Thursday, December 1, 2011

Goodbye for a while

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from Easter Island! It was an unforgettable weekend. I'm leaving in a few hours for what will be an unforgettable 2 weeks: Patagonia! I'll spend a few days on the chilean side and then hop the border over to Argentina. I took my last final today and can't believe this trip is actually happening. My friend Ben and I have been talking about it since we realized we were studying in the same place...that was in March-ish. Here are some random pictures of what I've been doing these past few weeks:


Thanksgiving potluck!


Ice cream and Breaking Dawn with Katie and Lauren. Is that American enough?


Me at my metro stop


Dinner with Maria and her family. Maria and I were in choir together in high school and she lives here now! 

Now, to Torres del Paine, El Chalten, El Calafate, and Ushuaia I go!

Monday, November 28, 2011

La Cabalgata

Después del amanecer, regresamos al hostal y nuestro guía para la cabalgata nos recogió. Este día fue una aventura/experiencia inolvidable. Nuestros guías fueron Rapa Nui legítimos. Nunca habían ido de la isla y cuidaron de sus caballos todos los días a veces dando tours como lo nuestro. Recorrimos a caballo la costa norte de la isla. El paisaje era espectacular para los siete horas del tour. Por la izquierda era el mar tan azul que no lo creía. Por la derecha era el volcán más grande de la isla.


La propiedad del guía. Our guide's property.


One of our guides. Interesting fellow. Didn't speak much.


I was taking blind pictures all day and happened to snatch this one of Katie!



Después de dos horas, paramos a una cueva con petroglifos. Ya había empezado sentir los efectos de montar un caballo. Montamos una hora más y luego paramos para almorzar. Bueno, primero los guías tenían que pescar y cocinar los peces. Como dije, una aventura.
 


The cave with petrolyphs. 


Lauren and the crew



My trusty steed, Elle.

 Los peces tenían un sabor muy bueno y no podían haber sido más frescos pero todavía no podía comerlos. Yo escogí el carne que (por supuesto) vino de un rancho que habíamos pasado hace como 30 minutos. Super rico. Otra dos horas a caballo y llegamos a nuestra destinación: una playa magnifica. Compré joyería de una mujer en la playa y tomé un vaso de jugo de guayaba (delicioso!) sentada en la arena (casi no podíamos caminar). Un día fantástico :)


Our guides catching fish.


It's an okay lunch spot.


After sunrise, we returned to the hostel and our horseback ride guide picked us up. This day was an unforgettable adventure/experience. Our guides were legit Rapa Nui. They had never left the island, took care of their horses all day and sometimes gave tours like ours. We rode along the northern coast of the island. The scenery was incredible for the seven-ish hours of our tour. On our left was the unbelievably blue sea and on our right was the largest volcano on the island.




Yep



After two hours, we stopped at a cave to see petroglyphs. I had already started to feel the effects of riding a horse. We rode for an hour more and then stopped to have lunch. Well, our guides had to catch lunch first and then cook it. As I said, an adventure.




Beach!

The fish had a great flavor and couldn't have been fresher but I still couldn't eat them. I chose the meat which (of course) came from a ranch we had passed about 30 minutes before. (Happy cows make delicious meat) Another two hours on horseback and we arrived at our destination: a beautiful beach. I bought some jewelry from a lady on the beach and had a glass of guayaba juice (awesome) sitting on the sand (we almost couldn't walk). What a great day :)



Unable to walk anymore



Don't forget the moai!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Ahu Tongariki at Sunrise

El domingo nos levantamos a las 6 de la manana para manejar al otro lado de la isla y mirar el amanecer a Ahu Tongariki. Las fotos dicen todo.

We got up at 6 in the morning on Sunday to drive to the other side of the island and watch the sunrise at Ahu Tongariki. The pictures say it all.










Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Easter Island - Day 2 Part 2

Vamos a Rano Raraku y Ahu Tongariki! Rano Raraku es la cantera donde tallaron los moai. Todavía hay 400 moai que ellos nunca movieron o nunca terminaron. Es interesante que puedas ver el fallecimiento de la gente de Rapa Nui allá. Los habitantes nativos explotaron la naturaleza de la isla tanto que no tenía  arboles para transportar los moai. Cuando la isla fue 'descubierta', la gente estaba luchando y había recurrida a canibalismo. 


Mi primera vista de la cantera. My first view of the quarry.





El cráter del volcán. Este es el otro lado de la cantera. The volcano's crater. This is the other side of the quarry.


An excavation!

Now to Rano Raraku and Ahu Tongariki! Rano Raraku is the quarry where they carved the moai. There are still 400 moai that were never moved or finished. It is interesting that you can see the demise of the Rapa Nui people. The native habitants exploited nature to such an extreme degree that they ran out of trees to transport the moai. When the island was 'discovered', the Rapa Nui were fighting and had resorted to cannabilism.


Caballos en todos partes




Moai olvidados. Forgotten moai.


El único moai sentado. The only seated moai.


Faceplant


Es probable que hayas visto fotos de Ahu Tongariki. Esta linea de moai ha caído dos veces pero siempre ha sido restablecido para continuar proteger la isla. Regresamos el día siguiente así que vas a ver muchas mas fotos de este (:

It's likely that you've seen pictures of Ahu Tongariki. This line of moai has fallen twice but it has always been restored to continue to protect the island. We went back the next day so you will see many more pics of this (: