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Elizabeth Willoughby's Blog – April 2012 Archive (4)

Foz do Iguaçu – The Great Waters

As the jeep bounces and lurches along the rutted, potholed track, the ominous rumblings of distant thunder grow increasingly louder, its source masked by the surrounding dense jungle. At the end of the road, a brief clearing. Steamy, subtropical air is slightly cooler and carries the scent of mossy dampness.…

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Added by Elizabeth Willoughby on April 30, 2012 at 6:00pm — No Comments

The Birdman Cult of Rapa Nui

Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui in the local language, is a hilly island of pastures scattered with rocks. It was formed mainly by three volcanoes into a 173-square-kilometre triangle and has been inhabited by humans for roughly 1600 years, we think. Thanks to the 19th-century notes of missionaries, voyagers and scientists, it’s the last 300 years or so of the Rapa Nui culture that we know most about. The writings and…

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Added by Elizabeth Willoughby on April 29, 2012 at 3:46pm — No Comments

Rapa Nui: Big Island, Big Heads, Big Mysteries

There is much that we do know about Easter Island, called Rapa Nui in the local language. Scientific theory has added some insight. So has an ancient oral history to some extent. What we know is mostly…

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Added by Elizabeth Willoughby on April 29, 2012 at 6:59am — No Comments

May Day in Bavaria

The Maibaum (May Pole) festival in Bavaria takes place around the Workers' Day long weekend at the end of April, beginning of May. Each spring, villagers gather at town squares to gab and play, eat and drink and dance to a band while the men raise the May Pole.

Bavarian tradition is to cut down a very tall tree only days before the…

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Added by Elizabeth Willoughby on April 25, 2012 at 1:48pm — No Comments