Day 3 Easter Island

Today was Sunday and Hema had suggested to us that we might attend the service at the church. The singing alone was worth going for apparently even if you are not church goers. As Christians we jumped at the chance to see how the islanders worship, so made the time to go along. The service was at 9am and this was the time that breakfast was usually served, so I tried to request breakfast early. Not an easy task.. Hema had arranged to have breakfast after the service finished at 10am, so they had assumed we would do the same. That would have been ok for us, but the girls would never have lasted the service on empty tummies. So I pushed for an early breakfast. The owner Maria said that Vicky, her daughter, who was hosting us would have to get up very early to have breakfast ready for us, and as she had already gone back to her home she would have to call and ask her. I didn't hold out much hope. However, at 8.15, just as I was getting out of the shower, Maria was peering around outside our room. I sent Ross to go and look, and she herself had kindly prepared breakfast for us.

The service was beautiful. Islanders and tourists filled the pews, side aisles and there was barely standing room left at the back of the church. There must have been 400 people there. The church was adorned with beautiful carvings of Rapa Nui style religious figurines and lots of flowers. We did not understand the Rapa language in which the service was conducted, but we did listen in total awe to the harmonious singing which oozed out from all around the church. Mass was conducted but we did not partake. Mary continued to hack away, which embarrassed me profusely and caused a few stares. However a lady next to us, obviously also a tourist, kept digging in her handbag as though looking for something each time Mary coughed. Eventually she pulled out a lollipop and handed it to Mary. She looked at Jude and shrugged and put up one finger, indicating she didn't have another. Jude took it well, fortunately. It certainly did the trick in stopping Mary coughing for the rest of the service, to my relief. At one point she did drop it on the ground, then looking at me for approval, picked it up and put it back in her mouth! I could just see the disapproving faces that said "No wonder your child has such a bad cough".

People poured out of the church at the end of the service and there was much activity outside with locals greeting one another and hopping in and out of cars. We made our way slowly back to the hostel, Jude and Ross stopping en route to pick up a lollipop for Jude. Only fair! 

The previous day we had organised to go on a horse ride at 11am, but this has been postponed to 2.30pm, so we had some time available to do an activity before lunch. Unaminously, it was decided that we should go for a family snorkel. The place where we had been diving previously was an ideal spot for the girls. Calm, sheltered, shallow, and with fish that came right in near the shore. Mary was game, Jude a little more reluctant. I suited up, today the suit feeling much more comfortable having been stretched the day before. Ross then helped Mary to get on her wetsuit and mask and snorkel. She opted to climb on my back so I could swim and she wasn't fully immersed. She felt safe like this and could still put her head in the water and see the fish. I swam out slowly and calmly towards the opening where the waves were breaking gently. Fish were already visible and I started to hear muffled shrieks and giggles through the snorkel. At first I wasn't sure if they were unhappy noises, so I popped up to check that Mary was happy - not an easy feat with her laid out along my back! Yes, she was definitely happy. We swam around for a short while, but Mary was shivering badly and soon asked to go back. I have never heard a 5 year old wax lyrical quite so much, but she really tried to sell the snorkeling to jude. Mary thought it was just amazing. Jude was keen to try but the water was just too cold for her. She did put everything on ready to go but she shrieked when she felt the temperature of the water. Not having a wetsuit was of no help to her either. There was no way of persuading her, so I swam out for a quick dive by myself before swapping with Ross and doing my turn of watching the girls on the shore. 

Snorkeling at Tahai

Everyone was happy as we walked back to our hostel, and most definitely ready for some lunch! Ross had “borrowed” the owners kitchen and prepared a delicious lunch of mince stew and rice. It was quite late when we started to eat and just as we were taking our last mouthfuls the man arrived to take us riding bang on time. Our host was at our heels saying we needed to go so as not to make the man wait. Ross was trying to tidy up the plates, but she was adamant we must just leave everything and go. She would clear away. At this we were most surprised. Punctuality is not much of a heeded word in Chile and obviously we have adjusted to this more than we were aware!

