So I can now answer the question that I posed last night, 7pm is too early to go to bed, however 8pm is not!!!
I slept for 12 hours last night, and it was so glorious to catch up on some sleep. I felt so much better for it this morning!!
When I woke, I realised that today is my last day of this holiday. My last tour, will be this morning!! Wow, that 4 months has gone very quickly!!! But in saying that, I will be glad to be heading home tomorrow!!
So I jumped up, got ready and had some breakfast. By 9am, I was fed and ready, waiting in the foyer for my guide to appear.
Not long after, the same guide from yesterday arrived, ready to take me on my tour this morning. Along for the ride today, was another couple from NZ staying in the same hotel as me, both seem really nice.
As I approached the van, I saw the familiar and friendly faces of Cheryl and Wes..... Yay, this morning is going to be fun!!
We drove around to a few more hotels, collecting more people as we went. Some familiar faces, however most were new. Once the bus was full, we then headed off to our first destination, an extinct volcano.
The skies were blue, not a cloud in the sky, however the wind was so strong, that at one stage I thought that both Cheryl and I might be blown off the cliff face, straight into the volcano.
The volcano, now extinct, was semi filled with a large number of lakes. If I imagined hard enough, I could have almost mistaken this volcano for a google satellite map image of some barren land with many lakes!! On the other side of the craters rim, the Pacific Ocean, blue for as far as the eye can see!! Just spectacular!! We walked around the craters rim, checking out all angles of the volcano.
We then jumped back in the van, driving the short distance to another national park site. Here we walked around the marked path, looking at some of the houses that the indigenous people used to live in many years ago.
The houses were very small, and round, made with volcanic rock. They were perched up, high on top of the cliff, over looking the pacific, and what views they had to go along with it.
Once we had finished walking the pathways, we headed on to our next destination. Here, again we were high up on the cliff, facing the Pacific Ocean, however we soon found ourselves climbing down a step stair case until we were in a cave. The waves were crashing into the rocks just metres from us, and as we looked around the caves we realised that there were indigenous paintings up along the side and roof of the cave. The view from the cave, out to the ocean was equally impressive!!!
We climbed the stair case, back up to the van, and then it was off to our respective hotels, saying goodbye to everyone as the jumped out of the bus.
After hanging around at the hotel for a while, I decided to walk down to town and try and source some lunch.
I found a bakery, selling empanadas, and thought to myself, why not have your last empanada of this trip on your last day. So I did. It was mighty fine as well!!!
For the rest of the afternoon, I hung around the hotel, dangling my legs in the pool, and just soaking up the last of the Latin American sun.
It soon came to that time again, when I had to pack my case. Although, this time it was different. Today I knew that this would be the last time that I would have to pack this case....... well on this trip anyway!! I decide to dump a few things that I knew I would no longer need or use!! I'm sure the maids kids are going to look pretty cool in the now brown converse sneakers I am leaving behind. I know I could probably get them back up to a semi decent white shoe again, however knowing the dramas that those shoes are going to cause when I hit Australian quarantine, it's best I just leave them here. I mean they have trekked through every jungle from Mexico to Easter Island, through the amazon, and still contains so much mud in the canvas of the shoe, I wouldn't have been surprised if Australian quarantine just burnt the shoes there in front of me!! Hopefully they find a new decent home here in Easter island!!
Now with my bags packed, it's time to relax... time to just kick up my heels, and reminisce about the great times I've had over the last 4 months. The places I've seen, the people I've met, I'm one hell of a lucky lady!!