After a 5 hour flight across nothing but the Pacific Ocean we landed on Easter Island.
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| Bienvenidos to easter Island |
We are camping whilst on Easter Island at a lovely campsite (and the only official site) called Camping Mihinoa.
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| Our home from home |
The campsite faces west so we get fantastic sunsets which we will share with you. Here's the sunset we saw on day one.
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| Sunset 28 February 2011 |
Before we take you on a tour of the Island you need to know some facts. Easter Island is also known as Rapa Nui (by the islanders), Te Pito or Te Henua (Navel of the Earth). After Tristan da Cunha, Easter Island is the most isolated island on Earth (latitude 27 degrees South; longitude 109 degrees West). It is a volcanic island (like Hawaii) with over 70 craters. Lucky for us the volcanoes are deemed extinct.
The day after we arrived we decided to explore Hanga Roa, the only town on Rapa Nui. We left the campsite and looked left...
and then right...
because they drive on the wrong side of the road here.
We decided to go right as that was the direction of the town. On the way to visit the church we met a man...
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| One of the many moai (mow-eye) found on the island |
The carving of the moai took place between 1000 and 1600 AD and they were carved as a form of ancestor worship (a common practice throughout Polynesia).
We carried on a little further and came across the Church of the Holy Cross. Inside the church there are many wood carvings which blend Catholic and Rongo Rongo design. Here are a selection of the carvings.
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| The Holy Family |
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| The Angel Gabriel - I think! |
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| Our Lady and the baby Jesus |
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| Jesus |
After visiting the church we visited the archaeological site of Tahai - an archaeological complex with 3 restored temples..
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| Ahu Vai Uri |
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| On the left Ahu Ko Te Riku; on the right Ahu Tahai |
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| Original Rapi Nui village house |
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| Ahu Vai Uri |
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| Ahu Tahai |
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| Little and Large |
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| Ahu Ko Te Riko - all the Moai have large eye sockets and it's believed that they would have had eyes like this moai. Notice his topknot made of red scoria. |
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| Looking back from Ahu Ko Te Riko |
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| Chimango Caracara - introduced to keep the rat population low |
After visiting we visited the island's museum which currently houses a collection of of over 15,000 artefacts.
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| Moai eye - made of white coral, with a pupil of red scoria found at Anakena beach in 1978 |
After the museum we visited another archaeological site - Hanga Kio'e (an archaeological complex with a single restored moai).
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| Hanga Kio'e (Mouse bay). This moai is believed to be carved around 1600 AD |
On the way back to the campsite we saw some Diuca Finch (another introduced species). There are only 22 species of bird on the island.
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| Diuca Finch |
After a pleasant day we sat down with a nice plastic cup of Chilean Red Wine to watch the sunset.
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| Sunset 1 march 2011 |
That's all for now folks, keep checking the blog for the next instalment - of our 5 day Island car tour.
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