We landed at the airport, or shall we rather say, a runway with a hut at the end. Most of the locals seem to forego any suitcases preferring to pack their belongings into cooler boxes of rigid plastic or simply just an old fruit box held together by duct tape.
We were met by our prearranged taxi driver and were presented with a lei of flowers in true Polynesian style. Adrie was so stoked she wore hers all day, and when the flowers wilted in the sun, she stole mine – wearing it even to dinner.
Derek still doesn’t remember which side of the phone to look…
Our apartment was right on the ocean on the outskirts of town. Town is not very big – maybe about a 15 minute walk from side to side. I just wanted to get out there and see the moai!
The beach front part of Hanga Roa town
In the middle of town is Ahu Tahai with five standing moai and just next to it Ahu Ko Te Riku, a tall figure standing all on his own but he is also the only moai on the island looking like the original with its replica eyes of coral and a stone topknot called a pukao still intact. Not all heads have the topknot so he is quite special.
Indeed all of the moai are pretty special. Every figure was carved from volcanic rock from only one quarry (or factory) on the other side of the island and transported to all the ahu sites. Every one of the red topknots was carved from a red volcanic rock from a separate quarry on the other side of the island. This was clearly no easy task as the average weight of each figure is about 40 tons.
After barely a half an hour’s walk (i.e. twice through town), I was boiling! The sun here is extremely sharp and scorching. Notices published indicated the UV index to be at the extreme rating on the scale. And they weren’t kidding! During dinner at 8pm I could still feel I was getting sunburnt. Needless to say, our sunblock came out every couple of hours.
Since it was New Year’s Eve, we bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate this evening. Well, strictly speaking not really champagne… we took one look at the French stuff’s price and opted for a cheaper Chilean bottle called ‘Supremo’. We also loaded our basket with beers just in case the champagne wasn’t as supreme as the label suggested.
Being 2000km west of Chile, we were one of the last places on earth to celebrate the New Year. So we enjoyed the beers on the balcony overlooking the ocean and the bubbly wasn’t that bad either. Obligatory fireworks welcomed the New Year.
