Ken Kurtis
Contributor
BACK FROM EASTER ISLAND!!!!
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We made it home safe and (relatively) sound . . .(please scroll down for details)
GROUP 2 GOT BACK SUNDAY MORNING - And not without a little drama. We had a bloodied shin from a trip-and-fall (ended up going to the Easter Island ER) and a whacked out knee (different person) that gave way a day or so ago. So we were sort of the walking wounded coming back through LAX. We had an interesting not-uncommon flight issue as well when one of our people discovered when checking in for the return flights that the Santiago-LAX leg had been booked for the wrong date - it's always complicated either crossing the International Dateline or flying after midnight - and he would have to spend 24 hours in Santiago. Fortunately we were able to re-book him on the correct flight but he had to pay a $500 fare differential. Then when we got back to LAX, we were missing one bag of yet another of our divers. Fortunately, it had an Apple AirTag in it. We thought we located the bag at the "secret" taxi stand across from TBIT but by the time we got there, the people had left. At that point, the AirTag showed the bag leaving LAX. It eventually ended up in Huntington Beach and 10 minutes later was on the way back to LAX, where we presume it will be handed over to LATAM who will then deliver it to the rightful owner (who lives in the SF Bay area). We don't suspect anything malicious but underscores why you should always make sure you've got YOUR bag when you leave the airport, as well and making sure that you've got your name and contact info written on your bag in case someone grabs it by mistake.
WHY MY PERSONAL BAGS ARE YELLOW AND RED - If you've travelled with me before, you know my bags stand out. I've got a bright yellow hard-sided case (that's wrapped in a rainbow-colored bag strap) and a red duffel bag. Given that 90% of the bags checked nowadays are black, mine obviously stand out and can be easily spotted coming down the chute or if someone grabs one by mistake. Alternatively, even if you have a black bag, put some distinctive marking on it. The bag that got lifted was black and had a small piece of green wrap around the handle, but it's pretty subtle. Going big and obvious - a big slash of blue tape across the side or lots of colored yarn around the handle - lessens the chance of yours getting grabbed by someone else by mistake.
MISSING BAG UPDATE - As I'm writing this, I got a text telling me that the missing bag has been returned to the rightful owner. Yahoo!!!
GENERAL EASTER ISLAND TRIP REPORT - Overall it was a lovely trip to a very special place (let alone a UNEXSO World Heritage Site). Obviously the moai are world-renown but the diving was very interesting too. The diving was also very different from Week 1 to Week 2. We had worse weather but better water conditions Week 1, and better weather but worse water conditions (due to a large swell that moved in) Week 2. But then again, when you get dives where the viz exceeds 150 feet, how can you complain when it's "only" 60 feet or so? We enjoyed the Hotel Manavai, had great dives with Christian and Kevin at ORCA Diving center, and really learned a lot from our tour guide Josie Mulloy Nahoe. I've started working on the trip report and sorting through pix and hope to have those done by the end of the week. In the meantime . . .
A FEW PIX TO WHET YOUR APPETITE - They are:
Moai heads at Rano Raraku, Surge Wrasse, Orongo crater, Sunset Wrasse, Lobster, Easter Island Damselfish, Femine Wrasse, Dwarf Angelfish, the gang's all here (Group 2) at Ahu Akivi
DIVER.NET/BBS GONE? - This was one of the original dive-specific chat boards and one that was focused mainly on SoCal diving and divers. It may have fallen by the wayside as when you try to access the site, you get "404 Not Found: The requested URL was not found on this server." It worked last week so this is new. We've reached out to the site owner but haven't yet received a reply.
ROATAN REMINDER - End-of-day Thursday is when I need to send Anthony's Key confirmation of who's going with us June 28 - July 5. (I can still add folks after that based on room availability.) So if this is on your radar or we've already chatted about it, see if you can give me a yea or nay by then. Right now, I think we've got 10 folks in our group but we don't want to go over 14.
And that'll do it for now. Have a great week and let's go diving soon!!!
- Ken
