Easter on Easter Island
16th of March:
I got up at 4 in the morning and did my stuff, at 4:50 (surprisingly accurate for South America) I got picked up by a minibus, it then drove around for a little bit before finally heading to the airport. When I was driving around Santiago, I saw the nightlife of South America for the first time, and well to me (I was sober) it just seemed like a bunch of idiots trying to walk around, but maybe that what it is all about.
However I made it to the airport, checked in and waited for the plane. When I got onto the plane I sat down in a big nice business class chair, now why business class? I won’t go into details here, but I got a business seat somehow, and it was pure luxury. The stewards and stewardesses are very nice, you get different choices for breakfast, all of which are very nice, a big comfy chair with built in massage, and seats that are very adjustable by use of a remote control and a BIG screen for viewing movies. More then that the seats also had built-in internet (I don’t have a laptop with me) and a power plug, probably meant for a laptop, it was amazing.
Before the plane landed, the plane circled the island and I almost wept at the serene beauty of Easter Island. However the flight came to an end and I arrived in Hanga Roa (capital of Rapa Nui or as it is also called, Easter Island), got picked up by the hostel owner, got a tour of the city and settled in my hostel with my 2 roommates, Chen from Taiwin (who lives in Los Angeles) and Miguel from Santiago; I had met them waiting at the hostel bus (we had some more people to be taken to another hostel), Chen’s English is okay, although he speaks rather slow, he understands me fine, whereas Miguel understands just a little bit of English and speaks none, however my Spanish is rapidly improving so we can in fact speak, helped by some guessing and gesticulating.
On this first day I didn’t do much as the island is in complete lockdown on Sundays, I just cooked some of the food I had brought with me (a bit of pasta for lunch and porage for dinner). Later in the day Keiran from Guernsey arrived, he is traveling the world as his job, taking pictures for some big fancy race, colour me jealous.
I also meet an Australian/Canadian couple, Melissa from Canada and Larry from Australia, among other things they taught me how to play domino, and like most Australians and Canadians they were very kind, their major goal on the island was surfing, something very big in Australia and more or less never attempted in Denmark (proper surfing, not kite surfing or anything) due to our incredibly small waves and cold water.
In between landing at the airport and eating lunch, I walked around Hanga Roa to get a feel of the place, and to learn my way around it (it is quite small, some 3300 residents), I came past a football game between the islands two top teams (yes the island has several teams); Armada de Chile and Tara Ra Ina, I only saw the first half, where Armada de Chile took a 1-0 lead.
But honestly, the teams were crap, most players couldn’t properly pass a ball, shoot at a goal or anything; it made it very entertaining, but I respect that they have a league and everything, and truthfully both teams did in fact have good players. The Armada de Chile goalkeeper and one of the central mid fielders were in fact very good, whereas the Tara Ra Ina defense was quite good, although not good enough.
In the evening, I went together with Miguel to see the sunset, there is a place near Hanga Roa where the sun sets behind 5 moai, it is really amazing, I plan to go there every evening. There I met 4 slightly elderly Canadians who were also taking pictures, and we struck up conversation, it was really nice. I have definitely noticed that tourists here are quite different, they are better travelers, they care for the beauty of the island, and know that it isn’t just there for them to enjoy. I guess the steep price-tag of coming here, really sorts people depending on how much they want to go here, and know what they are in for.
17th of March:
At 10 o’clock, Chen and I picked up our rented scooters and Miguel his rented quad bike. To put it simply, this was the most fun I have had in South America so far. We raced along the coast of the island, stopped to take pictures of the moai’s, ahu’s, the coastline and the volcano’s. The hard jagged coastline, with the crashing waves being shot vertically into the air, the toppled and standing moai on their ahu. And the racing we had in between us; I know my parents are reading this, but I topped out at 105 km/h (on a highway) but 90 km/h on the coastal road, although we didn’t consistently drive that fast, it was more like 40-60 km/h most of the time. On the far backside of the island the road turns into gravel (it is also gravel on the first part when you turn off to see the different sites), but by now I had gotten the hold of the bike, and was able to go fast on gravel as well. I really have difficulty explaining just how much fun I had, the dust being shot up in your eyes hardly sounds fun (thank you for that Miguel by the way), but the wind in your face, the boyish desire of going fast, the extreme beauty of the island, the companionship of 2 friends; this was my best experience so far, better than
Torres Del Paine and anywhere else, the only downside to the day… Well you will read about that in a moment. On the backside there is a fantastic beach, and check this out… I actually went into the water; I normally hate beaches, but this place was just so picture perfect, I didn’t have a choice; the water was just so clear and perfect, lovely cool and beckoning. There I also met the 4 Canadians from the previous day, one of them sporting a 3D camera, which would take two pictures at once, with two film slightly apart, quite clever.
