So the saying goes 'start as you mean to go on' so we leap head first into South America and make our first stop easter Island! We paused briefly at Santiago (after a 19 hour trip from Sydney) but pretty much head straight back to the airport.

Rapa Nui is one of the most islolated, populated places in the world. The only place to stay is in Hanga Roa, which is where the majority of the 3800 residents live. Then our first day is spent getting over the shock of seeing our first Moai, and enjoying the National Day celebrations. Unfortunately we also have to combat some severe jet lag, but fail miserably and end up sleeping from 4pm then make pizza at 4am!

The island has around 800 Moai mainly distributed around the coast line. No one knows exactly how they were made, or transported, or even the reasons why. They are believed to represent important people of the time, and master carvers were commisioned to make them. Many have fallen from their ahu (platform), as a result of war and a tsunami.

We toured the west coast in a mini jeep on our third day. (Chris bravely taking on the responsibility of driving on the wrong side of the road, then dealing with various hazards of traffic, horses and pot holes!) We drove up the Rano Kau volcano, which is extinct, and now serves as Rapa Nuis main water supply. here we have our first encounter with the crazy chanting ladies. A group of about 15 women dressed in colourful floaty skirts and scarves, chanting and playing drums! This massive crater also used to be where the birdman competition was held. This annual ceremony was where the chief (or representative/hopu)had to swim to Motu Nui and obtain the first egg of the manutara. The first to return was named birdman for a year. It was such a big event that there is a ceremonial village called Orongo, that consists of 54 round stone houses that was used for the duration of the ritual which took place every spring.

We then took the inland track to Puna Pau, the quarry where the red top knots were made, and Ahi Akivi, which are the only Moai that look out to sea. At the end of this road there are 2 beaches. Ohave had a decaying horse, so we settled on Anakena for a couple of hours, then headed back for amazing seafood at Marahi Ra'a back in Hanga Roa. On the way we stop at Ahu Tongariki where Chris ends up taking hundreds of photos for the crazy chanting group.

For the south coast we decide to take a tour. Our guide is a young Rapa Nui guy who is full of knowledge about the traditional ceremonies, culture and history of the island and its people. (His own family can trace their ancestors back to 2 of the Moai from the Ahu Tongariki.) We start at Akahanga where he talks about how different stones, and size show the age of the Moai, then its onto the nursery. Rano Raraku is the quarry where all the statues were carved, and where around 400 (in various stages of completion) still are. Some are complete and ready to be transprted to its ahu, while others remain in the rock face. With so many half buried in the rock, or sunken into the ground, this place seemed more like a graveyard than a nursery.

From here we went to Ahu Tongariki, a sight that we weren't sorry to be revisiting. It is the largest standing group, since a Japanese company re erected them in 1996, after a tsunami (caused by an earthquake) had knocked them down many years before.

The tour took us to a couple of the old villages to tell us about how the people used to live. They had tiny eliptical stone houses for families of 20 or more. Some even lived in caves. We're told how the rapa nui people suffered greatly though when the Peruvians came to the island in around 1860. They took many men to work as slaves in the mines and on farms. The details of how many were contradicted several times, but it had a huge affect on the population, as when the slaves were freed and taken home, the few who made it brought smallpox. This killed so many that the islanders still have problems with in breeding today.

Our final stop is Anakena beach again. We loved this place! But our group wanted to get back for the museum (which turned out to be fairly dull after a tour like that!). It had a couple of interesting things things, such as one of the Moai eyes (made from white coral and the red rock) and some of the tools used for carving.

Rapa Nui is an amazing place and we now challenge ourselves to find somewhere else on this planet that can compare...