Easter Island Days 2 and 3

Well, as the weather is not really good (raining right now) I have some time to spare to enter some more info on the blog.

Went on a tour around the island yesterday and saw the most important sites. It is very difficult to describe with words how beautiful and interesting that was. Unfortunately ALL of the Moais have fallen (well, they didn’t do that on their own free will… 😀 ) and only three sites have been restored so you can see the Moais in their former beauty and heights (or what remained of it). The most beautiful (which for me was ‚Taj Mahal-league‘) was Ahu Tongariki where 15 Moais have been restored to how they have been in the past. Unfortunately only one of them has it’s red ‚hat‘ as the other hats were damaged by erosion and they wouldn’t have held off on the Moais. Still, the Moais are about 10 metres high and if you stand in front of them you just feel small…

Then we went to Rano Ranuku where the Moais were carved. They didn’t waste a single centimetre of the rock as they carved one Moai near the other. It is a National Park nowadays and you have to be careful not to step on a Moai…. Behind that there is a volcano crater which is very beautiful as well.

After having eaten we went to another site where there is a magical stone (if you use a compass there it won’t work) and our guide tolt me that a lot of brasilians come there to stay for 24 hours and get ‚mana‘ out of it (must be as crazy as it sounds… 😀 ).

Last stop was Anakena Beach which is a very beautiful beach and has 5 Moais restored as well.

I felt asleep while downloading my pics in the evening so for the 2nd evening in a row I didn’t have dinner as I felt asleep before I could eat any… 😀

Then this morning I went diving. Visibility was great and although there are not as many fish as in the carribbean it was still exciting. And yes, I am the person to the right… 😀 😀 😀

After the dive I had the rest of the day to do some more sightseeing and I called a taxi. Patricia is a taxi driver and tour guide and she drove me to Orongo first. This is the site where the Film ‚Rapa Nui‘ has been made. The story of Rapa Nui is the story of an ancient ritual where the families of the island got together and the men had to swim to a small island and the first to come back with a birds egg was the leader for a year. Sounds easy but it isn’t as the place they had climb up to when they got back is at 300 m (and there are not steps just steep rock).

After that we drove to Aru Ariki which is the only place on the island where the Moais face the ocean. There are 5 MOais there. The street over there was funny as on the way back Patricia and I had a good laugh at a cow standing under a mimosa tree staring at us… (will have to post the pics later on….).

Then it was to Anakena Beach again to get 2 americans and then Patricia showed me a pole with signs to locations all over the world.

So, here I am, always busy… 😀 Strange that already nearly a week has passed… time flies…. going diving again tomorrow morning and will be seeing a show in the evening (with a traditional polynesian style barbecue).