Easter Island!

Hi!  I've spent the last few days on Easter Island, which is an island in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from anywhere.  I had to go on a five-hour journey by plane from Chile to get there.  I find it amazing that there are people living on such a small island, so far from any other people.  I felt like a very small stuffed traveller in the middle of such a huge ocean!

About three million years ago, a volcano erupted in the sea and created Easter Island.  I went for a walk up the volcano.  There was a big crater with a lake in the middle of it.  Don't worry, the volcano didn't erupt!  It's an extinct volcano.

People first travelled to Easter Island in canoes from another Pacific island.  They lived there for about a thousand years without communicating with anyone else in the world.  They lived a simple life using stone tools and living in houses that look a bit like a canoe turned upside down. Then, in the 1700s, ships from Europe started arriving on Easter Island.  One of them arrived on Easter Day.  That's why it's called Easter Island.

Visiting the Moai

One of the most interesting things about Easter Island is that there are hundreds of stone statues there, called moai.  The biggest ones are over twenty metres tall.  They are statues of the ancestors of the people who lived on Easter Island.  The islanders treated them as gods and thought they would protect them.  They are very impressive.  Unfortunately, the people started running out of food to eat and wood to make boats and then they destroyed the statues.  There are still some very beautiful ones but some of them are broken which made me very sad.

The other nice thing about Easter Island is the beach, where Robin's auntie and uncle went snorkelling in the sea.  There were lots of people surfing too.

I learned a few more words of Spanish while I was there, as most people speak Spanish as well as the local language (Rapa Nui).  In Spanish, 'un helado' is an ice cream and 'la pastelaria' is the cake shop.  I think these are very important words for a hungry traveller to know!

Spot the odd-one-out!

I was sad to leave Easter Island as it's such a beautiful place.  I'm going to Argentina soon though, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I'll blog again once I've got another stamp in my passport.  Adios!  (Bye!)

Camping In The Mountains

Hello.  You must be wondering what's happened to me as I haven't blogged for a while.  Well, here's the reason ...

I've been away on a trekking and camping expedition for the last week with Robin's auntie and uncle.  They carried their tent and sleeping bags, a stove for cooking, enough food for six days, lots of warm clothing, and me, as it was too far for me to walk.

We drove up to a ski resort at the start of the trip, but there wasn't any snow on the ski slopes as it isn't the winter yet.  (Winter here is in June, July and August and Summer is in December, January and February, which is the opposite of Birmingham.)

Setting out from the ski resort

When we left the resort, we started walking along a valley.  I could see a high mountain with snow on top and Robin's auntie said this was the mountain we wanted to climb.  It was called Cerro Del Plomo and it was over five thousand metres high.  That's more than half the height of the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest.

A mountain more than half the height of Everest!

It was very sunny in the day but very cold every night.  We camped by a river for the first two nights and Auntie Susan fetched some water in the morning for cooking.  By the time she had carried the water from the river to the stove it had already frozen!  Later in the expedition we had to melt snow on the stove for cooking.  We mostly ate porridge for breakfast and pasta in the evening, as these foods gave us lots of energy for hiking.

My turn to cook!

It was very very cold!

After walking for three days we were very close to the mountain and we planned to go to the top the next day.  Unfortunately, that was when the sun disappeared and the weather turned very windy and cold, so we couldn't go to the top after all.  Instead, we walked back to the ski resort and then drove back to Santiago.

I was a bit disappointed not to go to the top of the mountain but Auntie Susan says there are hundreds of mountains in Chile so maybe I'll go to the summit of another one.  For now, I'm happy that I'm nice and warm again!  I hope it's sunny in Birmingham too and that everyone had a good Easter.

Sunset on the mountains

The Best View in Santiago

Hi, it's Wenlock here, checking in from Santiago, the capital city of Chile.  Santiago is a big city, about the size of Birmingham, and I've discovered it's quite a good place to be a stuffed traveller because there are lots of hills you can climb to get a brilliant view.

I climbed a hill yesterday called San Cristobal.  I got quite puffed walking to the top of it so I ate an ice cream when I got there to cool myself down.  Once I'd finished my cornet I had a look at the view and saw hundreds of tower blocks and cars and roads and churches in the city down below.

There was a huge white statue of Mary on top of the hill and a procession of people coming to see it.  Most people here are Catholic and there are lots of celebrations taking place because it's nearly Easter.

From the hill I could also see a big snow-capped mountain in the distance.  I'm setting off to try and climb it so this is the last you'll hear from me for a few days.  If I make it to the top, I'll send you my summit photos!

Bye for now,  Wenlock.

Lots of Silver People

Today I'm in London on my way to the airport.  I've just visited Covent Garden, which is a big market square full of stalls and shops and cafes.  I saw a lot of strange-looking people there!

One man was dressed in silver clothing: silver trousers, silver shoes, silver socks, a silver waistcoat and a silver shirt.  He even had silver all over his hair and his face.  I don't know how he'll ever get his face clean again!  Another man was dressed completely in gold.  There were also a couple of people sitting in mid-air, about a metre above the pavement.  I thought only Harry Potter knew how to do things like that.

I had a good time looking at them and listening to some guitarists who were standing in the square playing music.  They are called buskers and they were collecting money in their guitar cases.  I enjoyed listening to them so I threw them a few coins of pocket money.

London feels very busy after my quiet weekend in the Worcestershire countryside.  There are people here from lots of different countries.  This morning I heard people speaking English, Dutch, French and lots of other languages that I didn't recognise.

Speaking of languages, I've been practising a few more phrases of Spanish ready for my trip to South America.  Apparently, the word for 'hi' is 'hola' or if you're talking to a grown up you might say 'buenos dias' (good morning).

Right, I'm off to the airport.  Next stop Santiago!

Four days to go!

My name's Wenlock and I'm a stuffed traveller.  I'm about to set out on a journey to South America so I can tell my friend Robin all about it.  I've never been as far as South America before so I'm very excited!

At the moment I'm busy packing my bags.  I'm going to take a tent and some walking boots with me so I can go camping in the countryside in South America.  There are lots of high mountains there so I'm taking some warm clothes with me too.  It might be chilly on the top of a mountain.

Talking of being chilly, I'm going to start my adventure in Santiago which is the capital of the country called Chile!  They talk Spanish there so I'm taking a dictionary.  Here's the phrase I learnt today: 'Me llamo Wenlock' (my name is Wenlock).  Robin would say: 'Me llamo Robin'.  The funny thing is that 'llamo' sounds like 'yamo'.  Robin's quite clever so I'm sure he'll remember that.

I have to fly all night and half the day to get to Santiago so I need a nice long rest first, ready for the journey.  I'm staying in a quiet cottage in Worcestershire, in the countryside near Birmingham, where I can relax until the plane leaves.  There are only four more days to go.  Hooray!

From Wenlock

PS.  Robin's auntie told me that 'odyssey' is a big word for a journey so I've decided to call this blog 'Wenlock's South American Odyssey'.  I just hope that odysseys are as exciting as they sound!