Blogs from Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Chile, South America - page 6

Hola, So we got up at the crack of dawn and went to the airport for our first flight in over a month. Where were we going you ask? Well, we were off to Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua. Still trying to figure it out? How about its more famous named: Easter Island. It is 3760 kilometres away from anything, and is thus the most remote lace on earth. The flight was only 5 hours or so, and when we arrived we were gived leis by Camping Mihinoa and then they drove us to our hostel which was located on a penninsula overlooking the waves of the South Pacific crashing on to the rocks on the shoreline. We wandered the capital of Hango Roa, but it was Sunday and during siesta time so everything was ... read more

Tuesday 3.8.2010 day 293 Quad biking around Rapa Nui We woke up to the most fantastic sunrise and a beautiful sunny day so we headed to the markets and got some more freshly caught fish from the market this time we got a smaller fish about ½ k for about $5 Aus dollars. Then we walked to the bike shop and picked up our Quad Bike and got the same two helmets (including my very big one). We dropped the fish back home and took a packed lunch with us. We headed to Orongo were the bird man ritual were held and the site of a fantastic volcano creator. The bird man ritual started after they got rid of the heads so instead of leaders being born they now chose the braves and strongest men to ... read more

Sunday 1.8.2010 day 291 Rapa Nui! (Polynesian), Easter Island! (English) Or Isla de Pascua! (Spanish), for a little island in the middle of nowhere why does it have 3 names? Easter Island is relatively small, just 117 sq km with just one small town called Hanga Roa, population 3800. The rest of the island is uninhabited except for hundreds of wild horses that roam free on the island and of course over 800 of the Moai statues that are scattered everywhere. We got up early and then went to church as I had read in our lonely planet that it is a mix of the Rapa Nui, Polynesian and Christian religion. It was very nice with lots of singing and there was a guy dresses in just a grass skirt there. We got there a bit ... read more

There are places you wish to go, places which are so remote they hit our imagination, places we dream about...and than one day, we plan, we go. Easter Island is seriously high in the "remote" top list in the world. You can either take one of the 2 weekly flights from Tahiti with Lan, or take any of the daily flights from Santiago on Lan...even with those, it's still a flight just short of 5 hours on a 767. Easter Island have another appeal for us...it's a diver place too! What to see diving here you'll tell me. Well, not many fishes, the place is volcanic and with very very little plancton activity. So forget about anything big, or anything in big school of fishes. So why coming...well...for the same reason. In season, which is in ... read more

We built our whole round the world flight schedule around Easter Island. After 8 months on the move, we have seen quite a lot and are starting to get blase about some of the places we have been so that it gets to the point where high expctations are dashed quite easily. So it was fair to say that we were more than a little worried about having booked for a whole week on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean. But before we get into our thoughts, a little geography lesson. Easter Island, though politically part of Chile, is very much part of Polynesia. It sits on the Pacific Plate and is made up from three separate volcanic eruptions which gave it a distinctive triangular shape. The Pacific Ocean is already rising up its shores, ... read more