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Statues, statues everywhere. We soon discovered that there were hundreds of Moai all around this little isolated island. After a trip to the very informative museum we discovered that the islanders, who sailed all the way from French Polynesia (a long way) were obsessed with building them. So much so that the associated deforestation and internal unrest resulted in the demise of their civilisation. OK, enough of the history lesson already!
The town was small, but lovely - we soon got aquainted with the owners of the restaurants and coffee shops and settled into the laid back mood of the place.
We spent most of our time exploring. We walked, for what seemed like forever to Orango (mainly because we missed the turning for the direct route) which was a weird 'Hobbit like' village dedicated to the bird man cult which took over when the locals were fed upw ith builing the Maoi (!?!). The village was based on the edge of a breathtaking volcanic crater, with a fabulous sea view.
The next day we splashed out and hired a car to tour more of the island. Our first main stop was the quarry, Rano Raraku, another beautiful volcanic crater. Wow! There were moai up to 20 metres tall everywhere you looked. Some had been carved and never made the trip to the coast, others were still half carved from the rock. There was an excellent view of a restored site where 15 statues stood in a row. We spent a while exploring and decided to go have lunch by the next site. Taking a short cut, Vicki managed to cover herself in mud by stepping in a huge puddle...eventually seeing the funny side of it!
A bit more driving before we reached Ovahe (a wicked little beach with a pinkish sand) and Anakena, an amazing little bay with, you guessed it, more Moai.
A couple of days later, we went on a long hike with our new friend, Cayleb (who was a fountain of knowledge on all things to do with Easter Island!). We got dropped off at Ovahe beach for sunrise and then headed South past nothing but ruins, cows and wild horses for hours! Apart from the odd rain shower, the landscape was beautiful. By mid afternoon, we reached the cave with the 2 windows (check out the pics!)
After watching the footy final (what was Zidane thinking???), we took in our final sunset in South America and flew West once more. Looking forward to beaches and blue sea in French Polynesia........in need of some sun, unlike everyone back in Blighty!!
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