|
River Of Data.com |
|
|
Sunday, 28 December, Easter Island This was one of the days we'd been particularly looking forward to, as it is a fascinating and special place we've always wanted to visit. We got up at 630, despite having just lost an hour of sleep due to time changes, the fourth one in a week. The sun was just coming up and looked out to see the island and the crew lowering the tenders into the water and putting out their dock on the side of the ship. We had a quick breakfast before meeting our tour group to head to shore in a tender. Due to the roads on Easter Island, they don't use anything bigger than 12 passenger vans, which was fine, if a bit crowded. At least people agreed that we'd switch around some seating places at each stop. The roads were very bumpy, and the driver explained that the dirt roads all run through property of various ranchers, and they put things in the road or occasionally dig holes to keep locals from driving fast and making lots of dust. Some of the passengers complained about the bumpy roads. We assume that they must have figured there would be an interstate highway or something on the little island. The first stop was at a site that had seven moai (the large stone statues) facing out towards the ocean. All of the rest of the moai, over 900 of them, face away from the sea for unknown reasons. Our second stop was at a site that had moai facing inward, despite being right at the edge of the sea. There were a number of them lying down, but a few had been put back up. Only a small number of the moai have been raised to stand again, as all were down when the first explorers came. There are also some in a quarry that we didn't see, only half done. The next stop was an obligatory one at a marketplace, where the usual tshirts and crafts were for sale. I doubt there has ever been a tour from a ship that didn't stop for at least 20 minutes at some location where the passengers have an opportunity to help the local economy. We did our part by buying a small moai statue, a tshirt, and postcards. Our final stop was at another site with several moai, including the only one that has been fully restored to include his "hat" (or topknot, depending on which anthropologist is writing) and eyes. The eyes are made of white coral, so they're very striking. We had to wait quite a while to get on a tender back to the ship as most of the tours ended at just about the same time. The ship sailed away at about 130, just as we were starting to play bridge again. And again we came in third. We rested later after a fairly tiring five hours on the island, and had another wonderful dinner to end the day. Back to itinerary (trip home page)
|
|