Days 13 & 14 - The long way home

A wind-blown landscape worthy of the most remote inhabited island in the world - Easter Island aka Rapa Nui

Day 13 - Rapa Nui / Santiago / Miami

Hotel Manavai courtyard

In the night I woke and couldn’t get back to sleep so I packed.  I’ll be glad to be back among my own closets and cupboards and Stuff, but I’m sad to leave all this behind.  Especially my new friends Kim and Hugo.
       In addition to the Michigan Theater hoodie that I gave Kim for her son, I’m leaving behind my two pairs of Levi’s, which are now too big for me, thanks to all this exercise - and I hope that will be a condition that lasts.  I’m also leaving behind my Nikes - I have another pair at home - and the two pair of socks that went with them.  Unfortunately there was no way to wash them in time, but Kim tells me people won’t mind and that they’ll make someone very happy.  Which is only fair. They all made me happy here.
       I sit at my table on the terrace after breakfast and finish my book.  I trade it for one I found in the TV room, a TV I didn’t watch because reception here is so bad. Of course, you’re 6 hours off the coast of Chile with no relay points in between except for satellites which may not circle often this far south (27°S).  A chance to say good-bye to Kim, and we’re both choked up and in tears.  Hugo is on a half-day tour, so I ask her to say good-bye to him for me.

       The van comes and we guests are given a moai necklace that will travel the world with me as of this point - France, Jordan, Cuba...  We're dropped off at Mataveri Airport the requisite 2½ hours early, which is ridiculous for an airport so tiny.  To register, I have to put my suitcase through the x-ray machine and I’m pulled to one side.  It’s the Andean sea salt, which I had totally forgotten.  Boy, customs in the States is going to have a field day with that!  The officer takes a look at it, squishes it around and puts it back, satisfied it’s not cocaine.  I palaver with the desk clerk - my suitcase is pretty empty but weighs 12 kilos instead of the requisite 8.  I explain about the tight turn-around time in Santiago and the mishap on the flight in. She may have suffered the same problem because she lets me keep it as carry-on.
       The flight from Chile will arrive at 1, refuel and turn around to leave at 2.  I’m going to be cooped up in a tin can for many, many hours in the immediate future so I decide to go read outside the airport, in the shade and cooled by a South Pacific breeze.

       Which is a good thing because suddenly Hugo appears.  He’s there to greet newcomers to the hotel - something I missed out on, thanks to being a supposed “no-show” - and he came early so he could say good-bye in person.  I’m very touched.
       After that, it’s just the flight back over the waters, and a change of plane for an even longer flight.  It’s been a long day and it’s going to be an even longer night.

Day 14 - Miami / Charlotte / Detroit

Upon arrival in Miami, I have to go through customs.  No problem with the Andean salt here.  That happens when I try to check in for my “final flight” to Detroit.  The woman officer pulls me to one side and I tell her where the offending package is and what it is and she totally believes me with one look at it.  She’s either very experienced or very naive.  Maybe I missed my calling as a drug mule.
       There’s an undocumented change of planes on what was supposed to be the last leg of my homeward trip. This plane is headed to Charlotte, not Detroit.  First I’m told we’ll stay on the plane.  Then that I have to change planes but that the gate is nearby.  Finally it ends up being at the totally opposite end of the airport, and the cart they said would be waiting doesn’t appear because there aren’t enough of them.
       My final “final” plane arrives in Detroit at 4 p.m.  It’s a domestic flight, so no customs this time.  I head straight for the taxi stand and the driver delivers me to my door.  First thing is to order some Chinese from the restaurant just down the street, pick it up and eat it.  Then a quick shower to wash off my day’s travels and then to bed.  The return has required four planes and 30 hours in all.  I don’t remember my head hitting the pillow.
       I will end up sleeping 14 straight hours. 