The man waited at his 4x4 looking impatient as we grabbed our things and sent the girls over to him. He introduced himself as Pantu and smiled, welcoming us to ride his horses. Vicky had said that we all could ride as their were ponies for the children. Beginning to wonder what was in store for us, we felt a little foolish not getting more information before hand. We had no idea how long a ride we were doing or how much money we were in for. But, we decided it didn’t matter now, we were committed and as we love riding it wasn’t going to be a hardship. We arrived at a lovely establishment overlooking the sea, which had very modern cabanas and a nice riding ring in the centre of a pretty garden. There were 5 horses tethered and no ponies in site. When I saw this I decided that Jude could not ride by herself under any circumstances. We were happy to try Mary on her own horse, and I assumed that the guide would lead her on a rope. She had at least been on a horse a few times before. Their equipment wasn’t lacking much. They had riding hats for all of us and even chaps, which is always a nice treat. Pantu assured us the horses were calm and Mary would be fine riding by herself. Our guide, whose name I forget, was a young lad who was very friendly. Once we were mounted and ready to go Mary had to learn quickly how to get her horse to move. There was no leading rope which made me a little nervous, but the guide seemed perfectly relaxed, so I decided to leave it in God’s hands that she would be safe. Jude was mounted with me, sitting on a blanket just on the front pommel, which I suspected might get uncomfortable. Never having ridden more than a few metres with a child in the saddle with me I wondered how I would feel after an hour or more of riding. Jude’s weight in front of me was pushing me backwards, but it was a lovely feeling to be helping my little girl ride a horse. Mary was very proud to be riding by herself and the horse looked steady and firm under her. Leaving the paddock we headed down the dirt road to the coast, just a short distance away. 

Horse ride to the banana cave

The other detail we had never established was how long the ride would be. I did my best to ask the young guide how our long our trip would be and was certain that his answer was an hour to an hour and a half. I thought Mary would manage that without getting too tired. It was a very special ride and we enjoyed viewing the coast from our elevated positions. The relaxed pace of the ride (no cantering with Mary on her own horse) was obviously very relaxing for Jude as the nodding movement of the horse had caused her to nod too! She was fast asleep in front of me and I was trying hard to stop her from falling off. I was very relieved that she had not gone on her own horse. Our route took us past 2 caves, and we entered one of them called the banana cave. It was a welcome relief to climb down off the horses and stretch, particularly easing the pressure off the knees. Whilst in the cave I heard a shout “hello Mary!” which took me by complete surprise. Who could it possibly be? My sister has always joked that I know enough people to be recognised anywhere in the world, and now I was starting to think that Mary is following in my footsteps. Well, with her social abilities it is no surprise, she makes friends wherever we go. It turned out to be the owner of the cafe where we had eaten dinner on the first night with Hema. Her other job was as a tour guide and she was guiding a party around the island. Climbing back on to our horses I passed Jude over to Ross. We had already been riding for over an hour and a half and we had to get home. I was feeling a little nervous that Mary would be tiring by now. Each time I questioned if she felt ok, she assured me she was fine. I just hoped that the horse didn’t spook suddenly, something which once happened to me after 3 days in the saddle. I was so exhausted and focused on getting back to our lodge that when my horse suddenly jumped sideways I was left behind with no horse underneath me. I ended up in a heap on the floor, rather embarrassing as we were only a short distance from our lodge so we had a good audience, and as women don’t ride horses in Africa I felt like quite a spectacle. The worst that happened to Mary was that her horse wandered off on his own path at one point, so our guide had to go and herd them back to us. By the time we got back to the ranch it was 3 hours later. The price was acceptable, considering on Easter Island all activities come at a premium.  

That evening we took a walk down to the harbour in Hanga Roa at sunset.

Ahu Tautira at sunset

Whilst I was taking photos of the changing colours of the landscape, Jude and Mary went off with Ross to admire the fishing boats moored in the harbour. There was much excitement when they discovered 3 large turtles swimming under the boats, eating the fish heads left behind by the fisherman. We sat and watched them slowly cruise under the boats, pecking small chunks of flesh off the unwanted carcasses, coming up for air every few minutes. That was a real treat. I had, just that day, heard that if you swim off the beach next to the harbour, you often find turtles that you can swim with. 

