Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

The red-eye flight to Easter Island felt very very long as I’d managed to burn the bejimines out of my legs from too much pool lounging at Tahiti. Some would say serves me right for gloating…

We landed on Easter Island around 11.30am local time, so the day was bright and cheery. I, on the other hand, was not. Late night flights and lack of sleep were certainly starting to take toll. So a quick check-in and some well needed sleep was the first thing on the itinerary.

I awakened fresh and ready to explore about 3 hours later. First point of call, the all important currency exchange.

A little abit about the place.
Easter Island (local name – Rapa Nui) belongs to Chile. All cars have Chilean license plates, the local currency is Pesos and passer-bys have friendly smiles and “holas”. With a population of between 4-5000 people, it seems that most live around the main township which has one main street with a few smaller ones. This main street has my hotel at one end (The Manavai), the towns one petrol station at the other, and numerous cafes, restaurants, mini-marts and souvenir shops in between.

Probably the closest thing to a beach on the island


Horses grazing on the main street


After changing some money over, I wondered down to the shore where a stage was being setup for a local festival/carnival called "Tapati". Later I learnt that Tapati, a two week event, was essentially a competition between two young ladies to be crowned “Miss Rapa Nui 2010”. The Polynesian culture is very strong in Easter Island, so the competition activities (team based) were made up of things like singing, dancing (hula), canoeing, swimming, carving etc which would then get judged and accumulate points. At the end of the two weeks, the side with the most points won. This certainly made for some great entertainment at night.

Stage Setup


Singing


Special thanks to Kim, the American lady who runs the hotel I was staying at called the Manavai. She have me some fantastic recommendations on places to eat and a few key places that I should visit. The Manavai was comfortable and the rooms were more chalet in style.


I had the local fish for dinner deliciously served with a light green curry sauce and sweet potato and ginger mash at a restaurant calle Au Bout de Monde. Washed down with a couple of coronas, watching the sun go down, I was in bliss.

My view while eating dinner


Watching the sunset over a corona…