I always try to learn something from wherever I go in the world. On this trip, I learned something with an agricultural bent. Our family owns a farm up north in Lassen County, California. The farm is called “Bird Flat Ranch”. We grow alfalfa, oat, and grass hay and over the years have grown wheat, barley, safflower, winter wheat, and other crops. I worked at Bird Flat Ranch for two springs many years back. One of my memories is riding the big tractors for up to 12 hours a day with no cover over my head except for my hat. I always thought it would have been a real bonus to have a cab or roof over the tractor to keep the sun and wind at bay. Well, the Easter Islanders solved this problem with a very low tech and thrifty solution. You can see their solution in the photo below. I’m including this for my brother-in-law and nephew up in Doyle, California. Good news from Easter Island Tim and Luke.

Our Rapa Nui guide told us that the Moai (statues) and the Ahu (platforms) that they rest on are sacred and no one is allowed on them. But we kept passing the statue below that was right in the middle of town and every time we passed it, we saw many native Rapa Nui leaning on it, sitting on the platform, drinking beer on the platform, and on and on. While we didn’t want to be disrespectful or be ugly Americans, I did want a picture with a person next to it showing the size of the statues. Vicky wanted to “hug” one of the statues. So we went down to the ocean early one morning before anyone else was up and about and took a couple of photos. This is one of those pictures.

Well, that’s it folks. That’s the end of our Easter Island trip. The last picture is from our last evening in Easter Island which gave us a great sunset to end our trip and to remember Easter Island.