Easter Island

So here's the beginning of my Christmas expedition recap.

Before we left for our flight to Easter Island, we had our last asado of the semester at the casa, and waived off the kids going back to the states. Shortly after, Mark and I headed out to the airport. We flew to Santiago and the descent down was amazing as the sun was setting on the western horizon and threw a rainbow of oranges, reds, and yellows upon the faces of the mountains that encircled the beautiful city of Santiago. We spent that night in the hotel in some random, obscure, abandoned corner of the airport.

The next morning we woke up for our flight to Easter Island. As i was waiting in the check-in line i got some tingles up my spine as the reality of it all sank in. I couldn't believe that i was about to be on THE Easter Island that i had read about in history books, seen on TV, and had dreamt of going to for so long.  The flight there was super comfortable, had good food, and had tons of good movies. I watched the Motorcycle Diaries- a documentaryish movie about the early years of Che Guevara. We landed to tropically dressed woman putting flower necklaces on us and a band playing some kind of hula music, pretty cool welcome party if you ask me. We found a campground to stay at, set up camp, and then set out to explore the city. On the way into town, we passed some Moai, nbd. We played some frisbee at the foot of the Moai, checked out the musuem, checked out the city streets, and got some food at a grocery store. That night we walked along the rocky coast, sat on a hill and watched the huge waves crash against the rocky shore. The resulting towers of splashing water were easily 4 stories tall, so so cool. When we went to bed there wasn't a cloud in the sky so we figured there was no chance for rain. Big mistake. We woke up to being poured on and had to get out and set our rain tarp up. Getting up outa bed is hard enough but when you're wet, cold and, dirty it sucks. All things considered (wet sleeping bag, wet pillow, dirty feet) i slept pretty well afterwards.

The next morning we got up, went into town and rented a scooter and some scuba gear and headed on over to the other side of the island. Zooming through the pastures, forests, and open areas of the inner island was pretty surreal. It looking like the rolling hills of green fell straight into the earth and were quickly engulfed by a never ending horizon of water on all sides. When we arrived to the other side we did a bit of exploring, found a campground, saw some moai, saw the main beach of the island, and then headed to where we were told the good snorkeling was. Neither of us had ever done snorkeling before which was made evident as we tried to walk on the beach with our flippers on- not the easiest thing to do. We eventually got the hang of it and began to see a few fish and cool coral formations here and there. Within 5 minutes or so everywhere we looked was covered with schools of fish and colorful coral formations. Blue fish, blue and orange fish, yellow fish, long and skinny fish, and all colors of coral. I had read that the waters of Easter Island were famously clear, but what we saw was amazing! I kid you not, we could see over 100 feet down, clear as day, no exageration. Because of its isolation and location in the ocean currents, Easter Island is one of the most coveted diving locations in the world. I remember coming over underwater mountain ridges/cliffs and feeling a sense of weightlessness like i never had before. In my head, i was flying. As the cliffs dove down to over 100 feet deep, i was still zooming along the cliff faces, chasing fish, and swimming between coral formations. Amazing experience. Good thing we weren't told this beforehand, but apparently where we were diving was the prime time area for sharks to hang out at.

We took the scooter back to the far side of the island the next day and just kicked it at the beach all day. We read, listened to our ipods, napped, swam, watched some locals play rugby, and threw the frisbee. The beach was pretty epic as the Moai sat at the edge of the bay, palm trees provided shade along the sand, and the pristine water quietly lapped up on shore.