Turtles swimming under boats

As it was Sunday, the choice of restaurants to eat at was limited.  Being right outside a restaurant that was open, I popped in to see what their menu and prices were like. The facade suggested a very upmarket and probably expensive restaurant, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found the menu to be comparable to most of the other restaurants we had seen. Anyway, the view out over the ocean alone was worth any hike in prices, so I called in the troops and we settled at a table to watch the last of the glorious sunset as the sky oozed flame reds, oranges and yellows. The food was good, but didn’t quite meet the same standards as the location. I ordered a fish soup and Ross ordered tuna with sweet potatoes and dill sauce. Whilst we were waiting for the food to arrive we both suddenly thought that any kind of fish soup usually contains seafood to give it more flavour, so we decided it best that Ross would eat the soup and I would have the tuna. Ross had a vantage point towards the kitchen and suddenly made a disapproving groan. Intrigued, I asked what it was about, but he said it was nothing. Then after a pause he said “well, as you are no longer having the soup, it won’t hurt to tell you that I just saw the chef take a big spoon, taste the soup, then put the spoon straight back into the pan! I thought it might put you off if I told you..” obviously different levels of standards!

After another full day the girls crashed into bed with us following closely behind them.  

Easter Island Day 2

The sounds of the night were quite different to what I am used to in Santiago. It was very peaceful, which makes a pleasant change from the traffic and car alarms we have had to get used to, but there were cocks crowing at a most unusual hour in the morning. The sound of birdsong, that I know as the Dawn Chorus, was a beautiful mix of singing from what sounded like thousands of birds, which sadly we never actually saw. Ross woke up early to get in a dive before breakfast, but was so early that he had to sleep at the waters edge for half an hour for it to get even half light enough to dive! Unusually the sunrise was quite late so he only got in the water just before 7am, and even then he said he could only just about see. He enjoyed his dive very much. The visibility can reach 40-60m, but a lack of coral means that fish species are limited in variety. There was however still much sealife of interest.

Surgeon fish and a lone angelfish

Breakfast was served at a communal table, so we enjoyed a typical Chilean style breakfast with Hema of bread, cheese, jam, avocado (mashed with copious amounts of garlic and salt), tea and coffee. I had of course taken other things to eat but did succumb to the pan amasado (hand made bread rolls).  We also had more of the freshly made papaya juice. After breakfast we took a taxi to visit Orongo, one of the volcanoes on the island. It was possible to walk there from our hostel, but we decided not to push my luck physically. It would be much better for us to walk back down. The road took you all the way to the top of the volcano to the entrance to the national park, managed by Conaf, the Chilean conservation organisation. The volcano is now a Manavai or natural greenhouse which provides a sheltered environment from wind and sea salinity for the growth of native and endemic species. Here they can grow in the wild without threat from humans or livestock, thus conserving Rapa Nui's native flora. It is a freshwater lagoon with a depth of approximately 12m with unusual fern species rare on any other part of the island. Species used in traditional medicine are also found in the crater. 

Crater Lagoon, Orongo

    

From the crater we moved on to enter the national park. We had some reservations about what we were going to find there. I decided that we should go in regardless, there wasn't much point in being there and then not going to look. The lady who sold us the tickets was incredibly friendly and helpful and we were relieved to be in possession of Chilean RUT cards which reduced the hefty entrance fee from 30.000CLP per person to 10.000CLP. It turned out to be worth our efforts. It was a fascinating ceremonial village, comprised of 54 houses related to the Tangata-Manu or Bird-Man competition. It was used for only a few weeks of the year in spring, for an annual ceremony. Tribal chiefs would compete to be the first to swim to the nearby island and collect an egg of the Manutara (Sooty Tern) which arrived in spring to nest on the island. Groups would gather in Orongo where the village was used to carry out various events in preparation for the competition. Participants would swim to Motu Nui island staying there for days or weeks for the arrival of the seabirds until one participant found an egg. The participant then returned with the egg to Orongo and he (or his Chief whom he represented) was endowed as tangata-manu or bird-man. He was considered sacred and lived in ceremonial reclusion for a year. The last competition would have taken place in approximately 1867.

Ceremonial Village House, Orongo 

Just look at the size of the doors! However they got in I do not know.. they must have crawled on their bellies as they are rabbit sized holes. Glad for them that they were only used for a few weeks a year. The girls had so much fun running from house to house. It is forbidden to enter the houses and only some of them can you get close to. The info leaflet listed each area of interest by number and the girls were very excited to go off to find the next number and then ask Daddy to read out what was relevant about it. Thousands of petroglyphs have been engraved in the rocks of this area which shows testimony to the activity developed there.

