Crossing the track from the campsite we loved checking out the size of the waves! Naturally Negro had decided to come with us...'You are NOT invited!'
Doesn't look that big here, but it was accompanied by a huge roaring sound!
Some fishermen in one of the fiberglass boats that we had seen previously in the harbour at Hanga Piko, and a lovely Maguay in the foreground.
It was thrilling to watch the surfers and body-borders, not that there were many when we were there. We saw a Billabong poster for a surf comp in June/July. It must have been quite spectacular.
This spot off Playa Pea seemed to be popular for surfing.
A body-border is in there!
We spent most of day 7 trying to locate Pantu, a local man who offered horse rides. This was based on me loving his poster where he is flinging his head back and laughing hysterically while on a horse....what's not to love, huh? And why not pick someone to go on a ride with on the basis of this, Lol.
We tried phoning him at the internet cafe, many times to no avail...then we just plain decided to try to find his house...shouldn't be too difficult in Hanga Roa, surely, no?
Well we had three maps, all with differing roads, but we knew it was near the museum, having been there twice we headed off. We were still accompanied by Negro, who had only bloody waited for us outside the internet cafe! 'You are NOT our dog...how many times?'
We did eventually find Pantu's home, but no one was in, and we weren't completely certain because there was no sign...but there was a paddock...Sherlock, not! Negro got into a lot of trouble on the way there and back, making it look like he was our dog...get off! At one point we were joined by two other dogs who we actually had to chase off in the Franny stylee (not the Leslie Evans technique), and had to really mean it! This was beyond ridiculous and we could see why some people needed to go on Dog Borstal (tv prog) with their mental dogs to retrain them.
Much later that evening we took a taxi to Pantu's house and found him in the garden, and in the porch light we confirmed our ride out for the next morning...finally!
Get in day 8 on the island! I was super excited. We even got picked up from the campsite, thus meaning that we didn't have to be up insanely early. We got got given a horse each that looked fit and well looked after. We set off on the trek with only two others, a couple from Santiago. Our guide, who, shock horror wasn't Pantu himself after all! It seemed Pantu just ran the business now...oh well! Lol.
Wiji was well into it.
Hoofing along...lol.
It was a day of blazing sunshine...fortunately for us!
On the beaten track we made our way out of Hanga Roa...
Always on a horse that likes to be in front! Luckily our horses didn't hate each other, so we could actually ride together.
Lol, we had some rather nice black suede velcro leg protectors...hat, what safety hat?
LMAO...wrong.
We passed some ploughed fields where our guide told us they were growing the local crop Taro.
Wiji's horse decided to put its head down at exactly the moment of the piccy...does it even look like he is on a horse now?!
Eucalyptus trees, not native to the island.
Having a great time! Behind me is the woman from Santiago, Pantu described her horse as like a 'turtle'...he wasn't wrong...the guide had to keep shoving it along, glad it wasn't my horse!
We briefly over took a Korean man who was also making his way to the highest point on the island Maunga Terevaka, but on foot. The man from Santiago took great pleasure in telling him it would take him ages to get there...lol, a bit un-helpful!
Lol, check out the guide! He had the most amazing hair ever, ever! Like he had 'just stepped out of a salon stylee'. Bona-fide Rapa Nui good looks!
Hanga Roa in the distance now.
Loving those cloud shadows.
I eventually asked our guide for a piccy (rather than my last rubbish attemp at doing it subtly, lol!) He was more than pleased..he even swung his shiny, lush hair around for the piccy! I was tempted to get him to have it blowing in the wind behind him, Maria Carey stylee...Lmao, but that may have been too much to ask! He spoke really good English and was a very chilled person.
Rear of the year...Nooooooo! Wiji this isn't the kind of piccy I want!
Poike in the distance.
Wiji was well chuffed with himself for adopting this nonchalant horse riding pose, after our previous horse ride with Martin.
One of the islands many tiny volcanic craters, this one with a watery reed bed.
Heading up to the 'lonely tree' as our guide put it...
Looking back at Hanga Roa...from even higher up!
Don't go near this edge horsey!
It was here that we dismounted and our guide left us to chill and take in the 360 degree view of the island...wow!
He laid down and did some texting on his mobile!
The cloud reflected in the ocean. Neither of us had seen this before!
On the highest point , Maunga Terevaka...yay! Hanga Roa in the distance...
More cloud reflections in the distance. From here you could actually see that the world is round! No really, that was how it actually looked!
Poike.
Oooh yeah love, nice horse knee-high suede thingy's!
We then got on with some touristy piccys!
Looking out to sea, it was easy to understand why people described Rapa Nui as the 'Island at the end of the earth'.
Then we got back on the horses and rode down. Not quite as much fun, given that my horse had now adopted the tactic of a 'go slow, unless you see the guide and then peg it', with me bobbing about on it! Funny, eer, yes!
Then when we were back at Pantu's, we managed to dismount and walk about in a John Wayne stylee...Ouch, those knees REALLY hurt!
Pantu's paddock and our guide hosing the horses down.
Pantu came out and shook our hands. Yep we loved it, cheers, bye then! We weren't up to much after that so did a bit of a chill at the campsite. Later that evening the Chilean's arrived to join us in the shared kitchen. Here is lovely Carlos, his wife Andrea and beautiful baby Joaquin. They were really lovely people to meet.
Oh hi! Getting the Rum out again! On the left Swiss Marius and girlfriend Simmi, Chilean Fransisco, brother Rodrigo, Daniella, Carlo, Juan and Wiji. All of the Chilean's flights had been delayed again...'what one more goodbye sesh, again, again? Oh god, go on then!'
It got a bit messy, again in fact! But there was plenty of laughing and we totally loved this bunch. It really made the camping part even more fun with their lovely company!
Gggggrrrrrh!
Wastage!
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