{"id":3091,"date":"2016-06-14T11:42:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T15:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2016-06-14T11:42:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T15:42:42","slug":"june-4-2016-forget-it-kevin-its-rapa-nui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=3091","title":{"rendered":"June 4, 2016 \u2013 Forget it, Kevin. It\u2019s Rapa Nui."},"content":{"rendered":"

June 4, 2016 \u2013 Forget it, Kevin.\u00a0 It\u2019s Rapa Nui.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still no word from Skywalker or Solo.\u00a0 It\u2019s an ominous phrase in The Empire Strikes Back, a featured extra line that resonates through the opening scenes of Hoth; her friends and our heroes are lost and Princess Leia feels the cold in so many ways.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s kinda how I\u2019m feeling given the lack of communication from TravellingFit and Rodrigo the Rapa Nui race director.\u00a0 After a fitful, sleepless night that featured a throbbing pain right behind my left eye that I attribute to stress and growing frustrations, I wandered out to the lobby around 3 AM to write yet another email to Angela Everett of TravellingFit chronicling my frustrations.\u00a0 I really don\u2019t think I\u2019m unreasonable in my requests for accurate information, timely communication, and details on who I\u2019m supposed to contact as ground staff while here.<\/p>\n

As morning arrives and the sun rises, I snap a few Terrence Malick-ian shots of the flowers along our room\u2019s patio.<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

Breakfast brings a lack of cr\u00e8me brule but a new hope for dessert as morning meal in the form of Bavarian cream puffs that are small, delicious, and addictive.<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

Rodrigo arrives and apologizes for the snafus and lack of communication.\u00a0 I voice my anger and frustration going so far as to tell him I understand he was out coordinating the triathlon yesterday but the last message I left was that regardless of the hour of his return I really needed to speak to him.\u00a0 He said he didn\u2019t want to disturb me and I reiterated the message was that no matter how late he returned I really wanted to speak to him.\u00a0 His answer to the miscommunication over the opening ceremonies was that they rescheduled them due to a rain forecast on Friday and that the other group knew about it.\u00a0 I told him I wasn\u2019t in the other group and he insisted he had told me but we clearly were having a breakdown in communication then, now, and perhaps always.\u00a0 But he told me that this was Easter Island and every problem has a solution.\u00a0 He told me they were doing another opening ceremony just for me and that he would get me tickets for tonight.\u00a0 I mentioned there were several of us from last night in the lobby who had the wrong information and he said he had spoken to those folks during the triathlon and they too would be at the opening ceremony.\u00a0 I\u2019m not entirely sure how this is going to pan out but I appreciated an effort was being made to remedy the situation.<\/p>\n

As an update, these are what the \u201cofficial tickets\u201d look like \u2013 stamps on a \u201cWhile You Were Out\u201d message slip:<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

I still haven\u2019t heard from Angela and it\u2019s 5:40 PM as I type this.\u00a0 There will be another email to her when all is said and done as I feel frankly completely abandoned by TravellingFit, a completely opposite feeling from my experiences with them during the Australian Outback Marathon.<\/p>\n

Rodrigo and his wife also got me my race packet and shirt.\u00a0 The bib seems about as official as the tickets above \u2013 it looks to me like I\u2019m running as a bandit.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll see what develops as a result.<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

Afterwards, we wandered down to the mountain bike starting line to cheer on some of our fellow travelers.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Mom photobombing them at the ready:<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

I was glad we were there as it was fun to see the countdown, the Chilean Bombaderos police force escort, the wild dogs who were afraid of the bikes and crouched near us for safety.<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

At 10 AM, they were off and so were we.\u00a0 We walked a ways out to another series of Moais and staged a few of my favorite pics from this trip with my tripod.\u00a0 It took a few takes but I really feel like we captured the fun and spirit of OUR Rapa Nui adventure.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t going to let TravellingFit\u2019s lack of planning and support ruin our experience.\u00a0 I think our adventure is well documented in these snapshots:<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

We strolled the main drag of souvenir shops to pick up a few things, including a $600 (Chilean peso) post card stamp.\u00a0 We were told to look at the post office for the letters to the Easter Bunny delivered to Easter Island and I\u2019m really glad we went back to check them out.<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

We bumped into Jacqui on our way out and she asked how things were going.\u00a0 We mentioned we were getting our own opening ceremony and that apparently the ones we missed had been rescheduled due to rain.\u00a0 Jacqui found that a little odd as in all the years she\u2019s been running the Marathon Tours trip on Rapa Nui the opening ceremony has ALWAYS been on Thursday, never on Friday.\u00a0 It\u2019s a puzzling detail that makes me question once again the sincerity of my tour operators and contacts and feels once again like we\u2019ve been slighted, insulted, and treated poorly.\u00a0 But I may be overreacting.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t like being lied to.\u00a0 Perhaps that\u2019s unreasonable.<\/p>\n

For lunch, we hit a few speedbumps before heading once again to Pea.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the bar wasn\u2019t open so no pisco sours for us, but we did order a few sandwiches.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Mom\u2019s \u201cpollo\u201d order got lost in the translation and she wound up with a \u201ccarne\u201d order.\u00a0 She accepted it like a trooper, but I feel bad she didn\u2019t get what she wanted.\u00a0 I\u2019ll make it up to her later.<\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

After a brief siesta (when in Rome\u2026 or Rapa Nui\u2026), I went for a run to visit a Moai Ahu a bit farther afield.\u00a0 While I didn\u2019t have the same horse\/dog\/me experience as the day before, at least this time I had my camera and snapped a few things along the way.
\n\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a> \"20160604-WEB<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re just now headed to the other hotel for the packet pickup (made unnecessary due to Rodrigo\u2019s attempts to remedy rough patches so far), race talk, and a supposedly lame pasta dinner (noodles with red sauce, no salad, not much taste and generally given low marks\u2026 but maybe lowered expectations are best at the moment).\u00a0 We have to duck out no later than 8 PM to make it to the personal \u201copening ceremony\u201d which we suspect is actually a dinner theater show without dinner.<\/p>\n

What the evening holds is anyone\u2019s guess. \u00a0Every problem on the island has a solution.\u00a0 So forget it, Kevin.\u00a0 It\u2019s Rapa Nui, man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 4, 2016 \u2013 Forget it, Kevin.\u00a0 It\u2019s Rapa Nui. Still no word from Skywalker or Solo.\u00a0 It\u2019s an ominous phrase in The Empire Strikes Back, a featured extra line that resonates through the opening scenes of Hoth; her friends and our heroes are lost and Princess Leia feels the cold in so many ways. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[680,352,393,682,681,41],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-easter","tag-food","tag-island","tag-nui","tag-rapa","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}