Celebrating 30 years in style - Saturday, April 22

At 6.30am I call Victor's room and sing him the Danish birthday song with energy and feeling. He sounds really groggy, but sings along for the last part - and then he's awake! Thus we're all ready when Patricia arrives with the van for our Sunrise excursion, and manage to leave the hotel ahead of schedule at 7.15. You have to be careful driving in the dark on these roads, where horses and cows often stray into the road, as well as the many dogs. When we reach Tongariki, it's still quite dark, but you can distinguish the row of moai.

Although there are quite a few tourists present, people sit or stand quietly, readying their cameras and phones. At our back we hear the whinnies of a group of wild horses and in the front the tireless pounding of the waves. The sun begins to rise on our left, behind the Poike volcano, and bands of colors striate the sky. Suddenly I remember a similar moment, floating in a balloon above Cappadocia in Turkey. There's something so special about witnessing a sunrise in an ancient place. It's an honor to be there. The birthday boy feels it also

 emocionado watching it all. Who would have thought we'd be able to do this - be here for his 30th? Carpe Diem, indeed - as a friend said.

We take our leave when the sun is up and illuminating the quarry/volcano at our back, the Rano Rakaku, which to me bears a striking resemblance to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

 Back at the hotel we eat a voluminous breakfast. Suddenly a group of female servers appear with a beautiful piece of cake and sing the local birthday song to Victor

He's delighted and suprised, as are we. There's something latin about the way the women sing and move - so generous.

In Denmark we say a person has been good if the weather is nice for his or her birthday. Victor must have been very good for the weather is absolutely splendid - 

perfect for a trip to Orongo, the ancient site for the famous Birdman competitons, where athletic young men would clamber down the tall, ragged cliffs, jump into the ocean, and swim to 3 islets off the coast to catch the first egg laid by the Sooty Terns. 

On our way, we stop by the Rano Kau crater with mats of reeds floating on the 1km wide surface looking like a giant camouflage net. 

 Sitting in the sun, inspired by all this history and beauty, we fix Victor's hair in a Rapa Nui topknot

and move on to Orongo, where we see the islands lying quite far from the coast, and so far down. The imagination boggles at the sheer difficulty of this competion, shown quite vividly in the RAPA NUI movie.

We move around the ancient stone houses, constructed as dwellings for the most prominent members of the ruling class

and find ourselves back at the quarry, overwhelmed by the view, the deep blue of the sea, the floating greens of the crater, the ancient history....

On our way back we stop in the harbor next to the hotel at a cute restaurant perched on the rocks and have another wonderful ceviche lunch - with a beer.

Then it's time for a rest before tonight's Rapa Nui show at a local club, Kari Kari. 

We arrive early and dawdle in a shop before going in. Suddenly rain is thundering down and we have to wait, stranded where we are, until it eases off. Then we run, down a long passage, hopping on flagstones, until we reach a covered area with a stage and several rows of seats. Victor stands in line to get his face painted

while Oswaldo and I find seats. The show starts with a great show of energy and sound. Women singing, their hips swaying, moving their arms gracefully in a sideways wave motion.

The men are muscular and very scantily dressed, raising questions about what they are wearing underneath their feathery cod-pieces.

It's all very merry, the people in the audience joining in with sincere good humor, and we stomp and sway along with everybody else. The performers have been selecting volunteers from the audience to come on stage to dance with them, and, at the end, the female star soloist comes to select Victor (who discreetly pushes off his Birkenstocks prepared to do his Brazilian best). He's led on to the stage where he stands next to the lady,

while others dance frenziedly about, and it becomes clearer and clearer that theirs will be the final number. Then he's led center stage and accepts in good spirit that they yank off his shirt - to the roar of the crowd. A good sport always, Victor joins the fun and squats and stomps in a Rapa Nui freestyle with a Brazilian samba flavor - his tattos and topknot surprisingly in place. The audience screams and so do we, filming madly. He returns to his seat, buttoning his shirt, and the show ends on this victorious note. We get to take photos with the performers

and then we leave. The rain has stopped and it's an excited group driving home in the dark, on the lookout for stray horses and dogs in the road, but super excited and happy. What a fabulous end to a fabulous birthday!