This was about when I noticed that my brand-new tripod had fallen off my scooter, so I jumped onto my metal-steed and backtracked all the way to where I had last used it, but I couldn’t find it. It was my fault not to notice that it had fallen off, sure enough; but I don’t feel like that gives someone else the right to pick it up and leave with it. While I am bitter about that, I still feel that this was a fantastic day, I just wish I hadn’t lost my tripod.
There was a certain place on the far north of the island, where we had an impromptu race to the top, which was quite far, and given that Miguel was driving a quad bike, there was no room for overtaking him (Chen was quite a defensive driver), which meant going off road off the off road dirt track, it was funny, incredibly funny. Miguel won in the end, as he could go much faster (my strength was solely in acceleration and being mental enough to go off the track) and had much better traction.
Rano Raraku is a sort of kindergarten or Moai, it is where they were carved and then dragged around the island, it is literally littered with Moai, most of which make for great pictures. This is also the most famous ones, as all other standing
Moai on the island have been raised up in modern times by scientists. These Moai were never toppled in warfare as they were not finished, and thus had no significance. Most of them are done or near completion and so look fine; they are special because they are semi buried in volcanic ash, and it is therefore not possible to see the bottom part of them, only the upper torso, shoulders and head in most cases.
Rano Raraku is a volcano, today an inactive one, and it is therefor safe and problem free to go to the top (which we did), although this is one of those places where the view wasn’t as spectacular, however the Moai up here looked even better, and there was a nice little lake at the top.
Back in Hanga Roa, I relaxed at the hostel, went to see the sunset just as the previous day; my intention is to see the sunset every day, and eventually get a really good sunset. So far I haven’t had much luck with the sunsets, but I have 7 sunsets, so hopefully one will be really good.
Chen and Miguel showed up a lot later, Miguel’s quad bike had had a tire blowout, it cost him 15000 extra pesos, and a lot of trouble getting the quad bike back to town. This had happened after I got separated from them. It was rather unfortunate, but such things always are.
The driving around had taken 8 hours (that was also how long we had rented the scooters for), and when I had gotten back, I went down to book my diving for the 19th of March, I had been hoping to do it on the 20th, but that is the day Chen leaves, and I would like to go diving with him.
18th of March:
We all slept in today, none of us got up before 10, and around 10.30 Chen, Kieran, Miguel and I were eating breakfast together. After breakfast, Chen, Miguel and I walked to the Sernatur to check if anyone had found it (and returned it) and got a message sent out that it was missing; we also got some information on some activities such as horseback-riding around the island which Miguel and I might do on the 20th, and we got diving sorted out. Chen and I are going diving together on the 19th, and Miguel is going the same day, but with a different agency as he does not have a license.
The three of us took a taxi to the top of Rano Kau, walked around the top and went to the ancient village of Orongo there, which hosted the famous birdman ceremony before the adoption of Christianity. Every year the young men of the island would race to an offshore island, grab an egg and come back. The person who came back first would be birdman of the year, a sort of acting king. Orongo is the left in ruins, with some buildings restored and some still in ruin, to show the difference. Orongo is located on the top of a volcano, which is inactive and has a large lake in the crater, home to a plethora of plants, trees and animals, most of them unique to the crater.
The three of us (still Chen, Miguel and I) walked back to town, past a big cave with crushing waves in a small sort of inlet, very beautiful, you sort of felt the force of nature there; but that of course didn’t stop a local from doing some fishing.
Up on Rano Kau I also met two women from Jutland, and back at the hostel later that day I met two guys from Denmark, although I don’t know specifically where. So after 2 months with no Scandinavians (except Yonghui), I suddenly meet 4, 2 of which are staying at my hostel. But who did I also meet back at my hostel? None other than Jimmy from Eindhoven, the selfsame Jimmy as the one I had been hanging out a bit with in Bariloche.
