21/09/2019 – Day off! Easter Island, Chile

We had a no alarm day, and woke up just before 10:00. We shared a coffee in bed, as this was the last dregs of our coffee supply. Josh hopped on the mountain bike and went into town to grab some more supplies, whilst I looked in the guide-book and at the map to plan todays activities. We showered and got ready, and then Peter said we could borrow the car if we wanted to quickly go into town and do a supermarket run. We drove into town and Josh bought our national park tickets (80USD each and valid for 10 days), and I dashed into the supermarket. It is a good 40 minute walk to town from our studio so we wanted to make the most of having the car! We bought a box of groceries, that we guessed would be about £20 worth in Aldi at home, and it came to the equivalent of £75! Crazy prices here! We got back and heated up the empanadas Peter had given us and had them for lunch outside in the sunshine before packing our bags. It was a gloriously sunny day so we put a load of suncream on too. We headed off and walked about 1.5 hours along the coast to a cave called Ana Kakenga. Our park tickets got stamped at a little gateway. There was a tiny entrance, which was marked only with a small pile of stones. The cave is formed from a lava tube. We crawled in and the ceiling was so low that even I bumped my head! There were two exit windows at the end of the cave, opening out on a cliff side, each window a beautiful frame of the ocean view, the waves crashing down below. We took a few photos from each window and crawled our way back out.

We walked back to the house and a black dog wearing a blue harness (we named him Jet) followed us all the way home, I think seeking protection from the other stray dogs. We shut him out of the main gate and quickly ran inside our studio knowing he wouldn’t be welcome on the grounds here. We went inside and scoffed some crisps and sat on the bed chilling for a good hour. I went to the laundry room next door to take down our dry laundry and heard some thudding, soon to realise it was the sound of a tail waging and hitting the floor - the dog had sought solace in the corner of the laundry room! They are such gorgeous dogs here. I wish we could adopt them all! Josh made us a fajita dinner and I cleared up, all the while the dog slept on the doormat outside our front door. We heard Peter pull in the drive and shouted ‘whose is that dog?’ When we explained Peter got out the car and I opened the front door to speak with him. The dog shot inside and started cowering behind me. The dog got dragged out the studio and then Peter bent down to pick up a stone, and the dog squealed, tucked his ears back, and ran off. We had read in the guide book that if you feel threatened by a wild dog to bend down and pretend to pick up a stone, the dogs here are completely petrified by it as I think they must get stoned a lot. How awful is that! I was thinking if that was Coco she would probably think you were bending down to either giver her food or throw a toy for her! It is very clear that the dogs here are either wild or kept solely as guard dogs, rather than loved as pets in the home like we do. They are taught to be aggressive and to attack. Peter has told us many stories of different dog owners having to pay for treatment for the people their dogs have attacked, or of neighbours poisoning their other neighbours dogs. Peter then wanted to show us an old Scottish TV series called 'Still Game', so we went up to the main house and watched a couple of episodes. Peter had lived in Scotland for a time as he used to play football for Edinburgh, so he enjoys the Scottish accent and humour! It reminded me a bit of Fawlty Towers or Del Boy, which Peter also says he enjoys. Feeling a bit weary, Josh and I excused ourselves and went back down to our studio to get tucked up to bed.