For the next morning, we planned to get up for sunrise at the most famous Moai location- Auu Tangriki but we woke up to the sound of pouring rain and decided to go back to sleep. Later that morning we went to one of the two main attractions on the island- it was where the Moai were formed. The Moai were carved out of the side of a inactive volcano and transported to all corners of the island. We got to see the Moai in all stages of construction and got to see some active archaeological work going on. You can't see it on most Moai because of erosion, but initially they all have intricate carvings down all up and down their backs. We climbed along the inside of the crater for a bit and at one point climbed to the top and had a pretty cool view of Ahu Tangriki. Afterwards we took a little off-roading adventure and went to the isolated and kinda dead corner of the island. Years ago a volcano had erupted and killed all life on that part of the island. We parked the scooter at the edge of a fence and proceeded to walk along the cliff sides for what felt like over a mile. With every passing step the cliffs got higher and higher until we were hundreds of feet up, looking nearly straight down into the ocean. Definitely one of the cooler, more unique places I've ever been. (Reminded me of some shots from Sigur Ros' music video to Glossoli.) That night we had our first nice dinner of the trip at a coastal restaurant about a half mile away from the campground. Their was only one other group of people there besides us so it was super chill. We got to sit outside in the perfect weather and watch the sun fall beneath the horizon, pretty romantic. The fish i had was easily the best fish platter i had ever eaten. Our waitress was pretty cute, and due to the lack of people she wasn't too busy so we got to chat her up at bit. Her little cousing also tried to teach us some Rapa Nui (the island's official language).

We were able to get up for the sunrise the next day fortunately, and it was well worth it. Probably one of the more epic sunrises I'll ever see. We hung out and basked in the majestic-ness of it all for quite a while. Then we went back took naps, returned the scooter, got some souvenirs, and hung at the campsite. Mark continued to nap for the afternoon, i went out and boogey-boarded. They were literally the best waves of my life. i could ride them in for 150 yards easy. So much frikin fun. When i was getting out, I saw a HUGE sea turtle- the symbol for Easter Island. Super cool.  Later in the afternoon we went geocahing near the cemetery right along the coast. I know I'm using a lot of superlatives here, but it was truly one of the coolest locations for a cemetery that I have ever seen. After dinner we went to Kari Kari- a dance show, and during the show i got pulled up on stage to dance with the girls. We got back to the campground and hung out around the fire with our Australian friends- Bill and Jess.

The next morning we tried our luck with fishing. Bought some line, some hooks, and some raw chicken.  Let's just say we weren't as lucky as jesus' disciples. The lack of rods, crashing rocks, and poor eyesight didn't make it too easy for us. We had our chances, but couldn't capitalize. After fishing, i wrote all my postcards, had a great hangout sesh with God on the coast. We went on another walk up the coast to the big crashing waves for sunset. That night we played a game of Settlers with a German and Scottish dude. Wish were could have played Risk, then we could have reenacted WWII, jk. The stars were amazing that night- being so isolated and being without much electricity resulted in some of the clearest skies imaginable.

Our big adventure the next day was the other main attraction on the island- Orongo. It was their most sacred sight and the location of many important cultural ceremonies/competitions. Through preservation and restoration, there are still many earthen and rock huts left standing and many carvings on the rocks are still visible. The village is situated precariously on the edge of a crater that falls into a sunken volcano and the other side is cliffs that fall hundreds of feet into the ocean. Later we went down to the marina and tried to do flips and gainers with limited success.

One day we rented mountain bikes and took them to the more isolated and unreachable roads of the island. This part of the island had tons of really cool caves. Some of them i would even classify as caverns, as they stretched on for endless distances (which we were not prepared to explore without a headlamp). During the biking journey, it start raining pretty hard and we got pretty soaked and dirty on the dirt/gravel roads. After showering off, warming up, and Settling, we went to the same coastal restaurant we had visited before. Our creeper Chilean friend tagged along. He forcefully bought us drinks, let us try his lobster, and some of his dessert. He was definitely a friendly guy, just kinda weird...Mark thought he was gay.  We also got to talk to our waitress for quite a while again.

On our last full day, we started packing up a bit, checked in for our flight, and went to go rent a surfboard. Unfortunately the waves were wack and we couldn't surf, so we decided to go get some icecream. Our Chilean friend showed up again and got some ice cream with us. Later we got ready for the Church service and I skyped the family back in Illinois. We went to the Christmas Eve service with the Germans and Scottish dude and then headed back to the party/asado at the campground. There they had tons of meet, amazing sweet potatoes, tons of real tropical fruit juices, and tons of other drinks. We stayed up til 4am talking with all our friends- definitely one of the more unique and memorable Christmases I'll ever have.

The next day we closed camp and walked to the airport, took our flight, landed, Mark took his flight back home, and my solo adventure began.