Taking care of business

We've seen some pretty cool things on Easter Island, art and culture and history.

We've stopped to take photos of things not on the beaten path.

But on Friday, Feb. 20, we needed to spend a day taking care of business.  And maybe do a bit of wandering around.  We returned the scooters.  Yep … rode in sandals.

Look at those sandals.

We found a good cuppa Joe.

We also went to the LAN office to get our tickets fixed and to see if we could change a flight to shorten or eliminate the long layover in Lima.  Nope.  Flights are full.  Oh well.  Was interesting there were so many people at the office.  Took about an hour or so.  You sat in a chair or stood while waiting, and Jaz had to let some someone know she was not next in line, only our Number One.  Okay.  No.  We were both quite polite.

I'll miss hearing the chickens in the morning.

I'll miss seeing the horses everywhere.

 

I'll miss the beauty of the flowers.

We walked around some, found another moai, got caught in some warm rain, looked at trinkets, shared an e’tun (tuna) empanada and just spent the day in slow motion, getting ready for the next marathon of flying.

 

I'll never understand why the cop cars have their windows and lights covered with metal screens with a hole for the driver to look through.

I'll miss the people who are friendly.

I won't miss the pounding rain although it did not last long.

 

I'll miss the colorful boats.

And the people willing to ham it up for a photo.

And I'll never enjoy a meal at a table for one on the beach of Isla de Pascua.

Saturday, Feb 21, was the day we would leave.  We had been speaking with a man from Seattle who said you could go to the post office and get your passport stamped with a stamp from Easter Island.  We all walked down to the post office to get our stamp.  It’s pretty cool.  Easter Island … the name given by the island’s first recorded European visitor who encountered it on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722.  We had a great time.  And by the way, the island’s official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means Easter Island.

It was a great addition to the other stamps.

Marcello, our host, took us to the airport, pushed past everyone and took us to the head of the line.  He gave us both necklaces with a shell and a chicken feather. 

So long, beautiful island with your beautiful shore and water.

Enough mooning over the beautiful place we'd been.  It was now time for our next marathon of airplane flights.  Easter Island to Santiago, Chile.  Santiago to Lima, Peru.  Aggggghhhhh!!!!!  Another 8-9 hour layover  This time the airport was hopping and we couldn’t find a real quiet place to take much of a nap.  But never to be left without an adventure, Jaz’s reciprocity paperwork was not 100 percent in order.  I stayed with the luggage at the gate while she ran back and forth twice before getting it fixed.  All those months in the gym paid off.  We boarded the bus to our flight with three minutes to spare. 

Finally, Sunday, Feb. 22.  We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  We were tired but had arranged for a transfer from the airport so it went smoothly except we were too tired to really take in anything.  The Hotel Esplendor is right down town, check in went very smoothly and we got into our room.  We didn’t do much.  We had a bite to eat at the little restaurant across the street, walked around the block and came back to the room.

The next item on our list of to do’s was to get our computers up and running.  Well, wouldn’t you know it … we blew the fuse in our room, all the lights went out and we fried our surge suppressor.  Guess it did what it was supposed to.  The hotel folks came and fixed the fuse right away, but now we were without Internet.  And that’s just not acceptable.

We discovered Jaz’s machine could be plugged directly into the converter, but mine could not.  I ran on battery as long as I could … but …