Petroglyphs with bird man island in background

As Ross had requested 5 minutes to stop and look over at the island, apparently an excellent diving spot, I had little choice but to let the girls head back towards the tables of craft souvenirs they had spied at the entrance. After much negotiation (between myself and the girls) we only parted with a small amount pesos and came away with a pencil engraved with a Moai and a feather necklace. They were incredibly happy with these and they proved to be valuable tools for our walk back down to the main town of Hanga Roa. The pen was used to make marks on the map and the feather was a kind of compass. I love kids imaginations!

It was a very pleasant walk back towards Hanga Roa, skirting the edge of the crater and being afforded views from many angles. We then descended into forest where we stopped for a picnic. On exiting the forest we found ourselves at the edge of the airfield which was over run with wild horses! Once passing the airport we were back on the coast. It was a warm day and we were enjoying the cool breeze which was coming in off the sea. The track along the coast took us past a small cave which was noted for having rock art on its' ceiling. I wasn't too keen to climb down the deep steps just to come all the way back up again, as I was feeling pretty tired by this point, so I sent my appointed representative to go check it out first. Neither of us had high expectations that any rock art could still exist with any definition so close to the sea, so when I heard the exclamation of "Oh wow, you have to come down and look at this!" I knew that I should really make the effort. I have seen rock art in South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand and other African countries but nothing compared to this. The colours were still profound and the shapes very discernible as the traditional symbols of fertility and the paintings related to the bird man ceremonies. 

Rock Art

Jude was being carried in the backpack by this point so was quite content. I was beginning to fade quickly and we were hoping to get close to a road so that we might pick up a taxi. Time was also of the essence as one of the missionary families had kindly offered to look after the girls for the afternoon so that Ross and I could do some activities child free, and we were now getting quite tight on time. Continuing along the coastal path we popped out at a small harbour with much activity. Next to it was another Moai, just a single one this time. Of course, it was necessary to go and take a picture! I never realised that there would be quite so many on a such a small island.

Ahu Riata

Just on from here we managed to pick up a taxi back to our accommodation. The taxi was a car which had seen much use, with no shocks, doors which just about closed and the driver's seat was broken on one side so when he leaned back it did a kind of contorted twist backwards to one side. We were to learn that there are actually more cars on the island now than inhabitants! But the elderly driver was friendly and kindly gave Mary & Jude a mandarin each, which surprised me having heard how expensive fruit and veg is there. Now late for our babysitters, we dashed in and collected the necessary items for the girls and most importantly the address, and hopped into another taxi to go meet the Dutch family. Immediately on meeting them we felt very relaxed about leaving M&J. The girls, aged 8 and 10 were very friendly, confident and polite. They had a lovely small house with a nice garden and they engaged our girls quickly. To our surprise Mary was a little upset as we left, but of course, when we were gone she was fine after a few minutes.

Ross and I were hoping to hire a scooter for a couple of hours and do some exploring around the island. It is 24.6 km by 12.3 km, and roughly triangular in shape.

There are many sights of interest around the island and trying to do some of them in a couple of hours would not have been very realistic, so it was actually in our best interests that the scooters were hired for a minimum of 8 hours. 

So instead, we decided to go for a snorkel together at Tahai. This would have been the first proper diving we had done together in 6 years. We did snorkel together once in La Gomera 3 years ago, but I was 7 months pregnant with Jude, so it wasn't really much of a dive! I was quite apprehensive about the whole thing, but also determined to go for it. 

The water in Easter Island is a few degrees warmer than in Chile, about 20/21 degrees C. We had brought out my wetsuit from England on our last trip back knowing that we would be coming to Easter Island. It is an open cell 7mm wetsuit, so even I would not be getting cold in the water. My last memory of using the suit was trying to put it over my head, a very unpleasant experience. An open cell wetsuit is designed to stick to your skin for warmth and to prevent water from seeping inside. It is custom made for size and to get it on you have to wet it inside with soapy water. The thought of having to squeeze myself into this soapy wetsuit was off putting to say the least. But Ross was able to help me and is very experienced at putting these suits on. It was quite a fuss, but I managed it, but still with the same fear of inhaling soapy water whilst we tried to prise my head through into the hoodie. The suit felt tighter than I remembered it, which was a little odd to believe as I would have expected to be smaller now than I was 6 years ago. But of course, it hadn't been used in all that time either. Now mid afternoon, the sun had become quite hot, so after the fuss of putting on my wetsuit, bootees, weight belt, flippers, gloves, mask and snorkel, I had raised my core temperature by quite a bit.

