Inspiration/ Going Beyond_ arrived Easter Island
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sun 13 Jun 2010 02:26
So how do you get inspiration, how do you go beyond, a question a lot of
ask, and I get asked. Today on the flight to Easter Island I again was
fortunate to watch a movie "Invictos" about the 1995 Rugby world cup in
South Africa, but not just the world cup but about the start of journey to
unify and heal a country (South Africa). I was fortunate to be living in
South Africa through the full time of this movie (attended 3 of the matches
including the final in the movie), building a couple of different businesses
and watching a country evolve. As I watch the movie regularly tears come to
my eyes as the reality and inspiration and emotion take me over. When you
look at vision, the forgiveness and the willingness to move on, I am
inspired beyond, to be positive to move forward, to take on challengers, to
bring my boys up to experience life, and understand the moral virtues, to go
beyond the immediate. If you have not seen this movie do yourself a favor
and see it. Too often we all get lost in daily lives and we loose track of
the bigger picture, like this year for me it is enabling me to step back on
my life. As we watch the current Soccer World Cup kicking off in South
Africa 15 years on from the Rugby World Cup, you cannot help to think it is
another major step in Mandela's country unification.
As we fly into Easter Island, I am excited full of expectation, it is a
place of mystery people going beyond, yet so remote. Again I hope I get to
understand , explore and be inspired.
Saturday afternoon in Easter Island we walked down town (if you can call
Hanga Roa the only town on the island, there are 3800 habitants on the
Island) which has about 10 streets and we walked 6 of them from one to the
other this afternoon, and found both their parks for the boys to play in.
The second park was on the water just south of the harbor, which really a
rocky inlet very shallow, and a man made little Panga harbor, in which 5
pangas fill it up and they are all Mediterranean style tied. This would be
very exposed if anything came up from the west, north or South, we had one
cargo /supply ship at anchor off the coast about 1 km, and there was a small
sail boat (solid steel looking hull) anchored as well off the coast going up
an down.
I walked to a little rock point, rounding a Moai Statue (huge) and sat at
it's base looking out to sea, watching two groups of surfers catching nice
rock breaks in what was a shoal lava rock base area. The water is clear and
as the sun light it up from behind as I looking at west, the green turquoise
color came through the wave, as the surfers cut up the wave, in the back
ground I could hear some horns and cheers coming from the soccer pitch
behind me which had an inter island game on, so between the surfers and
soccer and those watching both we must have had 80% of the town population.
I was back in shorts and T shirt, but not hot it is about 22 c (in the mid
60s F) and very comfortable, semi tropical, with the people looking
Polynesian but speaking Spanish.
I kept pinching myself that I was on Easter Island, in the middle of the
Pacific one of the most remote Islands in the world, listening to a Soccer
match being played behind me, watching surfers catch great waves in front of
me, and leaning against one of those legendary Maoi statues (these are huge)
as I look to my right along the coast of the island stretching out before
me, I see more statues dotted along the coast, and the volcano rising up to
the South, but all in bright green hills, and then this black lava rock
along the coast. It is a lot calmer than I expected, and atmosphere reminds
both Tracy and I of the islands off Malaysia and Thailand, and we like it.
Tomorrow we start exploring the south of the island, can't wait!!!