About a week ago I went
to Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) with my Rotary group. To say the least, it was a once in a lifetime trip with the best group of exchange students out there! It was about a 5 hour plane ride from Santiago to the island. When we arrived at the itty-bitty airport we were greeted with flower leis! When we arrived you could immediately feel the heat and humidity.
Although, the island itself wasn't as tropical as I had thought it was
going to be it was very humid. We stayed in a very nice hostal, "Chez
Erika", which was less than a 3 minute walk to the main street of the
island. It was mostly filled with gift shops and some restaurants, very
small. Most people on the island get around by little motorcycles or
even dirt bikes and some old cars as well. It's a very small island. The island is a volcanic high island, every "mountain" you see is a volcano. Although, none of the volcanoes have erupted in millions of years.
Easter Island is known as the "belly button of the world" for it's location, meaning it is the center of the world. Along with that fact, I learned quite a bit about this very interesting island and the moai (head statues) that are all around the island. All of the moai on the island face inland besides the very first line of moai that face the ocean. The moai were created by the people of the island, they are known as "Rapa-Nui" that is also the language of the people on the island along with Spanish. The most famous of the statues is the line of 15 moais which is called, "Ahu Tongrariki". It was breathtaking seeing the statues, especially those. They are gigantic to say the least. It is absolutely amazing and I still can't wrap my mind around how the people actually created them. We went to both of the "fabricas" (factories) where the moai were carved out of the mountain side and also were the "hats" of some of the moai were made as well. The "hats" were made from special red volcanic rock and were rolled around the whole entire island until they reached the spot where the moai was. Something interesting that I also learned was about the moai that have eyes painted on them. This means that the spirit of the person is "alive" in the moai. There was actually so much that I learned on this island. There are so many stories that go along with every statue that you see.
Besides all of the amazing site seeing this trip was special in another way. We gave back to the community of Easter Island. One day on the island we went for an exhausting 2.5 hour hike to reach our destination of were we would then go on to plant 1,500 trees. Not too many people can say they have planted trees on Easter Island! It was some good work! Then after we had another 2 hour hike back to the bus! Us exchange students agreed that at this point in time of our exchange, we are just not cut out for that much exercise! But it was still worth it! And another day we visited the public school on the island and spent a couple of hours with some 4th graders. We gave them school supplies and some sport equipment to use. They were so cute and so excited to have us and show off their dances and song singing. It was a very rewarding afternoon!
Another day on the island we went to the top of one of the many volcanoes on the island. It was huge. It was right near the coast. It was a beautiful lookout where you could basically see the entire island. That afternoon we went into some caves. It was a lot of fun. We had to crawl around and watch our heads from the low ceilings. We went into about 3 different caves. And the last day on the island we spent the afternoon at a gorgeous beach. It was a perfect sunny day and the water was absolutely amazing. It was so nice to relax and swim!
These are just some of the highlights of the trip. There were plenty of other adventures! It was a great trip with Rotary and I am so happy that I went on it! If you are ever in South America, or want to make the long haul and have the opportunity to go to the island, it is very neat to explore!
