Easter Island

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Overview

The locals call Easter Island “the navel of the world” and I can see why. It’s the most remote place I’ve ever been. 2800 people living on an island of 117 sq km 3000km from Tahiti and 4000 from Santiago but it was a refreshing change to be somewhere without mobile phones or McDonalds. Not quite as scenic as Mo´orea, but the pacific waves crashing on the rugged coastline were pretty impressive, as were the world famous maoi of which we saw loads - a roll of film will probably bore you silly, because unless you’ve been it’s all pretty meaningless.

8 August

•   Arrived in Easter Island on Monday morning after a flight through the night where we didn’t sleep a wink - as a result, the jetlag that we probably shouldn’t have suffered caught up with us and we were in bed all afternoon because, as it turns out, so was everyone else here it being siesta time

•   The first couple of days, we just wandered around looking at some of the many Moai statues and went to the museum in the hope of learning something about them but all the information was in Spanish, so we had to guess or make up most of it.

•   Yesterday, we rented bikes and cycled across to the far corner of the island to Rano Raraku, up and down hills, in the crazy wind - it was pretty hard work but well worth it when we got there. Its a giant crater with hundred of the statues carved into the sides, ready to be cut out and taken to their final resting places along the coast, but for whatever reason, they never made it and now lie in situ as a museum of the making of maoi.

•   Today we have been cooped up in the guesthouse all day, because there has been the most torrential rain and we couldn’t face getting drenched.

•   Tomorrow the plan is to rent a car and go and see the other bits of the island. Saturday night we are going to a traditional dance show

•   Then on Sunday we can do the washing, write some postcards and all that good stuff before flying out on Monday.

•   We arrive in Chile Monday evening and I'll drop Catherine at her Spanish school, find somewhere to stay and then fly back out to Canada – woohoo! – on Tuesday night arriving on Wednesday afternoon.