Easter Island: The North Coast

Easter-Island-The-North-Coast-8We finished filming the first part of Eating up Easter with our cinematographer this week! Although it was a huge challenge to work in an environment where everything happens day by day and minute by minute (i.e. appointments cannot be made with anyone, or certainly will never be kept if they are), we were able to film a ton of great content and capture lots of beautiful b-roll. What an awesome team we have! We’ll share more on that later, but for now we want to show you this beautiful hike we took just before filming began. I can’t believe I got this many photos to load here.

So, here we go…..beware, this might get a little archaeology-sciencey/tour-guidey, but I just can’t help myself. I want to teach you all about this fantastic little place.

Last week we hiked the north coast of Easter Island. While there are roads around the south coast and through the middle of the island, the north coast consists of steep slopes ending in rocky cliffs and is only accessible by foot or on horseback. The coast forms the northern base of the island’s largest and youngest volcano, Terevaka. We got a ride to the end of the road, just a few miles north of town to begin our hike, which ended at Anakena, the only sandy beach, where the road picks up again and heads back to town. With the rocky terrain, a nice stop for lunch and our zigzagging up and down the hillsides looking for interesting remnants of past life, it took us almost 7 hours. A good, full, beautiful, and refreshingly exhausting day.

**Please Note: If you are a tourist considering doing this hike, make sure to hire a guide or go with a local person on the island. There have been cases recently in which tourists have become lost on the hike and had to be rescued during the night.

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Weekend Getaway: Gunflint Trail

Weekend-Getaway-GunflintTrail-24Sorry we haven’t posted in a while…..we needed a little break to focus on the present, but we’re back today with some fun inspiration for the weekend.

Sometimes we all need a little time away from our routines to restart our creativity, nourish our relationships, or find ourselves again. While we love to travel to meet new people and discover new ways of living, we also travel simply to regroup, get new perspective, have some adventure and fun, and come back refreshed and ready to attack the daily grind with new energy.Weekend-Getaway-GunflintTrail-9We’ve found we don’t have to travel far to get this little boost, just a day trip or weekend getaway often does the trick. So we are going to start a little series of inspiration for weekend getaways….including places we’ve been and short itineraries of what to do in each place (I love planning, Ta’u’s more of a wing-it guy, so go with what works for you). Often we travel within driving distance of wherever we are living at the time, but if the means are available, you could fly to these places too. Whether you travel to these particular places or it just inspires you to seek adventure near your own home base, we hope you enjoy following along. Continue Reading →