Easter Island: Feet, Bike, and Automobile.

May26

I headed to Easter Island for a week of vacation last week. Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to see the mysterious island as it was super popular with hippies and the green movement when I was a kid, plus the mystery of the giant heads. The theories when I was little all reflected things like the dangers of over population, war between people, and environmental abuse. Turns out most of that is bullshit. It was a combination of rats and white people that really caused a lot of change (which seems to be a pretty common reason, fracking white people). Oh and Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world, it is basically 1,200 miles from anything.

On the way down I read the book The Statues that Walked which was a good overall picture and history of the the island. The biggest surprise on arriving is that it looks very similar to the Hawaiian islands, for some reason I was expecting some bleak desert. And after reading the book turns out everything was pretty normal on this island, the trees disappeared because rats ate all the nuts (hah), and the people built the statues cause they wanted too (and prob a good mechanism for population control is the theory). Unfortunately when visitors found the island for the first time diseases totally destroyed the native population, like most of the new world. And this kept happening, the natives really liked hats and sailors traded hats for women, and so STDs spread like crazy (does not currently work unfortunately, or fortunately).

The island as you can see is absolutely beautiful. The first day I was there I did a massive 18 mile run plus 6 mile hike along the coast. Next day I did a massive bike ride around the entire island. And I swam both days as the water was cool but not too bad. Unfortunately on day three I woke up with flu/cold and spent the next three days just in town reading or sleeping. Finally on my last day I rented a car and drove around exploring some more. And now I’m back in Santiago, and head to Australia really soon.

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Viña del Mar, Chile (Coast)

May26

Joel, Laura and I headed to Viña del Mar on Chile’s coast the first weekend they were in town. It was a nice change to get away from the pollution and crowds of Santiago. I had a really good run along the coast, even with a massive hang over. The town also has a very nice casino, we didn’t end up gambling but we had some nice drinks with a friendly bartender.

A lot of these pictures are of these weird cable cars (funicular railways) that run up the steep slopes. And then the view from the top of a port / small navy base. The funicular railway we tried opened in 1883! Can you imagine how mind blowing this thing was in 1883! The USA was still fighting the American Indian War in the 1880s.

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La Recoleta Cemetery

May3

La Recoleta cemetery:

is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina.

It was a beautiful place, and creepy. Amazing graves, some mini churches, a beautiful example of extravagance. Kinda like pimp my ride, but instead they pimped their gravestones.

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Holy Pollution Batman! Santiago Chile…

May2

Holy Pollution! Santiago Chile is a mess, went for a run for what is my 2nd day here and I had to stare at my feet as I ran because you can see the smog just looking down the road a mere 15 feet. The only place I’ve ever seen this bad was Cairo Egypt. The city is surrounded by snow capped moutains and I can barely see them over the dirty smog covered film, it’s gross.

Back in 2008, experts measured the airborne particulates in the city at 444 micrograms/cubic meter while the normal should not go beyond 50. Santiago is also unfortunate to have high ground-level ozone based on WHO studies.

From this link.

Guess I’m going to have to find a gym to run in for the month of May while I’m here.

They have a pretty good running path although surrounded by 6 lane traffic. Better than most cities but still sucks, the pollution is out of control. Hopefully they can pull a Bangkok and fix pollution as quickly as possible.

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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