This was the part I'd been most excited for - Easter Island!!!

We got a really early flight over, and because of the time difference as well ended up there just before lunch. We wanted to make the most of it so we got a stamp in our passport (optional at the post office). Grabbed an empanada each, then got a taxi to Orongo, the south west crater of the island (which is a triangle formed by three extinct volcanoes). This is an old village where people used to live in shallow stone houses, which apparently fall down a lot due to weather, but have been rebuilt.

It is just near an islet where they used to have the bird man competition each year to see which man could find the first egg laid by a certain bird, can't remember which! Their 'reward' was to then spend a year meditating... not my kind of competition, but it was meant to be a big honour. This tradition was actually quite recent, from the 17th century onwards, as people had lost faith in the moai the island is famous for (more on them tomorrow). There were loads of petroglyphs there, carvings in the stones, but me and Rob were rubbish at making them out. There was apparently one big moai with petroglyphs in the back originally, which we apparently liberated and put in the British museum about a century ago... whoops.

We walked around the the volcano crater for a bit, then down the hill to the town, not realising we were taking the long car road instead of another scenic walking option we later found the exit to. Ended up doing over 30,000 steps!

We then got some dinner, and a car for the next day, then headed over to some moai just near our lodge, which were just on the coast in front of sunset. Despite at least 7 bus loads of tourists it was amazing. We then got an early night after only 4 hours sleep the night before, ready for another early start the next day to catch sunrise!