Elad’s blog

Not the special emerald-green-blue colour of the water; not the surrounding green forests and hills; not the perfect cone of the snow-capped Osorno volcanoe that overlooks the entire area; not the black sand beaches at the front; not the four Israelies I met there; not even the perfect weather. What I remember most from Lago Todos Los Santos is the crazy insects - huge, violent, clourfull flies.

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Pedro de Valdivia lived a violent life. He was a conquistador, in the court of Pizarro at Peru, and in the middle 16th century he set from there to conquer Chile. He crossed the deserts of northern Chile, fought and killed many Indians, established Santiago, and continued south into the land of the Mapuche indians, who finally killed him (violent life, violent death), at the location of a city that now bears his name, a city that he actually founded as a fortress trying to conquer southern Chile, Valdivia.

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Now I have some time to tell you about what I did from Friday till the volcanoe climb yesterday. This included the travel from Santiago to Pucon, the meeting with Gina and all the Israelies in Pucon, two day trecks in Pucon, and the Hannuca celebration.

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Some people say I am stubborn. I am not sure how accurate this is; it is just that when I decide to do something, I generally do it. If it doesn´t work on Papua, I try in Vanuatu; if not in Vanuatu, maybe New-Zealand; and if I fail in New-Zealand, I would use the opportunity to climb an active volcanoe in Chile, and finally throw the ring into the lava lake. It is just what I did today on the Villarica volcanoe, the most active one in the americas.

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Here are a few words about the Israelies that got lost last week on the Villarica Travers track near Pucon. I know there was plenty of disinformation in Israeli newspapers, and this is what I found out from here. I am writing this just because it caused some worries in Israel, and it actually affected my journey - I waisted my last few hours in Santiago (and a lot of time here in Pucon) just finding out the situation and determining how safe the area is (answer: perfectly safe).

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I know each place has its local foods. I am not too spoiled, I think. I handled the beetroot they put on hamburgers on Australia. I can also handle the green beans they gave me on a hamburger in Chile (actually, it is not a bad combination). But mashed avocado? On Hamburgers? Moreover, on hot-dogs??? Don´t you think it´s a big gross?

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn´t find out many details about the birdman cult which flourished in Easter Island parallel to its war and declining years. I found about the cult´s major ceremony, and I can make some educated guesses about more details (e.g., if you´re stuck on an island and the situation is bad, it makes sense to worship birds who appear to be free to fly - not that they have a place to fly to) but all and over, no matter who I´d talked to, which sites I visited, and where I looked - this remains another one of the misteries connected with this island.
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Just a few pics from Easter Island

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This is becoming ridiculous. Every time I want to ride bicycles, no matter at which continent, it starts to rain. It also happened today: just when I went to the rental shop, with full intentions of doing a nice ride to the petrogliphs, the sky became grey and a strong rain begun. Three hours later, when I abandoned the idea, the sky became bright again. Someone just doesn´t want me to ride bikes on this travel.

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The most surprising fact about Easter Island is, perhaps, its owners. Over a century after the 1888 annex to Chile, all the land of this island belongs by law to the descendants of its indegineous people, the Rapa-Nui. No mainland Chilean, and certainly no foreigner, can own anything on the island. This is even more interesting as virtually no Rapa-Nuis are left, certainly not pure-blooded: the population at the time of the annex was merely 140 people, only 34 of them fertile women; yet, at this last chapter of the sad story of this island, the community rebuilt itself, and with 3400 people now populating the island, this corner of Polinesia is perhaps better preserved then most of its other parts. I will now give a short version of the fascinating history of this place, for the benefit of those few from my readers who can find interest in this seemingly legendary tale.

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