Day 56 - Happy Easter

Santiago to Easter Island

An early four and a half hour flight to one of the remotest places on earth. Easter Island really is in the middle of nowhere and we were surprised by the size of the plane and the number of people that pour into this island six days a week.

The island has a real Polynesian feel which is hardly surprisingly as it is believed the Polynesians were the first inhabitants. It was lovely to finally break out the shorts and t-shirts again, it always feels more like a holiday when it is warm.

We were greeted at the airport and given leis to wear, then transported to our accommodation. After checking in getting the lowdown (in Spanish) on where to go, we headed into Hanga Roa, the only town on the island.

There are a number of the famous Easter Island statues, known as Moai, on the coast not far from town, so that gave us a quick taste of what we would see later, since most of the moai are spread all around the island. Interestingly they nearly all face inland, not out to sea.

We arranged a hire a car for the next day, then found a nice restaurant right on the water, next to a spot where we could see turtles swimming. We had a couple of drinks and ended up having dinner there, before a long walk back to where we were staying, which was a little bit out of town.