From: "Philip Merryman" <phil_merryman@hotmail.com>

Date: Wed Apr 24, 2002 01:22:29 AM Etc/GMT

Subject: The Big Sleep

"Iorana" again!

"Iorana" is Rapanui for "Hello"

I have just found out that everywhere is closed tomorrow!!!! Something to do with a census I think. So here is a quick continuation of yesterday¥s story.

I was met as the airport by Lucia, the lady who runs the Residencial (B&B) where I am staying. As is customary here I recieve a garland of flowers. However, as I said yesterday: no rucksack! Lan Chile, to their credit (it was Qantas fault for being late!), gave me a pack of toiletries and a spare T-shirt and boxers! So, along with a souvenir Polo Shirt I had bought at Auckland Airport, I at least had some change of clothing and a means to wash!

I had come to Easter Island for two reasons: 1) to see the famous statues and other historic sites; and 2) To have a rest! Here I had 12 nights in the same place! So a chance to slow down a bit. However, with my boots and most of my other stuff in the rucksack there was not as lot I could do until it arrived. Some of the roads here are surfaced but many,in the village, are not and my soft shoes were just not up to it!

Having travelled all the way across the Pacific and half the way back agaim my body clock was by now completely scrambled! So sleep on Sunday night was most welcome. This continued through Monday too!! I literally spent most of Monday asleep!!

Now Lucia is a lovely lady and always wants to look after her guests as well as she can. She asked me what the English eat for breakfast. So I told her: Eggs,Bacom,Sausage, Mushrooms, Tomatoes followed by Toast & Marmalade and,of course, tea! (I needed some help from my phrase book!!). Soon Monday evening we go to the Supermercado to buy it all!!! Tuesday morning I cook it to show her how it is done and I have had "English Breakfast" ever since!! I told her to add this to her publicity leaflets!!

Tuesday I managed to venture as far as the museum,only 500m away and to the coast (a similar distance) where some of the statues are! However, this confirms that my shoes are not really up to it. The museum is small, one room only 10m square, but has some interesting artefacts and lots of info on the walls, all in Spanish. However they have a printed translation in correct English so it was very informative! Fortunately I had my cameras (they do NOT go in hold luggage) and heaps of film I had bought duty free, so I was able to get some photos of the local statues, known as Moai.

Wednesday again I spent most of it asleep,the tiredness and time zone confusion still having its effect! Furthermore,although it is a 5 hour flight here from Chile, the clocks are only 2 hours different, for administrative reasons. Consequently I reckon that Easter Island is on something like Double Summer Time!! Hence even a month after the autumn equinox the sun still sets at 7pm! This also means that when the clock says 9am it is about 7am by the sun, and you know what I am like in ther mornings!!! So this even further confuses my system and, 10 days later I have just about adjusted!!!

The highlight of Wednesday was going to the airport to get my rucksack!! As I have said the chap from Lan Chile was almost as relieved as I was. However, in the mean time I had found out that my flight back was a DAY earlier!!! So while waiting for the rucksack to appear I re-book my flights from here to Miami. I will worry about the extra night in Miami when I get there, but at least it removes the tight connection where I had to re-check in my bags. It also splits up the 4 aircraft journey to Seattle into two manageable two flight legs.

So that is the epic of how I got here. I had allowed 12 days here to give plenty of contingency if there was any problems with the flights, especially as they are only 2 a week! The lack of a rucksack and the day early return has effectively left me 7 days to explore the island, which I have needed! 4 days would have been too much of a rush!

Anyway, Lucia will have my dinner ready soon,so I had better go!

TTFN

Phil