Ready to brave the waters

Entering the water was refreshing after the long walk and the dashing around dropping the kids. The only part of me that noticed the temperature of the water was my face, hands and feet which were not covered in open cell neoprene. I started to relax and enjoy the calm, clean water. We had an ideal spot to get in, it was just like a large rock pool, protected from incoming surges, so I was able to swim around and get used to that feeling of being back in the water. The rocks below enticed a few small fish and I was enjoying seeing some life underwater. Ross caught up to me and we swam out into the open sea together where the depth started to open up to around 8-12m, the waves were around us and the fish life was becoming more prolific. Ross indicated to me to try a dive, so I breathed up, took out my snorkel, lifted my feet and descended. It was a nice feeling to be slowly moving down closer to the fish. When I reached the bottom I could feel that I was underweighted and so as I tried to remain quietly on the seabed I could feel my feet starting to rise up. I kept trying to hold onto the rocks around me but it was quite tricky, I was just too buoyant. There was a good variety of fish to see, many of which I could not name and had to ask Ross. I enjoyed watching a moray eel swimming around below and dived down to try to get a closer look.

Moray Eel up close

Our time passed by very quickly. There was plenty to see including brightly coloured parrot fish, tweezer butterfly fish (black, white, yellow with tweezer snoute, only found on island), surgeons (dark, large shoals), the long slim trumpet fish (grey or bright yello, swim with noses down), wrasse, and a relative of the pomparno which I recognised from our diving in South Africa. Ross was impressed I had remembered them!  Despite a lack of coral and although the fish species were all small, they were colourful and included some fish I had never seen before. Like the bright blue bag fish. I squeezed Ross's hand which is our universal language for "I see a fish" and pointed at the lovely dark blue shape which appeared to be eating from the rock. It swished about with movement of the gentle waves above it, the feathery appearance of its tail also fanning back and forth. Ross wagged his finger at me, indicating something negative so I immediately assumed that it was a poisonous fish, perhaps like a lionfish. So I crossed my fingers to indicate this is what I had understood. He then surfaced, took out his snorkel and said "No, it's a plastic bag. I checked it out this morning!"

I enjoyed the quiet swim back to shore, practising a few more dives down on the way. Ross praised me for diving well despite having been such a long time since I had last done it, which made me feel very pleased. The process of taking off my wetsuit was almost as bad as getting it on, but it was nice to feel the warm sun on my wet body helping me to dry off.

We had been invited to have dinner with the 2 families that evening, so we dashed back to the house where the girls were and found them very happy and reluctant to leave. Jude was in the bedroom playing with a box full of Littlest Pet Shop toys and was keen for me to buy something from her shop. Mary was outside playing in the little pop up house with the older girl. Dinner was just across the road so we didn't have far to go. Our hosts welcomed us and thanked us again for all the goodies we had taken for them. Dinner was just about ready so we sat down at the table outside, and after saying Grace we tucked into a delicious dinner of roast chicken, vegetables, salad, rice and gravy. We were also served fermented tea. I tasted it and guessed that it was cider and was most surprised that it was made from tea because usually I hate anything which tastes remotely of tea! The 4 girls had a lot of fun playing hide and seek between courses in the large garden which was full of banana, avocado and papaya trees. Biscuits and a jello pudding was served for dessert and the girls did us proud by eating everything that had been offered to them. The evening finished with some general adult chat inside the house, with the children winding down to a couple of episodes of Shaun the Sheep.

Our weary legs carried us the 10 min walk back to our accommodation and we were greeted by Maria the owner who had kindly made a big bottle of avocado leaf tea for Mary and Jude. Both girls had coughs but Mary's was a strong hack which drew gasps of "ooh, esta muy enferma!" at every cough. Avocado leaf tea is reputed for medicinal properties for the bronchioles and we had just been discussing this over dinner. So we had to make the girls drink it, even though they were not so keen on its liquorice taste. Needless to say that the girls collapsed into bed that night! 

