Rapa Nui - Day 1

Left Santiago in the sleet and cold, travelled some 3700km and landed into the blue sky and sunshine of Rapa Nui - yay yay yay! Ana, the hostel owner, met us off the plane, popped a lay of flowers round our neck as a welcome, and then it was a short drive to arrive to our little cabin facing out to sea with a lovely terrace to watch the waves crashing and the sun setting - perfect!

We dumped our bags and headed straight out to see our first moai. It was just a short walk along the road that hugs the coast to Ahu Tautira (ahu is the platform on which the moai(s) stand), where our first 2 moai greeted us by the fishing port, then it was off the road and on to the beaten track to Ahu Tahai, Ahu Akapu, and Ahu Ko Te Riku, all hosting one moai with their backs to the ocean. Ahu Ko Te Riku was particularly impressive as he has his top knot (a large red circular stone laid on top of the head made from volcanic scoria) and eyeballs in place. Further along we took in the awsome sight of Ahu Vai Uri which holds 5 moai of varying size, again all facing towards the island. A truly beautiful sight with the huge waves crashing against the volcanic, jagged rocks in the background.

Then it was along a track and up to the Musuem where we learned about the history and myths surrounding the island, the end result being lots of theories and no conclusive evidence as to where the islanders originated (both long eared and short eared folk!) or the significance of the moai statues, Rongo rongo tablets (pieces of wood where a picture style language was scribed, to be read one line then rotated to read the next) and the birdman petroglyphs. The most popular theory is that the islanders originated from Marquis islands (very ropey evidence!), the moai were constructed to commemorate the death of an islander and the birdman petroglyphs came much later and were relating to a yearly competition where the men of Orongo village swam out to another small island, nicked a sooty tern´s egg and the first one back was rewarded with a year in solitary. It all makes perfect sense really!

We ended our first day of island paradise with a bottle of wine on our terrace followed by a delicious atun cerviche and tuna steak dinner in a lovely restaurant with big windows looking out to sea - aaaah this is the life!