Okay.  Fine.  Even going through customs was worth it to get to Easter Island.  I´ve done so much in the past week that I haven´t had the time to stop and write my blog.

Last night I went to see the cultural dance troupe Kari Kari.  It was an hour of traditional Rapa Nui dance and music.  The movement were similar to Hawaiin dance and included some serious rapid hip shaking moves.  They chose people from the audience to join them to dance and it was fun to watch people do a bad job at imitating the moves.  I got to take this photo with a couple of hot Rapa Nui fellas.  They were sweating a lot too.

On Tuesday, Pina took me fishing with her daughter Vaireva, her cousin Tasha and Kay, a guest from Japan who lived in Guatemala for 5 months and talks pretty good Spanish.  He´s especially good at talking about sex, pot and drinking.  We drove close to Ranu Raraku, which is the quarry where the Moai were built.  Pina bought raw chicken, bread and some hooks.  They use the chicken or wet bread as the bait.  They don´t like worms.  The fishing rod that I used was basically a 12 inch piece of PVC pipe, kind of like the size of a large coffee can, with fishing line wrapped around it and a wooden stick inside that is the handle.  And away we were.  I didn´t catch a damned thing.  I didn´t feel so bad because Pina and Vaireva weren´t much more successful.  At least they could cast the line out farther than I could.  I had a hard time feeling if the fish were nibbling at the hook.  One time I brought the line back up and all the chicken was gone.  Que sin verguenzas son los pescados!

The following pics are of Tasha setting up the gear.  Then you can see our little fishing pier.  It was terrifying at first to stand up and fish because the waves would really swell sometimes and we had to run away about 3 times because they crashed on our spot.  Thank God Tasha knew when to tell us to run.  I have some video footage of a big wave almost crashing over us.  Tasha caught some fish at that spot and then suggested we try another.  At the second spot, Pina suggested Vaireiva and I take a swim.  But I didn´t bring a bathing suit!  So what, go in with your underwear.  Being the quasi adventurous woman that I am, I wore my panties and T-shirt.  The lava rocks hurt my feet so I wore Pina´s Crocks and the water was much colder than I expected.  At the end of the day, it was all a ploy to keep me out of Tasha´s way.  She just caught fish after fish, once we were out of the picture.

Then we got out of the water and Tasha was cleaning fish.  By the way she would stomp on their heads after she caught them.  Then she gutted them and ate the raw liver and invited me to do the same.  Yumm.  Of course I did it.  It wasn´t as bad as I expected and my powers of denial came in handy as I chewed away.  If that wasn´t bad enough, she cleaned out a couple of inches of intenstine for me eat.  She squeezed some lemon on it and called it Ceviche.  Oh, in that case, I´ll have two!!  That was much chewier and a little more difficult to enjoy, but I think I gained her respect. 

Then we went home and I took a shower and then Pina showed me how she prepares a fried fish meal.  Pina sprinkled salt to the fish and chopped garlic.  The rice had grated carrots and a little garlic.  After my ver first real fishing trip, it was divine.

Koo koo roo koo roo koo roo!!!  That´s how I woke up this morning.

Went out on a tour with Pina, the owner of the bed & breakfast I´m staying in.  We were supposed to leave at 10am but I had locked my key in my room and since it´s the ONLY key they have, she had to get her brother in law to open the door.  He tried squeezing his son through my bathroom window, but he couldn´t fit.  Luckily, my Spanish neighbor suggested trying to shake the lock on my sliding doors and it worked.  So much for security.

Luckily, it´s a safe island.  There actually is a jail and there are about 10 people in it at a time.  They go in for things like shoplifting and non payment of child support.  The only drugs they use is marijuana and alcohol.  I walked home in the dark last night and didn´t have a problem.

Pina told us a lot about the island on my tour with Toshi, my Japanese neighbor who has been traveling the world for the past 2.5 months.  Next stop for him is Chile, Mexico and then Alaska before he heads home.  Here are some facts she shared with us:

• There are 5,000 inhabitants.  In the summer that numbe goes up to 15,000 with tourists.
• Easter Island is expensive.  Pina says 1 kilo of fruit in Santiago might be 400 pesos and 1 piece of the same fruit on Easter Island is 400 pesos. 
• The Island wants to gain independence from Chile because they don´t really do much to benefit them.  I haven´t noticed many paved roads.  The few I´ve seen were probably paved quite a few years ago. 
• LAN Airlines is the only airline that flies to Easter Island, so they have no competition and all of the profits go to Chile.
• If they want to buy a car, they have to purchase one in Chile for about 7 million pesos (about $12,000US) and have it shipped for 2 million (approx. $3,000US). 
• Pina even pays the $600 round trip fare to Santiago just to buy her daughters school supplies and clothes because the prices and quality are better than on the island.  She also brings back supplies for other parents.
• The U.S. donated 5 large generators and Chile still makes them pay for electricity. 
• There´s one hospital and about 10-12 doctors,  mostly from Santiago.  Cuba offers full scholarships to anyone who wants to go to medical school (in Cuba).
• The island got internet service in 2003 and cell phone service in 2005. 
• With everyone almost being related to everyone else, there aren´t many pure Rapa Nui people left.  Many choose to marry outside of the island so they can avoid risking birth defects.

So the tour lasted most of the day.  We saw a lot of Moai, of course. 

Rano Raraku

Rano Raraku is basically the quarry where the Moai were built and then taken to other parts of the island.  There are no trees in the area and Pina says that is how the workers transported the heavy statues around the island.  Being there was like stepping back in time.  It was beautiful and I couldn´t really take a bad picture.

Rano Raraku

Ahu Tongariki

Ahu Tongariki are 15 Moai, the largest site built, that were face down either because of a warfare or the tsunami in the 60´s.   A Japanese company took it upon themselves to restore it.  Toshino says that he knows about Easter Island because of this site.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the 9am mass.  The hymns and service are all in Rapa Nui.  Freaky coincidence, Pina recently became 7th Day Adventist in the past year.  She said she´d fill me in on the details later.  Her mother sounds a lot like my mother too.  At first I thought it was the Latin connection, but her mother is 100% Rapa Nui.  Go figure.  Her mother´s father gave her away to be married for the price of two cows.  So her mother ran off to Chile and came back two years later with a Chilean husband.  Pina´s grandfather always treated them like second class citizens.  Family dysfunction is alive and kicking around the world!

Pina also said that Rapa Nui men are hot, strong, muscular and all around manly men.  According to Pina, they are supposed to be great lovers.  I told her the same thing is said about Italians and Latins in general.  She looked at me and said she never heard of that.  Here we are in front of a fallen Moai hat.

Ruth and Pina