Day 1
Easter Island is so awesome! Seriously, I don't even know how else to describe it.
We left Santiago early this morning, and after a 5.5 hour flight we landed in the incredible and beautiful place. All the people on the plane were craning their necks as we approached the island, trying to get a view of it from the air. It was pretty cloudy, and we were in the middle rows, so we only saw a little bit of coastline, but now we're here, and we totally love it.
As soon as we got off the plane we had our cameras out. We've decided that here, we don't care if we look like tourists. We want pictures of everything.
After settling into our beautiful hostel and taking a few pictures of the area...
We rented a car and went into town and over to our first moai. There are no words.
There are lots of these guys scattered in pieces, faces on the ground. How is it possible for our pithy pictures to portray how beautiful this is?
It made me want to cry.
And then the park ranger whistled at me to get off the lava rocks.
With a whole afternoon in front of us, we drove down the coast to see more whatever we would see.
But what we were really after is this...
Ahu Tongariki. There are 15 of those guys!
And they are HUGE. We are going to come back in the morning to see them at sunrise.
Day 2
People kept saying that storms were rolling in and that it was just going to be rainy and windy and cloudy the whole time we were here. But it was raining when we got in yesterday, so we thought, maybe it's just an on and off thing. Last night it began to storm, but this morning when we got up around 530, the sky was starry and clear. Perfect.
There were clouds, and it was really windy, and we were out there far earlier than we needed to be, but Tongariki at sunrise is totally worth it. It's about a 45-minute drive from town, and it is one of the most famous moai on the island. For good reason.
They don't get old...
And there isn't a bad way to get a picture of them...
So we have about 418...
But I think there is no way we can capture for you the magnificence.
It was hard to leave, but eventually we made our way to Anakena.
This is the only sandy beach on the island. All the rest are rocky shores.
These moai are special because they are among the few that still have their pakau, or hats.
Plus, it is awesome. Oh, and there are dogs everywhere here, too. And they are also sweet and playful and friendly.
The other animal that is super prevalent here is the horse. Many of them are wild (not native, of course), and they roam free. We have to be carful when driving as they are often right by the side of the road.
The third place we went to was Ranu Raraku. We keep saying it wrong. But wow it's so awesome! We took another 3,000 pictures here. This is the volcano where many of the moai were carved. There are some that were started but never finished. The ones that are upright are actually buried and much taller than what is above ground. There are so many, just scattered everywhere, and the trail takes you all the way through them.
More later!
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