Aventuras en Chile: My Life in a Year: May 2015

I had my third and final trip with Rotary to Easter Island last week and I can say without doubt that it was one of the best weeks of my entire life! I am so grateful I had the ability to visit an island with so much history and to do so with some of the people who mean the most to me. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible and to Rotary for changing my life! I spent 5 days and 4 nights on the Island and toured the island to the fullest. It was an incredible trip, meaning that saying good-bye to all of the international exchange students who have been with me all year was one of the most challenging things I have had to do on exchange. But with that I am so fortunate to have met such influential people.

On the first day we met in the airport in Santiago at 7 AM. It took about 5 hours in the plane to arrive at Easter Island. Once we arrived at the Island we went to our hotel and had lunch and immediately went to Hanga Roa which is the main city on the island. We saw about 5 Moai that first day located at Hanga Vare and Tahai and I was so amazed by how huge they were! I was shocked.

On the second day we took a complete tour around Rano Raraku, Tongariki, Te Pito Kura and Anakena. We drove about 30 minutes to Rano Raraku where we hiked around moai located all around a volcano. The moai were scattered out and the bodies of some were still attached inside the stone of the mountain. Once we passed that we entered inside of the volcano to a small lake. After a few hours of hiking like this we had lunch and then we went to another site were the famous 15 moai are located! It was so beautiful and such an honor to be at such a historical site. Once we finished with the tour of the moai we went to the only sandy (and man-made) beach on Easter Island, Anakena.

On the third day we went to a cavern called Ana Kai Tangata and hiked around the crater volcano called Rano Kau. It was absolutely beautiful but the weather was so cold and windy that I was almost knocked over a few times. The crater inside the volcano was enormous and beautiful, the tour guide explained that crops were being grown their because it was an ideal place for soil and planting foods. I found that interesting! Once we reached the other side of the volcano the guide showed us a ceremonial city called Orongo and taught us of the typical activities practiced there before. In the afternoon we returned back to Anakena for an afternoon at the beach. Later that night after the dinner we went to an ancestral show of the Rapa Nui people which I enjoyed a lot!

On the fourth day we went to a catholic church (optional) ceremony for an hour in the morning. They spoke in both Spanish and the native language of the island, Rapa Nui. After that we went and toured around under ground caves all day! If I could describe the caves in three words it would simply be hot, dark, and muddy. They were very beautiful but we had to be careful not to hit our heads against the rocks (luckily they gave me a helmet), and maneuvering around the caves was difficult enough for me that I fell directly in the mud. Fun times. I would love to return again because they were so interesting! Once I returned to the hotel and I was completely exhausted. In the night time we went to a rotary event and met a student who will be going on exchange from Easter Island to New Zealand.

On the fifth and final day we had breakfast and gathered up all of our suitcases and went to a school for children. I went to the infantry sectioned and had such an entertaining time playing with all of the children! It was so adorable seeing them so easily fascinated by candy and balloons. Seeing all of them made me so happy. After about an hour of that we had to go to the airport and leave for Santiago! It was very bittersweet. It was difficult to say good-bye to all of the exchange students and the trip but that is just part of exchange.

I am undoubtedly lucky to have something that is so hard to say good-bye to. I would not change anything that has happened on my exchange. I have experienced the best and most powerful relationships while exchange, and no matter how any of them have ended, I do not have any single regret, nor would I change a single thing. Good things come to an end so even better things can happen.