Day 12 - Rapa Nui

A hare paenga, a typical original home... with a yellow dog who may just be mine

My last full day on the island.  No tours today.  So no wake-up call.  After the past three days, it seems restful.
       But something magic has happened overnight.  Having heard tales about how beautiful and bright the Milky Way is here, I once again try to see it, as I did in Ollantaytambo.  But the moon is too bright and there are too many trees blocking the horizon, which is crazy for a place I had been told didn’t have a single tree left.  I could walk down to the ocean, but I’m naked under my robe and don’t feel like getting all dressed... or heading out alone.  Which I think I am.  But suddenly I see a shadow moving out of the corner of my eye and swing around.  It’s a yellow dog, appeared out of nowhere.  He doesn’t belong to the hotel.  Tail wagging, he decides to adopt me and when I head back to my room, he rushes inside.  I manage to get him out, but he curls up in front of my door and guards it through the rest of the dark night.  When I wake up, he’s gone.  But it wasn’t a dream.  I choose to believe he was my Spirit Dog sent to watch over me.

       I take up my station on the terrace.  Over breakfast, a German woman also visiting the island on her own tells me about her pre-dawn ride to the eastern end of the island to see the sun rise.  I would have loved to go - if the dog would have let me - but there was no more room in the car.  She promises to send me photos.  (And ends up coming to visit me in Paris a few months later.)  After she heads off, I pull out my book, to finish it so I can leave it for Kim.  After the fiasco in Santiago on the way out, I intend to travel light on the way home so I can keep my suitcase with me as carry-on.

Hugo and his ancestor

       Then Hugo appears.  No tours this morning, I guess.  He’s been answering questions from the Canadian philosophy professor, whose interest is also in the history of the island and what nearly destroyed it.  The questions and answers are interesting and make it hard to concentrate on my book, so I ask if I can join them “if I promise to shut up”. (Because Hugo always welcomed questions during the tours and I had a lot, but this morning is the Professor’s gig.)  Hugo laughs and the professor says “sure”, maybe because I went along to the hospital yesterday and then checked in on him later.  It’s a very pleasant way to spend some down-time and I learn a lot. I’m surprised when we stop and I see it’s already 1 p.m.

Graffiti with rooster, in Hanga Roa

       At which time Hugo leaves, the professor and his team head out on a film shoot at the other end of the island in spite of yesterday’s gash on his head, and food becomes an issue.  
Kim suggests going next door to the restaurant and decides to walk me over there and introduce me to her friend, the owner. Which she does.  I order “to go”, which Kim has already announced, but somehow the message doesn’t get through and after a while, cutlery is set out on the terrace table where he told me to wait.  O.K.  I can go with that.  Maybe he just found my curiosity appealing, as I’ve been chatting with his boyfriend.  The two people at other table leave and the friend’s attention turns to me, by default. He compliments me on wearing a skirt.  Says women don’t wear skirts any more.  Little does he know that it’s the only thing in my suitcase that I haven’t worn yet on the trip and that’s why I’ve got it on.  I leave him to his illusions.  Then he finds out I just had a birthday... and he orders drinks for both of us. (Maybe merely an excuse to have another one himself, but who cares?)  The drink is followed by a huge kiss on both cheeks.  I return to the hotel with a full stomach and a lot merrier.

The cemetery, lit by a golden sunset

       That evening I decide to walk out to the edge of town, in spite of my night semi-blindness.  Kim told me it was a great place to watch the sun set, setting both on Easter Island / Rapa Nui and on my adventuresome trip.  This is where Hugo dropped everyone off while we went to the hospital, so I want to see what I missed.  No problem walking out, but so many interesting things to photograph on the way - including the cemetery - that I almost miss sunset and have to scurry the rest of the way.  Of course the clouds decide to amass on the horizon in spite of an otherwise cloudless sky.  I’m not the only person here, which is good because after the photo shoot I pick a couple and follow them through the darkness.  There are way too many rocks to stumble over here, and they’re all sharp black basalt.  I saw yesterday what that can do.  Walking at night in the pitch black (no streetlights, no moon) down streets one doesn’t know, just headed in the right general direction... well, that’s enough adventure for me.  Lunch was late and copious.  I’m tired. Headed for bed.