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Easter Island
This is an edited version of our online diary
26th August, 2005, Easter Island (from Auckland)
Don't know why I have to write about it <**grumble grumble**> (I feel like this may be a long post)
Easter Island was really good though, everything we hoped it would be like. The landing on the plane was exciting as it approached the island from a slight angle so we could see it out of the window as we flew in. We only saw two other small atolls out of the window during the whole flight (~5 hours of endless ocean), then as the plane descended we could see this tiny island poking up out of the sea,
with black volcanic cliffs that had green mats of grass stretching from their tops and over the rest of island. The airport is at one end of the island with a volcano rising up on one side of the runway and the rest of the island on the other. The island is also really thin at this point so the runway almost stretches from one side of it to the other. As you come into land you are completely over the ocean almost right up to the point when the wheels hit the tarmac. Quite exciting.
We were both surprised when we got off the plane at the weather, which was a little over 20oC and fairly humid, with palm trees growing alongside the airport. A proper tropical island. (given as the island is near the tropics I suppose this shouldn't have been quite such a surprise, but there is nothing like hindsight, except perhaps some kind of prior research 
)
DAY 1
As we only had a short time there we decided to really make the most of it and after getting our bags to the hostel we went almost straight out on a hike*. Without proper maps this probably was asking for trouble but we managed OK. In all it was a bit further than we wanted to go, about 10 miles round trip. From the village up to the cliff top site of Orongo (Bird man village),
which is near the crater of the volcano alongside the airport, with the island of the birdman in the sea just beyond. We stopped to have a picnic on the way (we're English damn it!). We missed the path up from the village so we ended up walking along the top of cliffs up to the volcano top, which was a bit of a slog, but we approached the lookout point from a different angle, so saw the birdman islands from the side as well as straight on, which I reckon hardly anyone does.
The birdman village was a bit strange as the houses were more like man-made caves on the cliff top that you would have to crawl on your belly through a narrow tunnel to get in, not exactly prime real estate. The stone carving (of the birdmen) on the cliff top though were just like all the pictures we've seen of them and were fantastic. We even chatted in Spanish to one of the ranger/guides at the site who explained some stuff about the houses (very proud of pidgin Spanish). The walk down was a bit too far though and we were really knackered by the time we got back to the hostel. Didn't see any big heads (apart from through binoculars from about 3 miles away)
DAY 2
We hired a jeep to see most of the rest of the island and set off at 9am.
(With another picnic). It was a lot cooler and overcast and threatened to rain for most of the day, more like we expected the weather to be like.
We drove along the south coast of the island where there are loads of Ahu (-ceremonial platforms), many have got toppled Moai (-big heads) on or near them. Again, as on the first day, we got lucky with the trip. The order we saw things in was really good. Starting with a platform with a few small (3-4M!) toppled and broken Moai. Moving on to larger broken Moai, some with intact topknots lying nearby (some of the statues had cylinder shaped pieces of red stone placed on the heads as top-knots). Before seeing intact ones later in the day, this meant we got more excited as the day went on, instead of seeing all the cool stuff straight away!! A lot of the driving reminded us of the Yorkshire dales or Scotland, as it was fairly rugged scenery.
The part of our tour that really blew us both away was the quarry where they carved the statues. There are literally hundreds of statues there, some have been stood up and over time buried up to their shoulders, others are lying in situ in various states of completion. We really got the feeling from the half completed ones that the builders had been making them in a kind of frenzy and it seemed as though they didn't slow down and stop, but just downed tools for whatever reason at almost the height of the building fever. There was one half finished statue that I reckoned was around 15M tall.
We walked around the quarry for about an hour and half, just trying to take it all in. It was the area that was full of classic Easter Island images of half buried heads, some slightly leaning over to one side, with rolling hills all around. (We got some really cool pictures!)
After this we drove on to one of the reconstructed platforms where the conservation people have put the Moai back into their standing positions.
There were 14 Moai on the first of these we saw ranging from about 5M to 9M tall. The thing that struck us about these and the ones in the quarry were that all of them were different, and not just in subtle ways. All have different faces and facial expressions, some look sad, pensive, p***ed off (there is one in the quarry which looks wryly amused), also as well as being different heights some are fatter, even a few have almost potbellies.
We headed out from the hostel again just before sunset to try and catch the sun setting behind some upright Moai on the west coast (somewhere we hadn't been yet). The place we choose unfortunately didn't have any (the maps aren't great) and we gave up and headed back a different way. Just as the sun was thinking about going down we turned a corner and saw one of the most famous platform with six upright statues facing perfectly West. We got there at just the right time to watch the sun go down behind them as they looked out to sea and got some more fantastic photos. (We were almost the only people there; two other couples, 3 members of a Norwegian film crew and 2 cowboys rounding up a bunch of horses)
DAY 3
We had the jeep for 24 hours until 9am and decided to make the most of it by heading over to the opposite side of the island to the big platform by the quarry to watch the sunrise. This was another fantastic experience (only two other people had made the effort) and a cracking start to the day. We were again amazingly lucky as literally 2 minutes after the sun popped up from behind a mountain and bathed the Moai in sunlight it was hidden in a cloud and didn't come out again all day.
We didn't have a definite plan, so I managed to persuade Gemma to rent a quad bike. They have no insurance on Easter Island, negligible driving laws, only about half a dozen police and only about 150 vehicles on the island so you can ride quad bikes on the road (also meant I could ride it!!). Gemma was rubbish to start with and I didn't give her a chance to get any better, relegating her to the pinion in about 5 minutes!! As we'd seen all the main sights already we headed out on some of the rough dirt trails on the island. The weather had turned a bit nasty and was windy and pretty rainy with all the hills shrouded in cloud. After a bit we tried to go up a trail to the top of the biggest volcano (I realise that sounds stupid as I type it). We quite quickly ascended into the clouds and got soaking wet. The trail was basically a river where it went up hill and a bog where it didn't and was getting worse. The visibility got down to about 10m, maybe less, and we realised that it was a bit foolish and started to head back. Luckily we got away with it and I managed to get the quad bike up to 56km/hr on the road (race) back to village for a shower and some dry clothes.
The rain really closed in in the afternoon so we spent it in a bar and then a restaurant before flying out on Saturday morning, when the weather had gone full circle and was almost tropical again.
The seafood is awesome.
We both really enjoyed the three days there and I still can't believe we really went. I will try and get some pictures up as soon as possible. This was my Macchu Piccu.
* NB: hikes are called "tramps" in NZ so if this phase is used later on that's what it means. I realise the phases "going on a good tramp" or "looking for somewhere to have a tramp" may cause confusion.
Helpful tips for anyone going (not in our guidebook):
*There are quite a few cockroaches - take spray or buy as soon as you get there.
*There is a cashpoint, but Visa/delta doesn't work only MasterCard, cirrus.
*Its nowhere near as expensive as everyone says I reckon roughly about 25-30% more than the rest of Chile for food etc (which is understandable as they have to ship 3000 miles from there!!), accommodation is about the same as Santiago (if you don't look like a sucker).
*Jeeps, Quad-bikes and motorbikes are by far the best way to see the island.