My journey to the wonder that is Easter Island or Rapa Nui was bloody awful. The following chain of events may now be viewed with humour and 'take the pee out of Amy' attitudes. Back then however, they were viewed as highly traumatic! :-) 1) I packed my pack in Mendoza. Splitting its seams, something had to go, so I left a book, some sweets and a large water bottle on the side. Within 30 mins the lot had been stolen. Awful place. They also failed to arrange my airport transfer at 8am so there was a mad dash for the cab. The cab however, was great, he drove me through the streets of Argentina as the sun rose, I listened to a mega-mix of the 80's classic 'Gloria, lets get physical, YMCA and a beauty by barry manalow'. The cabby bopped in his seat as he smoked me out with his fags. 2) My I-Pod finally died, everyone bow your heads. 3) Upon arriving in Santiago Chile, I saw a well cute dog on the baggage belt, sniffing at all the bags.... arrr bless, 'here boy, come on cutie' I said while slapping my thighs. True to form, he came bounding over for some fuss, then he had a good old sniff in my bags and then I expected him to trot off. But OH no, he sits down, still like a statue, staring at my bags. For the love of god! I'm thinking, 's***, coca leaves!!' A big guy rocked up, 'Maam, please empty your bags'. So here am I, on my hands and knees in the baggage claim area with the contents of both my bags spread out on the floor. I'm sweating somewhat now, although I knew I never had any to hide. Turns out he was a fruit sniffer dog and was only after my apple core which was eaten before boarding my flight. phheeww. 4) 5 hours in Santiago airport and with a wheezing chest from my new South America passive smoking habit, I boarded my plane to Easter Island. I get myself comfortable as everyone else takes their seats then suddenly, it's ground hog day! - I was surrounded by airline officials again. I knew my alarm wasn't going off so what now!!! A lady starts to talk fast Spainish at me and all I can make out are the words 'police' and 'passport'. OK, my heart is racing now and I have to admit to letting the pressure of the no language thing get to me a little and I snapped 'I don't speak Spanish'! at this woman. Another air hostess turned up and did her best to explain that some dozy tart in immigration had stamped me out of Chile but I was obviously still in Chile and Easter Island is in Chile so I wasn't leaving sodding Chile!!!! She took my passport as I sat nervously on the plane and returned it 10 mins later with a big biro cross through the exit stamp - as technical as that and hey presto, 3,2,1, I'm back in the country! 5) Just before I switched my mobile off before take off I received a text from my dear Friend Sarah saying 'even though you're miles away from home, you're with us in our hearts every moment'. Well, feeling a little low today and rather drained from doing EVERYTHING by myself, I started to fill up. Actually, I sobbed, quietly and discreetly all the way to Easter Island. 6) At about 4 hours in we hit some awful turbulence. I closed my eyes and tried to think nice thoughts. Then I opened my eyes to lap full of child vomit! I kid you not - I was NOT impressed. His mother didn't even apologise and the turbulence was so bad, not even the staff would come. Could anything else happen today? I arrived at Easter Island which was a lot like arriving in the Galapagos, sparse and simple, palm trees and a mild night. Very wiery, swollen eyes and smelling of child sick I shuffled through to baggage claim. At that moment, Corinna was there to greet me, she put one of those necklace of flowers (what are they called?) around my neck and smiled. I flung my arms around her and told her I was so pleased to see her. She had booked us a hostel at a lovely family home and arranged my transfer to. Once at the hostel, she made me food and poured me wine as I chatted and got to know everyone else. I met Steve and Liz from England and by an absolute stroke of luck, borrwed their I-pod charger! whoo-yeah! From then on, things started to improve. The hostel was amazing, set in a tropical location on the island we had a large room with private bathroom and hot water. We ate fresh guava juice, fresh bread, avacado and guava chutney for breakfast while surrounded by wild chickens, and exotic flowers and plants. Easter Island or Rapa Nui is the most beautiful, spiritual and serene place I have ever been blessed to experience. The main mode of transport is by horse (I walked!), the whole Island only has 3000 people living there and the shops were random shacks. Everyone was really friendly. Rap Nui was discovered in 1725 and forms part of the Polynesian Islands. The Moai that are there are the most spectacular pieces of archeology I have ever seen. They are strategically placed alone the costal lines, always facing inland in order to protect the land. They are carved from a massive quarry that is inland. Each Moai represents the death of a VIP and the size of each one represent their hierarcical status at that time. The ground they occupy is considered sacred because people are burried beneath the area and human sacrifice of the Rapa Nui people also took place there as well as canibal ritualism. How they were carved is a well established theory, how they were moved to their resting place however, is not. A little like Stonehenge, there are some transportation theories but a high level of mythology surrounds each Moai. My time on Rapa Nui was quite a quiet and reflective time for me. I spent many hours sat by the ocean just looking, reading, writing and thinking. I am not bright enough to have drawn any real conclusions except that I realise how lucky I am as an individual, that I have re-newed faith in humanity about the kindness of others and that these days there is no happier place to be than right here in my own skin. So all in all, an up and down kind of week, but as a very good friend recently said to me 'I have to experience the lows in order to feel the highs'.