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Easter Island, no its not home to giant chocolate eggs!
We arrived here 2 days ago on this remote spec of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. When we say spec of land we mean an island of 3700 people that is 11kn wide and 23km long with its nearest neighbour Chile, being 3600km away.
The first thing that hit us after disembarking the plane, was the friendliness of everyone (guess this comes with only having a handful of flights that visit per week) along with the sea air and 1000´s of twinkling stars shining down on us.
We had only given ourselves 3 full days and 4 nights to explore the island but surprisingly enough for a small island there is a vast amount to see and do. Easter Island or Rapa Nui, is a volcanic island famous for its Maoi or stone carved figure heads that are a relic from an early civilization. There are many 100´s of these dotted around the island, measuring up to 10m and weighing approx 75 tonnes, all of which were amazingly relocated around the island from the single centrally located quarry. One unfinished sculpture would have been 21
Spot the Moai
Matt´s nose might fit the profile better!m and weighed 270 tonnes. Not a lot is known about these early inhabitants of Easter Isalnd but its widely accepted that tribal wars led to their demise and the island left barren and treeless.
Our first day was spent hiking up one of the volcano´s to the carter rim. This was a magical spot with cliffs on one side dropping into the Pacific Ocean and a small historic stone village built into the outer edge. On the inside of this crater we looked down upon a beautiful lagoon sprinkled with vegetation. Although the island is rarely busy, we are currently in a particularly low season as May is the wettest month here. We weren't quite sure what to expect knowing this, but as you might know on these islands, rain storms can be amazingly isolated and therefore can be pouring in 1 place from 1 single dark cloud and sunny 100m away. Great site to see from the top of the volcano and makes a fun game as you try to avoid the showers. We were rather successful in achieving this on the first day and were quite chuffed with ourselves having not encountered one drop of rain.
The line up!
One of these is not like the other Day 2 we decided to hire a scooter and try to complete a full circle of the island as this was the only way we were assured of seeing all the sites. Matt being the scooter expert having previously owned 3 of them (but never a car) took control at the front while Leanne screamed from the back as we bounced over the rough dirt roads. "Slow down you idiot!" may have slipped out 1 or 2 times followed by the odd whack. The Moai are hard to describe, but as you stand alone in the sun with the sea breeze blowing on this isolated island they have a strange presence about them that is very mystical. One of the more impressive sites on the island was the quarry. From here you can see completed Moai ready for transportation next to half completed Maoi still waiting to be cut free from the rock face. This gives the feeling that this place was abandoned at some speed. This quarry was the sight where we lost our game of rain dodging. We pulled up to find the sun disappearing behind a dark cloud and oh did the heavens open!
How could
you imagine a better end to a memorable and great day than lying in the crystal clear water and looking back at 6 Moai standing peacefully in the golden sand infront of you surrounded but coconut palms. Smashing!!
Today is our last full day so required an early pre dawn start to catch a glimpse of sunrise over the Moai. Spectacular site and worth every second but also well earned as this involved a bouncy 40 minute scooter ride to the far corner of the island in pitch darkness with the odd shower catching you unaware.
A unique and great place.
ps Val keep an eye out for a visiting small stone Moai currently sailing his way to Australia.
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Murray
non-member comment
Toasting u's
Was able to toast you with a bottle of Argentine wine... was going to ask if you could evaluate it on the local market... haha. Ummmh.. no Chilean wine on hand.... Do they have wineries on Easter Island? Take care.