The island is probably most famous for the Moai. These huge statues were carved by the indigenous polynesian tribes that inhabited the island before the Europeans turned up ( a Yorkshireman was second - beaten by the Dutch ). They were the symbols of power and wealth the tribes used to show off to each other instead of clubbing each other to death. Very civilised bunch see. All the Moai have the same stoic, chin-out, staring into the distance, lips pursed, expression. All the rage with the sculptors presumably. We had a great time whizzing around the coast of the island Moai spotting from a moped.The other remarkable thing about the island is the huge volcano crater at
the south west tip. It´s about 1 mile across the crater. Huge. I couldn´t fit it all in a photo so there´s a bit of video at the bottom of the post that will give you more of an idea of the size of the puppy. The volcano was the site of the Orongo village. This place has great significance later in the life of the indigenous tribes. After they´d got bored carting Moai around the island, they devised a bizarre triathalon style competition stealing bird´s eggs to keep themselves out of tribal trouble. It was a race down some huge cliffs, a swim across a scary looking bit of sea and then a climb up onto another little island. The first to return with a Sooty Tern ( no Sweep and Sue jokes please ) egg was proclaimed the Bird Man of the island and their tribe would rule for the next year. Or something like that. The guide was speaking in Spanish.The day before we flew out, we managed to get a bit of diving in for the first time on the trip. Athena hadn´t dived for a couple of years and I hadn´t been under since our trip to Jordan about 5 years ago. It was like riding a bike though, so after a few buoyancy wobbles we were scooting through the crystal clear waters looking at the huge coral reefs. There were loads of friendly fish to play with, but the highlight was the brace of huge turtles we saw. Great experience. Must do more diving.
We seemed to attract animals on this part of the trip. We had a very vocal cat and a sullen black dog ( which was called Frank ) that seemed to like hanging out on the porch of our hut. Slight panic during breakfast one morning when the fella in the photo crawled onto our table. Seemed like quite an amenable chap once he was sitting on my thumb....
Ranu Kao Volcano ( windy so the sound is a bit dicey )
Long lost missing episode of Father Ted....
