Easter Island – a moai mystery

Although I have been back home for over 2 weeks, until now I still haven’t had the time to sort out my Easter Island photos. But better late than never!

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) had been on my ToDo List for quite some time, so finally being able to go there was (one of many) a dream come true.

My time of visit coincided with the yearly cultural Tapati festival. A 2-week extravaganza of singing, dancing, sporting activities and general merrymaking in which all of the Rapa Nui people take part.

In the couple of days I had at the island during the day I visited all of the interesting sites consisting of moai, volcanoes, caves, beaches and much more. In the evening, and the early hours of the night, I watched enthralling singing and dancing performances at the Tapati festival.

A funny thing is that after I said goodbye to John in Santiago (he left for home) I met another John, this one from the good ol’ US of A, on Easter Island and ended up having dinner and going to the festival with him every evening. The John’s are outthere!!!   

I could write quite a lot about the history of Rapa Nui, its people, its moai and its tragedies. But I won’t. There are two reasons for that.

1. Nobody exactly knows the truth, so there are many ‘truths’  to tell.

This became clear when I heard different stories from different guides and read yet another story in guidebooks and other reading materials on Easter Island.

2. Rapa Nui (in my opinion) is not to be read about, but it is to be experienced.

Nevertheless I’ll gladly tell you my experiences of Rapa Nui over some home-cooked meal (by you of course ) while on the background playing some sweet, and sometimes powerfully strong, Rapa Nui music.

For those thinking of going to Easter Island. I can recommend the tours done by Bill and Ian of the Tauraa Hotel (where I stayed). They both have their own insights in Rapa Nui history and the mystery of transporting the moai and are full of interesting personal tales and tidbits of knowledge on the island and its inhabitants. The breakfast over at Tauraa Hotel is also really really good! Bill, by the way, is the Australian husband of Edith (owner of the Taura Hotel), who is Rapa Nui. Bill came to the island in the nineties while working as the main contruction engineer on the Kevin Costner produced movie called ‘Rapa Nui’. Apparently the storyline used in the movie is way off base, especially concerning the Bird Man bit. Nevertheless, check it out.

More mysterious photos and my amateur shaky-flaky movies of the Tapati festival 2009 can be found on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157614521710053/

Santiago de Chile: a big city, but no big deal

There’s not much to say about Santiago. It’s a big, relatively unattractive, city. So John and I did what we usually do in big cities; go to the biggest and newest shopping mall we can find and chill…

Of course I’m exaggerating a bit. There are some nice old buildings in Santiago, some interesting musea, some good restaurants. But still, Santiago doesn’t quite make it.

John and I went our seperate ways after Santiago. He went back home and I went to (one of) the most isolated and mysterious places on earth, Easter Island. More on that part of my trip in my next post.

 

More photos of Santiago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157613662745114/

John’s blogpost on Santiago: http://www.oldenhuizing.com/2009/02/08/santiago-de-chile/

LOL = Lots of Lakes

I guess there is a reason why they call it the Lake District of Patagonia. Beaucoup de lakes

 

 

We went by bus, boat, bus, boat, bus. boat, bus from Argentina to Chile in 2-days. An interesting way to make a border crossing. 

 

More LOL photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157613170342553/

John´s LOL: http://www.oldenhuizing.com/2009/02/03/lake-district-argentinachile/

Ruta 40: the long, and almost never winding, road

2 full days in a bus on a neverending road in solitary surroundings. That pretty much sums it up for Ruta 40.

The first day was hellish. No airco and seats in the middle/back of the bus with only (lousy) side views. The second day we were lucky and we got the seats right behind the driver. With it came a beautiful view of the road unfolding before our very eyes. As a bonus we also were the first to see and experience the reckless driving of our driver going downhill at neck breaking speeds

Nevertheless it was one of those once in a lifetime experiences. You be the judge of what I mean by that

More photos of Ruta 40: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157613164552444/

John´s blogpost: http://www.oldenhuizing.com/2009/01/30/ruta-40-argentina/

Los Glaciares NP

And on and on we went… from southern Chile to southern Argentina.
Destination: Los Glaciares National Park.
Home of the famous Perito Moreno glacier (around the city of El Calafate) and the extremely hard to ascend El Fitz Roy mountain (around the city/village of El Chalten).

To cut a long story short:
1. The people in Argentine Patagonia are as nice as the people in Chilean Patagonia.

2. The wind in Argentine Patagonia is just as hard as the wind in Chilean Patagonia.

3. Trekking (we did the so called BigIce – 4 hours) on the Perito Moreno glacier was absolutely fabulous. Especially the part where John lost his footing, fell down and slid into a pool of glacier water

 

4. Trekking in Los Glaciares NP in the area of El Chalten was also perfect. Three full days of beautiful weather, loads of glaciers and glacier lakes and after a sneak peak of El Fitz Roy on our first day, we were awarded with the full monty on the our third day of hiking.

 

 

 Our next stop in Argentine Patagonia will be San Carlos de Bariloche, which is situated in the famous so called Lake district. After a couple of days there we will take a 2 day boat/bus trip to cross over to the Chilean side of the Lake district and from there go to Puerto Montt.

But in order to get to San Carlos de Bariloche first we will travel by bus on the even more famous Ruta 40. A 2-day bus journey.