I went to the quay to take some pictures of the surfers, and of course ran into Kieran, but also Miguel and Chen. I had gone down there with Jimmy as well as other new additions to the hostel, John (from Ireland) and Emma (from Australia). They (Chen, Miguel and Kieran) told us that there was going to be a barbecue that night at the hostel, so the seven of us (Chen, Emma, Jimmy. John, Kieran, Miguel and I) went to the supermarket to buy meat, vegetables (for the side dish) and charcoal.
The barbecue was massive, 2 kg of meat and a good deal of chicken, so suffice it to say, we were all full. Miguel, Chen and Kieran did the cooking, and we all did eating. Around 23:40 Jimmy noticed that in 20 minutes it would be Kieran’s birthday (looking in his passport), which was much to his surprise (he really had forgotten). So at midnight we sang happy birthday etc. and then found out that it was Chen’s birthday as well!
Sunset pictures: 1, 2 and 3 (they are really good)
19th of March:
I got up early as I had to be at the harbour by 10, as today was the day I was going diving. So together with Chen I walked down to the harbour, got geared up and sailed out. The dive was simply amazing, Easter Island is famous for its incredibly clear water, a claim I can do nothing but support, the visibility was at least 40 meters, it was incredible. So when we dived down, there was a huge coral reef with, not an abundance of sea life, but very beautiful sea life, as well as a beautiful submerged moai. It had been placed there sure enough (what, uncovered and leaning up against a coral reef?) but it was still quite special, swimming around it and how natural it looked. The trip unfortunately wasn’t long and was only one dive, but oh what a dive; we went down to about 21 meters and swam around for 40 minutes.
Back on the surface we went back to the harbour, where I bought an absolutely delicious ice cream with chocolate and coco; before heading back to the hostel for some serious reading in the new book I’m reading. Aside from the diving it was a very quiet day, but I figured it was enough spending of money for one day. For dinner, the cleaner/everything guy at the hostel baked empanadas, they are 1000 peso each and provide a damn cheap dinner (you need 2 though), and they are very tasty.
Sunset: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
20th of March:
2 months in South America, who would have believed it?
In any case, the day came and went quite easily; except for Chen leaving, he had only left LA for a week (spring break), and I would have liked him to stay longer, he was really a nice guy. On this dayI had no activities going, but I did have an ice cream with Jimmy and Miguel in the harbour. During the day we also played a bit of tabletop football, with me losing one game to Jimmy (who has an incredible ability to score with his midfielder as the first move), but beating Jimmy and Miguel together with John and beating John and Miguel together with Jimmy.
A new arrival was John from Montana; on this trip I am trying to meet an American from every single state (I have done so before), and Montana was a state I hadn’t met anyone from previously on this trip, so that was good. More then that John is a really nice guy, and I look forward to talking more with him.
For dinner I had wonderful empanadas (1000 peso each, like last night) cooked by the cleaner at the hostel, on this night they came in tuna and seafood (other than tuna) flavour, very delicious.
21st of March:
Just like the 20th, I didn’t have anything planed for this day (well originally I had a horse trip planned, but I had to skip it for a lack of money, the ATM on this island doesn’t take VISA, which I knew, but I still didn’t manage to bring enough money), but Emma, Jimmy and John were going to the Anakena beach, so I got a ride on the back of Jimmy’s scooter. Now Jimmy is quite tall, 196 cm to be more accurate, which left me with more or less no seat (he extended far back to make room for his legs). But I haven’t this much fun since my first (and until now only) scooter trip on the island, especially Jimmy also managed to have fun with it (he would often suddenly accelerate, which would surprise me and I would cling on to him tighter as a reflex). But we went mind numbingly fast (there are few things as wonderful as hitting a bug with 80 km/h), and eventually got to the beach. The beach was one of two places I hadn’t been to that I wanted to go, the other I am going to the following day.
The beach is very beautiful, scenically placed near palms and several moai; so I sat there in the shade with Jimmy writing postcards and in my travel journal (besides writing here, I also keep a handwritten account of my travels in Danish). However I finished a good while before Jimmy, and borrowed his scooter and played around with it for a while, driving fast and going off-road… I have a hard time underlining, just how much fun driving a scooter here is. The difference in Denmark would be huge. Driving in Denmark, there would be plenty of traffic on the road, and speed restrictions (boo).
