On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 21:27:21 -0500, John Nitrox <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>At 06:48 PM 9/7/2004, the reincarnation of Hotu Matua, the great striped
>groper of eastern seas, the great feathered Tangata Manu, has made the mano
>his brother and put a new takona on his claspers in his conquest of Te Pito
>Te Koinga (Rapa Nui) with the timeless words:

Hey senor Shumate, that was a gross overkill!

As little as three days ago, I didn't even know that those stone
statues were "moais" <moai singular>.  I thought they were "moals"
because on a bulletin board (or the small prints of the ship's
patter) and "i" looks just like an "l".

Now I have to dig up my Rapa Nui t-shirt and the Easter Island map
on it to see if I can find the name of cove/area/region where my
once-in-a-lifetime dive took place.  :-)   Without your insistence
that I should do the "pristine" 200-ft vis dive, I might have
yielded to the threat of the frigid waters.  As it turned out,
the visibility was actually 300 feet!  (No tall tale).

Will have to wait for the next installment for that, and whatever
I can guess to be the endemic flora and fauna of the Easter Ialand
UW world, after my breakfast chow.  :-))

Da Feeesh.