Remote Rapa Nui

This is pretty much as far from home as we've ever been - perhaps not distance wise (not sure about Hawaii and can't be arsed to check) - but Rapa Nui aka. Easter Island being some 3700 km from the nearest continent in the middle of the Pacific, it most definitely is the most isolated place on Earth we've been to. A wonderful heat wave greets you on the door of the plane when you arrive, but soon after getting to know the place the prices of everything start to sink in and it's a real slap in the face after latin America. I mean, 20$ for a tiny crappy pizza, seriously?? Also nowadays they charge 60$ for the National Park entrance that covers some bits of the island such as the Moai "nursery" (side of a volcano where the stone heads were carved from). I'm all game for paying National Park fees to provide for the maintenance of the sites, but come on already.

After getting over that initial shock it's really easy to like Rapa Nui. The weather is pleasant at 28-30C, the ocean is crazy ink blue and the Moai (stone head sculptures) just get you thinking WTF in huge letters. The first day day on the island got spent on orientation and booking dives from Mike Rapu dive shop, who carry excellent gear by the way. At 55$ per dive, the sport seems almost cheap compared to what stuff such as food and drinks here cost. To get out of the small boat harbor push through the surf break, which was rather exciting to do in a small boat. It's somewhat hard to grasp that the sunset is around 2100 here; not something you're used to in the tropics. And the streets are pretty much deserted before 1000 in the morning.

Second day morning: we're off to dive The Moai, a local dive site made globally unique by a submerged Moai put there some 7-8 years ago by the owner of the dive shop in remembrance of his father, or so the story went. Nonetheless, quite a sight to run into a 3-4m tall Moai under water! Rapa Nui diving is famous for the amazing visibility of up to 60 meters; we're not quite lucky to witness that though as the weather is a bit rowdy and the silt from the bottom causes to viz to drop to around 10-25 meters. Still good, though, and the 3 dives we did here were real nice.

The island is about 15-20 km across and the ahu / moai sites are pretty much scattered around, so what's the best way to visit all of them? On the back of a mountain bike of course! At 18$/day, the mountain bike rentals were one of the best deals on the island and we enjoyed our 45km/7 hours ride entirely, with perhaps the exception of the last 5km when all the strength had already fled and every uphill was a battle. Seeing the beautiful Anakena beach about midride was such a bliss, and we got to frolic around in the blue sea and enjoy the dazzling white sands and some el cheapo empanadas.

Travel tip for Rapa Nui: try and social engineer the WLAN password from one of the expensive restaurants on the mainstreet and then go to the row of minimarkets with tables set out on the patio. The WLAN is available there and the price for a lager is 1/3 of what the expensive ones charge. Touche! Also get a place with a kitchen to prepare your own food; nutrition seems to be the biggest expense on the Rapa Nui. 

See all the pictures from Rapa Nui here!

Next stop: Tahiti and French Polynesia.