Waken up by the cocks again at 5am, I wish I could say it's a bless but it really isn't. :P Their sounds are very strange, some sounds like they are being killed alive or the poor thing has a sore throat or something. Need a cough candy, perhaps? At least, luckily, the neighbors has been quiet this morning. So, I only need to filter out one type of sounds and try to sleep on. Get up about 7am, get myself ready, I need to have breakfast at 8:30am, get to the post office to mail the postcard, then head to the tour agency where we will start the full day tour at 10am. Breakfast with bread, butter, jam, ham & cheese, some fruit, and coffee. Breakfast has never been an important element in my life, except when I am traveling, since you never know when and where you will just have lunch and maybe even skip a lunch if necessary. So, something to stuff my stomach in the morning is important. I usually try to eat at least 2 bums.
The post office is filled with people. I notice the guys before me have the mail lady stamp on the passport. I was going to ask anyway, so now save me a question. Of course, I do that too. Got stamps for 16 postcards. I am a person who would love to share, so this precious experience in the Easter Island, of course, I need to share with lots of people. For those who will receive a postcard, lucky you, this may be the first postcard you will receive from the Easter Island, their post mark has 3 moais on it, very cool.
Got to the travel agency at 3 mins to 10am, make it just in time. I am surprised to see that my tour guide is white, I am not sure where he is from at first, but later find out that he is from New Zealand. He married to a girl from the Easter Island, and have moved here for 1 year and a half. I have no trouble understanding him of course, my tour mates today are also a group of cool people, from Switzerland, UK, France, and Canada. Speaking of countries, it's very strange, over the past 2 months, except in Cuzco and Valparaiso, I have not met a lot of American tourists around the South America continent. Perhaps South America is so close to them, and they rather go to Europe or Asia instead. I don't know. Anyway, the sky is cloudy, misty, but not raining. At least I don't need an umbrella.
We start to head south, along the rough coastline, there are a number of ahu sites and many moais. We start almost an hour later than the other tours. So, when we arrive at a site, usually the crowds have just started to leave and left us alone. I kind of like that actually. The first highlight is when we arrive at the birth place of the moais, where they made them. By the hillside of a volcano, there are some 300 moais being abandoned everywhere, some standing, some looking upwards, some laying on the stomach, and some unfinished as well. Another thing about this tour I like is that the guide is really taking the time to explain as well as letting us to wander around. Some tours like yesterday, if the guide talks longer, it jeopardizes the time we are allowed to wander around the sites. With this tour, I am gladly to say they do a good job letting the customers to see as long as they want. I really appreciate. After taking tons of pictures later, we head to Ahu Tongariki where has the famous sight of the 15 standing moais on a platform by the ocean. It is the best place for sunrise. But with this weather, there does not really have sunrise or sunset. Oh well. There is nothing I can do about it.
It is a fantastic view I must say, even though the sky is as white as a plaster wall, I still kind of lose control with the photo shooting. After touching a so-called magnetic rock which we are supposed to feel the energy coming through our bodies (I haven't felt it be honest), we arrive at our final stop of the day - Anakena beach, where has a line perfect maois welcoming the kings of the Pacific. The beach itself is quite beautiful too. At almost 4pm by the time we get there, this is the place we can find some snacks. For the whole day, we have not had lunch yet. The matter of fact is that I am running out of cash, and has been hoping we would go to a restaurant where I can use plastic. But obviously, I cannot use my credit card at the beach, I decide to skip lunch and have an early dinner instead. I am planning to have a good dinner at a French restaurant, so I hang on to my hunger and just wander away between the beach and the moais' platform. At 4:45pm, we start to head back. I am truly satisfied with today's tour. The things we visited today are what I come to Easter Island for. I hope the weather would be better, but we cannot always get what we want, I guess.
Back to town, use the internet for a bit. Then I head to the French restaurant - Au Bout De Monde, which is recommended by the Lonely Planet and a few guidebooks I have looked on the way. It is hard to say whether it is a French restaurant really, but I hear the owner speaking French and the dishes portion is not gigantic as the other meals I have. I just assume it has some French influence. For starter or drink, I have a fresh mango juice. For the main course, I have a prawns in ginger and coconut milk, which is very very tasty. I wish they have some appetizer portion stuffs, since that alone is not quite enough for my big stomach. To finish, I have a dessert, named Dame Blanche, as a big fan of Golden Girls as I am, of course, I have to try Dame Blanche, don't I? It is actually two scoops of vanilla ice-cream with some chocolate chips sprinkled on the top, and a side of a tiny little jar of hot chocolate (smokes coming off from the jar so I assume it is hot) which you can pour on the ice-cream. Though I am not a big fan of chocolate, it is still heavenly. I am kind of get the name of Dame Blanche. A white lady and you pour chocolate all over her, that is so Blanche!
After dinner, I go back to the house and finish the rest of the postcards I didn't get to finish last night. Tomorrow morning, I have about 2-3 hours to do some last minutes shopping. Since I don't have any cash left (US dollars or Chilean Pesos), I can only buy things at places where they accept credit card. I want to a small stone face statue, for which I will place in a bowl of sand, maybe find some small rocks to make a platform. That's the idea anyway. Hope I'll find something. Flight will be at 2pm, when I get back to Santiago, it will be almost 9pm in the evening. I need to find a way to get cash at the airport, otherwise I will have to take the transfer bus which will cost 4 times more expensive than an airport bus, but I can use credit card. This island has really sucked out all my money!
Photos here: Day 49 (1), Day 49 (2)