On the way back from the beach, We (Emma, Jimmy and I) took a side trip to Puna Pau (except for John who went straight back to Hanga Roa), the quarry where the natives of Rapa Nui would long ago dig the stone for making the moai hats, which aside from being interesting and beautiful; was an incredibly bumpy and rough off-road trip. However, this too turned out to be lots of fun (except for my kidney, and that general region); coming back out to the main road, we went back to Hanga Roa, and after reading in my book for a little while, I went to see the sunset as per usual (not as good as normally), back to the hostel for empanadas, and as it was good Friday, there was only the seafood variant, which is my least favourite. Speaking of good Friday, I did in fact go to the church on this morning, but service is at 8 here, and not at 10 as it usually is in Denmark, so unfortunately I missed it.
Sunset: 1, 2 (amazing picture), 3 and 4
22nd of March:
Yesterday (or today) I was meant to go horse riding, but I couldn’t due to a severe shortage of cash (no VISA ATM on the island, only MasterCard), however I did find a shop that rents out scooters and take VISA, so guess what I did ;). With the scooter, I firstly drove the trip that I would have gone on horseback, which were the famous 7 moai followed by a cross island trip, some cave exploration (quite safe I can assure you), and a long wonderful trip along the coastline. I had hoped to find a cave which Jimmy and 4 others had visited the previous day, the so called “Cave of 2 windows”, however I didn’t manage to find it. I did find some good views, but that leads me onto my second point about this day.
Karma (or whatever you want to call it) struck me down, in exchange for being allowed to rent the scooter, the sky opened, and within 30 seconds I was completely, totally and utterly soaked. By the time I had reached the 7 moai, all the gravel roads had turned into mud roads, the sky was completely grey and the rain was falling so heavily, I didn’t need my water bottle to get a drink (in fact, I think I saw a tuna swim by at shoulder height… Well almost). The rain did clear after an hour or two, and as I was driving a scooter, I managed to wind dry (drying your hair by scooter, really provides for the most hilarious hair) and the caves don’t care much for rain in any case. But the caves is really what got my attention on this day, they were used for inhabitation by the indigenous people (besides from their boat shaped houses which don’t exist today), and the care with which the caves had been turned into houses, how they had used bricks to make the walls vertical, had dugout the bottom of the cave to make a floor, or in certain cases even built several houses inside the cave (big caves). The trip down the coast back to Hanga Roa (west coast), was very rough, muddy but damn fun.
Back in Hanga Roa (it was now a clear sky with plenty of sun) I picked up Jimmy on my scooter and we went for an ice cream, but once again I was disappointed they once again only had vanilla, and not my much coveted, chocolate, coco or pistachio, what an evil world I live in (hardly)! When we returned Jimmy was going to the Anakena beach with Miguel, Alejandra and another South American girl. I followed along (they were in a car and I was on my scooter), it was fun, pulling up alongside them and trying to have a conversation by yelling (a lot gets lost at 80 km/h), but when we were almost at the beach, I met the fate that had also met Miguel, John and Brian… I crashed. I came into a sharp corner with too much speed, couldn’t turn sharply enough (without falling the other way), flew off the road, the scooter did a few rolls etc. but by then I was safely (hardly) suspended in mid-air, as I managed to jump off the damn thing before it hit the ground, so I managed to land on my legs… Unhurt.
I stayed at the beach for a little while, writing in my diary and listening to Miguel ridicule Jimmy and me for keeping a diary (or travel journal). However I decided to return to Hanga Roa afterwards, but instead of taking the fast road which cuts through the island back (I had come there taking it), I took the coastalroad leading back to Hanga Roa, the same road as I had taken the first day, except in the opposite direction. It was just as gorgeous, and the fact that I had seen it all before made no hindrance to my awe for this place (the only difference was that I didn’t take pictures, I already had them); just seeing the moai fills you with a feeling of something grander, like there is more to it than just natives carving statues hundreds of years ago.
Back in Hanga Roa I read in my book and relaxed at the hostel, especially Brian often provides good and interesting conversation. On this my last day on Easter Island, I missed the sunset (first so far) as Miguel told me his laptop was on Santiago time, while it was in fact on Easter Island time, and you don’t notice it on the light, it doesn’t start getting dark, it gets dark VERY suddenly.
Other pictures: 1 and 2
23rd of March:
Not much to this day, I walked to the airport and checked in. Returned to the hostel to read in my book (The Shadow of the Wind, really can’t recommend it enough), and waited for 12 o’clock which was when the boarding was set to begin (a moai near the plane).
I watched Austin Powers’s Goldmember and Proof of Life on the flight back to Santiago. Back in Santiago I caught a bus to my hostel, cooked a bit of dinner, and that was it.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 06:40. It is filed under Chile.
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