He said I could move into his spare room the next day, and as I ate breakfast at the hostel yesterday morning, he dropped his bicycle off, which he said I was welcome use throughout the week if I wished.

It was quite a tricky ride from the hostel to his house with both of my rucsacs on, but I'm pretty good on a bike, I thought! I made it without incident. Later in the afternoon I decided to head up the hill to the south of town to one of the island's interesting locations.

I was going quickly downhill towards the main road, and at the junction ahead, unwisely decided to cut the corner and try to keep my speed up. I was unlucky, and there was a car coming the other way. I hit the brakes. The front wheel locked instantly, and down I went at high speed, onto my left side, re-scraping the same arm injured in my fall off the ostrich, and hurting the same ribs again! I was winded but basically okay, and the concerned car driver was soon on his wayagain, after stopping to help me.

I abandoned my journey, and headed back to Andres's house to painfully clean the gravel out of my wounds. I was cut, scraped bruised all over - left thigh, left hip, ribs, left shoulder, and right palm.

Later in the evening I was invited to Diana's, another of the island's couchsurfers, for a fantastic dinner, and decided to cycle there. I had a few glasses of wine with dinner, and made sure I took it pretty carefully, weaving my way home at midnight, but at one point had to brake approaching a junction.

"Wait a minute..." I thought to myself, "there's someting odd here!" and I stopped to examine the bike, testing both brake levers. Now, every motorcycle I have been on, and I am pretty sure every bicycle I have had, had always had the fornt brake on the right. A motorcycle will of course have the clutch on the left, but a scooter or bicycle will have the back brake on the left.

As I examined the bike in the darkness my spirits soared. The front brake was on the left! When I had reacted automatically in the face of gravelly danger I had pulled the left lever pretty hard, and on most bikes this would have resulted in a controllable rear-wheel slide. But not on this bike! It had locked the front wheel and down I had gone! I was so pleased that I hadn't made a stupid error. My only mistake was not to have realised earlier that the brakes were the other way round.

And so I ask you... Which side is your front brake on? Does anyone else ride a bike with the front brake on the left? Is this a common thing that I need to watch out for? Let me know! It might save me more pain in the future, particularly as I am considering a big mountain bike descent in the mountains of Peru. Thanks.

Isla de Pascua.

The flight to Easter Island, or Isla de Pascua in Spanish, took around five hours, and I was met at the airport by Barbara from Kona Tau Hostel, which I had booked for one night. I have been trying to find a couchsurfer to stay with on the island, but I have only found three people here registered on couchsurfer.org. I managed to get in contact with two, but unfortunately both have their couches occupied during my time here. However, at the last minute, late night on my last evening at the hostel in Santiago I got a message from Andres, the third person I had written to, and he said I could stay at his place for a couple of nights. Fantastic, I think it will be great to get a bit of local insight into the island, rather than just joining an island tour.

After dropping my bags off I took a walk into the little town, Hanga Roa. The whole place reminds me very much of Christmas Island, where I spent two weeks in December last year. The islands are similar in size, Easter Island being a little bigger, I think. Both are formed by past volcanic activity, both pretty tropical, although the slopes of Easter Island are bare compared to the thick jungle of Christmas Island, and both are very remote. The population on Easter Island is bigger than Christmas Island, around 3,800 here compared to 1,400 on Christmas Island. The whole little town has a very similar, local, friendly feel to it, with small shops filled with hideously expensive food, all of which has to be flown in from afar, just like Christmas Island.



I walked down to the seafront, where there was a surf competition taking place on what looked like a pretty dangerous break with some nasty hidden rocks. Just along the coast by the tiny little harbour I came across my first carved moai, one of the huge, elongated head-shaped sculptures that the island is famous for.



In town I researched car hire prices, which are, unsurprisingly, expensive. I think a scooter, at $60 for two days represents better value than $80 per day for a car. The island is only 24 kilometres long and 12 kilometres wide, so shouldn't be too bad to get around on too wheels. I am looking forward to doing some exploring over the next few days.

Santiago de Chile.

It was a long day of travel, flying from Johannesburg, in South Africa, to Santiago, in Chile, South America. I was up at 4.30am, and dropped off at the airport just after 5. The first short hop took me back into Cape Town, and flying in I got a great view of Table Mountain from my right side window seat. On the way out I was again on the right and as we turned west across the cape south of the city I got my last glimpse of the spectacular mountain, with it's tablecloth of cloud.



Next stop was Buenos Aires after a long flight over the southern Atlantic Ocean. I was lucky there, and at the LAN Airways transfer desk I was asked if I wanted to be changed to an earlier flight onward to Santiago. This was great, as it meant I would arrive in Santiago around 9pm rather than well after 11pm, and would still be able to get into the city to find accomodation, rather than spend the night at the airport, as I had originally planned.

A bus took me to the city, and after a short journey on the Metro I found the hostel that I had booked for the following two nights, and was lucky again, they had one bed left that night.

Despite a long day and late night, the next morning I was up really early, as Santiago is five hours behind Johannesburg, and as it got light at 5am, it felt like 10am to me.

After breakfast and a quick study of a map, I took a wander into the city. It is wonderfully refreshing after three weeks in Africa to wander around a city and not feel that you have to have be constantly looking over your shoulder, watching your pockets, or fending off unwanted sales pitches. I really enjoyed Africa, but it is nice to just blend in again, and be able to wander freely and at ease.

I ended up climbing the 800 metre peak just to the north of the city centre. On the summit there is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary, called Madre de Santiago. I had scrambled alone up the steep slopes, having decided to take the more direct approach, but the cafes at the top were busy with tough cyclists who had ridden up on the road, and less hardy tourists who had come up on the cable railway.



The sweeping view of the city was marred somewhat by a smoggy layer, and the snow-capped mountains to the east, I am sure, would be spectacular on a clearer day.

Back in the city I did some necessary grocery shopping and headed back to the hostel for a late lunch. Ventana Sur Hostel is a friendly little place, with a swimming pool, free Wi-Fi (always a big plus for me!), a great breakfast included, and wonderfully helpful staff. I spent the rest of the day hanging out by the pool, chatting with other travellers, and catching up on some overdue email tasks.

I planned to explore more of Santiago the next day, but was still battling the jetlag a bit, sleeping only five hours or so again. The lure of the sunny poolside proved too strong, and I ended up spending the whole day at the hostel relaxing and while I had a good internet connection I thought it might be wise to sort out some necessary practicalities for the next couple of weeks of travels.

I tried to get to sleep at a reasonable hour, as another early morning was required to catch the first Metro at 6.30am, and then the bus back to the airport, and finally another long flight to the world's most remote inhabited place, Easter Island.