Rapa Nui farewell

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Dodging some serious rain showers, we paid a last visit to downtown Hanga Roa before our flight back to the 'Conti'. For those who somehow miss the craft vendors whose pickup trucks precede the procession of mini-buses at the island's main sites, there's an artisans' market selling an array of moai fridge magnets, shell necklaces and sarongs near the church. Despite my earnest supplication, I failed to convince Raúl to buy me an authentic coconut-shell brassiere.

Still eager to offload a few final pesos? Not to worry, Mataveri airport has numerous souvenir stalls, and with little to do in the departures area but compare tan-lines with fellow tourists, they were pulling in the punters on our morning there. Sitting in the departures lounge was like watching a rapid recap of the holiday as a number of familiar faces drifted past, so I wasn't immediately surprised when Alex and Francisco, our prepubescent dining companions from the night before, approached us. Then I suddenly realised that in order to find us at the departure gate, they had to have got past the security control. (To be fair, Mataveri is probably not a high-security hotbed, the tiny airport unlikely to be a major narco-trafficking gateway or a shoebomber's transportation hub of choice).

They had come to say goodbye and give us a memento of Easter Island, which Alex's mum had in the arrivals hall. The guards let us out and the boys garlanded us each with a bead necklace before presenting us with a wooden moai and bidding us buen viaje.

This sending-off epitomised the friendliness and generosity we experienced on the island throughout our stay, and we both agreed it was going to take some beating to top this trip.

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Photos

Hanga Roa harbour... again
Some final photos of the island

Hanga Roa and Mataveri
There is apparently a vantage point on the hillside from which you can watch the pilot's expression as the plane comes in to land. (Or maybe the astronaut's, should the purposely extended runway ever be used for an emergency space shuttle landing).

Easter Island from above