More photos of Los Glaciares NP: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157612853492665/

John´s blogpost: http://www.oldenhuizing.com/2009/01/30/los-glaciares-national-park/

Penguins and Pain(e) in Patagonia

After 31 hours of travel John and I finally arrived in Punta Arenas, Chile. My first impression of Chilean Patagonia: It´s windy as hell!!!

Nevertheless, on our second day in Punta Arenas we ignored the heavy winds and went by boat to see a huge colony (over 150.000) of Magellan penguins on Isla Magdalena.
My second impression of Chilean Patagonia: It´s plagued by penguins!!!

After many close encounters of the penguin kind we went to Puerto Natales, which is one of the best starting points for trips to the famous National Park – Torres del Paine.
For our first Torres experience we decided on a day tour by minibus which showed us around the park for some easy accesible highlights. Looking back this was a smart thing to do, because our second day in Torres del Paine the weather changed to a steady downpour of rain and the ´Pain´ started
Our intended 8 hour hike to look at the most famous peaks of Torres del Paine was cut short to a 3 hour hike because of washed out bridges along our hiking trail. John and I returned wet, but definitely not wild, back at our starting point for our 2-hour drive back to Puerto Natales.
My third impression of Chilean Patagonia: Weather forecasts? What weather forecasts?!

However, the one thing you CAN count on in Chilean Patagonia are the friendly and helpful people. Hopefully Argentine Patagonia, our next stop, will bring us more of the same.

More photos of penguins and Pain(e): http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_dude_in/sets/72157612835938497/

John´s blogpost: http://www.oldenhuizing.com/2009/01/23/punta-arenas-puerto-natales-torres-del-paine/

What´s been happening since July 2008 – the director´s cut

1st of July 2008: Started my job at VKA
31st of December 2008: Quit my job at VKA
1st of January 2009: Started my job at the Ministry of Justice
14th of January 2009: Started my trip to Patagonia & Easter Island

And no, VKA is not a bad company to work for. On the contrary, I was really sad to leave. The people are both great as persons and as professionals. Nevertheless, since I discovered (more precisely: had a major eye-opener) during my short time there that I(C)T is not my ´thing´ it was for the best.

And yes, I am back to being a civil servant and therefor decided it was time for another trip after less than 2 weeks of work on the new job

VKA: my first impression

Tuesday the 1st of July, after over two months of vacation, I started my new job as project manager at Verdonck, Klooster & Associates. My first impression of the VKA organisation and my new colleagues is very very positive. Of course this is no big surprise since I chose VKA for a reason. I wanted to work for a professional organisation of professionals with a strong emphasis on human capital. And even before day 1 I was treated as such

For example:
-One week b4 my starting date I got a letter from VKA reminding me that on the 1st of July I would start my job and the fact that they were looking forward to see me. Furthermore they had already arranged some twenty appointments with VKA colleagues so I would quickly get to know the organisation and my co-workers;
-On the morning of my first day at the office there was a surprise welcome with all available colleagues present. One of the CEOs of VKA presented me with a cake and an cake-server with my name engraved. Of course they made me slice and serve the cake after that, but what the heck… next time there is a new colleague I’ll be on the receiving end of the cake ;
-In the afternoon of my first day I received a laptop, phone (already programmed with all the phonenumbers of my colleagues), accesscards, a car, and printed business cards (even my name was spelled correctly!). I was instantly in the loop and what’s more, flabbergasted!
-That same afternoon the Head of Sales walked in on one of my introduction appointments and announced he had a possibly interesting lead for me. So at the end of Day One I was already writing a small summary of my background and expertise in order to be proposed as a projectmanager for an interesting project in the educational field.

All-in-all I’m a happy camper!

Next stop: Patagonia & Easter Island

After our 51-day (road)trip through the good ’ol US of A, John and I thought we deserved something to look forward to and therefore decided to instantly book tickets for our next vacation together

So on the 14th of January 2009 we will pack our bags again and head off to visit a part of Patagonia (southern part of Chile and Argentina) and then head up slowly to the capital of Chile, Santiago de Chile. Both John and I will leave Santiago de Chile on the 6th of February 2009. John will be heading back home and I will fly to Easter Island for some major statue souvenir hunting After a couple of days there it will be off to The Netherlands for me too

My final (and finest) hour… ICTU

Just one more hour and my time at ICTU is officially over…
Strange, but true.

Last Thursday I had my goodbye reception and both Elly (CEO of ICTU) and Rein (my colleague) made some very nice speeches. Not only sweet talk, but also some honest and vivid observations about the person that I am and everything that goes with it
For example, Elly described the way I literally physically dug myself in during meetings between me, as the chairman of the Personnel Council, and her, as the representative of the Board of Directors. And Rein made some funny remark about the fact that I finally learned to count to 10
I guess I’ve been watching my Sesamestreet!!!

Of course I wanted to have the final say and therefore made a speech of my own. Although I know you’re all dying to hear what I had to say, yeah right…., I’ll just let you know what I gave to all my colleagues at ICTU as a goodbye present.

That’s right baby!!! A 31-liter box filled with delicious candy
They don’t call me The Candyman for nothing!
 

I’ve had a great time at ICTU, but the time has come to move on to the next challenge… projectmanager at Verdonck, Klooster & Associates!