Easter Island Day 1

Rapa Nui. What a place! Steeped in culture and history, with hiking, diving and much geographical diversity, it has something to offer everyone. I have to admit though, that when we landed, I was a little disappointed. I had heard so many raving reports of the island, and of course the Lonely Planet has pictures of the most beautiful parts of the island on a sunny day with clear blue skies. We came in over the sea and I was poised with my camera as we had been told that the landing had to be photographed, but I didn't really see much to photograph other than the possibility of landing in the sea! The landscape seemed a bit dull, flat, and uninteresting. I had expected more tropical. But my opinions were to change quickly, and were probably tarnished by the fatigue brought on from the 5 hour plane journey.

Excited tourists littered the tarmac taking photos of their arrival on Easter Island. Our host, Vicki from Residencial Tahai, met us in the tiny airport arrivals hall and greeted us with the traditional garland of flowers, which of course thrilled the girls. There was another guest staying at the same bed & breakfast as ourselves, a girl from England who was learning Spanish in Buenos Aires. She was spending a month in Chile, and had tagged on Easter Island as a special last minute trip. The girls took to her friendly personality immediately. The drive to our accommodation was short and Vicki thoughtfully drove us via the town of Hanga Roa so that we could orientate ourselves a little.

Our room was basic, but clean and perfectly adequate. There was no-one staying next to us and we had a lovely patio outside with our own table to sit at, looking out over the garden which was brimming with colours of bougainvillae. Freshly made papaya juice was brought to our table to refresh and welcome us. After settling ourselves in we started our exploration of the surrounding area. Friends had recommended this particular place to stay and mentioned that there were some Moai statues very close by. I also liked it that the accommodation was near to the Museum, so we set off to learn more about the history of the island and the traditions of the people and why they had built the Moai.

Firstly we came to the Moai at Tahai. These overwhelmingly large, carved figures have survived for centuries, and depict the living faces of deified ancestors. They would have been carved between the years 1250 and 1500. Not so many of them are still in tact, but some can be seen to be very well preserved. There are strict laws on the island which forbid anyone to touch the statues or to stand on the Ahu, the platforms on which they are erected.

The Moai at Tahai

The sea was beautifully clean and glistened like a dark blue jewel in the sunshine. Waves were gently breaking behind the Moai which added to their appeal. Ross was checking out dive spots and was feeling quite spoilt for choice. The sun was beginning to break through, dispersing the morning cloud and giving way to the warmth of the afternoon. To our disappointment the museum looked decidedly closed. There was a small sign confirming our suspicions, which looked quite aged, so we guessed that it was unlikely to reopen during our 5 day stay. So we settled down on the coastline for a snack, hoping to improve our energy levels. Ross and the girls recovered well, but I was just too tired, so I decided it was best for everyone if I went and had a rest back in our room. Ross took the girls for a walk along the east coast going north, stopping also for a snooze in the warm sun.

As always, we were travelling overweight as we had brought with us a suitcase full of fruit and vegetables for 2 missionary families who live on the island. Luckily there was no problem at the check in desk.. I called and arranged with Bob that he would come over and collect the food after we had been for dinner. As she was alone, we invited Hema to come and have dinner with us which she accepted, and we all strolled down to a nearby cafe also recommended by our friends. We were shown to a table on the rooftop which overlooked the pretty cemetery and out to sea. Dance music was flowing through the speakers and the girls were enjoying entertaining us, with dancing and magic shows. Our efforts at ordering were quite comical that evening. For some reason the girl taking our order wasn't making our options very clear, but we had no complaints about what eventually arrived! Tuna steak with a type of sweet potato and grilled vegetables, all cooked to perfection. Our starter of ceviche arrived after our main dish, but that wasn't of any concern to us. It was equally as good. I was a little worried that as the service wasn't swift we would be late back to meet with Bob to hand over their goodies, then discovered that the island is actually 2 hours behind Chile, not 1 hour as I had understood on the aeroplane (I think the hostess gave the wrong time in Spanish, and I assumed she had it wrong in English!).  That explained the comment when we were greeted at the restaurant that they opened at 6pm, which I thought was slightly strange considering my watch showed 7.02pm!! So I relaxed and enjoyed the slow pace of life. It was fun to meet Bob when we returned to our B&B, and we were surprised to hear that they had been living on the island for 33 years. I was very glad of my bed that night, as were the girls, who had been kept up way past their usual bedtime.