Hello again!!

On the 3^rd of January we said goodbye to the mainland of South America (snif, snif, snif) as our journey took us to the remote, but oohh so lovely Easter Island. As Easter Island is part of Chile, we checked in one hour before our flight at Santiago International airport. However, it turned out that we were very fortunate that we still had a seat as the flight was...well totally over-booked!! Mischa ended up into a nasty fight with one of the other passengers to make sure she could still sit next to Thomas! Around midday we arrived at the airport and were greeted (with flowers!) by Erica of Hostel Chez Erica (a lot of places are called chez something....no idea why....French is not really spoken here).

Our hostel turned out to be a charming little place with a beautiful and lush garden and close to Easter Island's biggest town Hanga Roa. This would be our home for the next 5 days.

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is just a tiny little speck of land and one of the most isolated places on earth: the flight from Santiago took a whopping 5 hours and the closest piece of land is Pitcairn island (and we all know what happened there!!). The island is famous for its monumental and oh so familiar statues, called moai, created by the Rapanui people with their unusual rapa nui language. After 7 months just using 'hola' and 'gracias' we had to switch 'lorana' and 'maururu' now, that was fun! In general, the people living on the island are very relaxed and laid-back. The main street in Hanga Roa felt like a small little town and the number of tourists running around was very small. Yes, we would definitely enjoy ourselves here!

The next day we woke up early to pick up our little jeep (roads can be pretty rough!) and set off to explore the island. For some historical background we started at the Museo Antropologico Sebastian Englert, which contains a wealth of information about the island, its history, culture and of course its moai. There are more than 880 moai on Easter Island, which measures considerably less than the bigger Amsterdam Area... as such, the 'little' creatures can be found just everywhere and the whole island to us looks like one big open air museum! Moai come in different shapes and sizes - from 2 meter up to 10 meter in height. Some moai have been completely restored, while others have been re-erected but are almost completely eroded. Many more lie on the ground, toppled over - usually face down and some wear hats, the so called topknots: very cute. Surprisingly, all moai face inland!

After our necessary intake of info, we went to discover the island and drove to the Rano Kau crater. Here, we gazed open-mouthed at the mesmerising scene. The crater is at the edge of the island and gives a 36-degree view of its emerald-green lake down below and of the inky-blue ocean. Wow!!

Close to the crater is the Orongo Ceremonial Village, our next stop. Although the site was a bit disappointing (just a heap of stones leaped together) it did give us an amazing view of the ocean and its petite offshore islands including the dive site Moto Nui, which we were set to visit tomorrow.

At 9.00am sharp we were at the dive shop (http://www.seemorca.cl/) to do a two-tank dive in the crystal clear but very cold waters around Rapa Nui. Although there are no swarms of fish in the waters surrounding Easter Island, the area is world renowned for its gin clear visibility, which can reach up to 60 meters, and dramatic seascape. We were in for a treat!! Moto Nui, our second dive, is the prime dive site. At a depth of 35-40 meter, we could see the waves rolling in, while the bottom of the ocean floor at 100 meter was also still visible. Nice! The water temperature was as expected cold and after a warm and long shower we enjoyed a fine dinner in one of the local restaurants.

The next day we drove to the other site of the island to finally see some of the Moai 'in the wild'. The first thing we noticed as we headed north was the sheer amount of horses on the island and it turned out that they have been breeding like rabbits!! At the moment there are more horses that people inhabiting the island!! They tend to cross the road unexpectedly, which did not really add to our comfort driving the winding roads around the island. On our way to one of the beautiful beaches at the other tip of the island, we passed the Ahu Tongariki, a famous row of 15 moai, re-erected by a Japanese company in 1995.

When reaching Anakena beach, we encountered a typical scene of some heavy overweight locals running a little shag selling fruit, drinks and BBQ-ed meat on the beach!! Yes, of course we had some companied by one or two Crystals (the local Chilean beer)! Mmmm!

Anakena beach is THE beach where the locals gather to enjoy an afternoon in the sun and cool off in the water. It also forms the perfect backdrop for some more moai, seven in total, some with hats others without. All in all, it represented a perfect spot to eat our freshly BBQ-ed sausages and potatoes.

Our final destination, and in hindsight the highlight of Easter Island, was the 'nursery' of the moai, the Rano Raraku volcano. This is the place were all the moai were carved out before being moved to their final destination. It is very captivating as though you are stepping back in time, wandering trough the landscape among the different moai in all stages of progress. Some moai are partly burred with their head sticking out from the grassy slopes, while others are still very much attached to the mountain.

We just fell in love withthe little creatureand at the local mercado artesanal, we put a dent in our wallet and bought one of the woodcarved moai statues (no hat though!!).

On our last night in Easter Island we had another romantic tete-a-tete and indulged on a good meal at La Taverne du Pecheur... it would be one of our last as prices would soar as we moved to French Polynesia.

Lorana!!

Love,

Mischa and Thomas