Iorana from the most isolated place on earth! We are in the beautifully spectacular and multi named Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua, Easter Island or Te Pito o Te Henua (the naval of the world) as locals call it. We arrived for our flight on Wednesday at 2.15pm to find out that it was delayed by 10 hours due to the weather. Santiago airport is not the most entertaining place to spend 12 hours, particularly when you are feeling terrible as I was with a horrible stomach bug I got in Cusco. Anyway we finally took off at 2.30am for a 5 hour flight here. All of that was worth it as it is truly amazing. The island itself is tiny- just 20miles by 12 at its widest points and the only inhabited area (the rest is protected national park) is Hanga Roa- a tiny town consisting of about 4 roads. It is unbelievably untouristy- I suppose partly because of the time of year but also because of it´s isolation- it is 4000km away from Chile to which it belongs and it´s nearest other landmass is 1900km away- the even tinier island of Pitcairn.

The island itself is surrounded in mystery. Of course it is most famous for it´s huge stone heads (Moai) but much of the history including how to read their native language of petroglyphs (very similar to hyroglyphics) has been lost. This is mainly down to two terrible invasions to the island. The first was by the slave trade who came here to collect and enslave the natives. When they were finally returned by Chile (who were the second country in the world to abolish slavery) the vast majority of them died of smallpox on the journey back. Those that did return brought the dreaded virus with them and many further islanders also died. The second of course was the Catholic Missionaries who came over to give them a good old civilising (seeing a pattern here?!) and in the process told them that everything they believed in was bad- including making them burn the majority of their Orongos or native texts. Of course there were also many deaths before both of these periods due to the tribes using up the vast majority of resources on the island- in particular the trees which it is theorised were deforested to move the statues. This means that they turned on each other and there was a lot of fighting and is also the most popular answer for why the Moai were toppled- these were very precious symbols that overlooked each tribal village and therefore were pulled down in battles as an act of sabotage. They also turned to cannibalism to stop themselves from starving. When you come to this peaceful paradise now it is hard to imagine a past so steeped in bad times but I guess we all have our bloody history.

Yesterday we hired a car (all 4x4´s here because of the terrain) and set off down the dirt tracks for a lovely day out. First we visited a cave with beautiful rock paintings and the crystal clear pacific ocean crashing against it. We then drove up to Orongo ceromonial village. This showed partially restored, unrestored and fully restored houses from the tribes. They were unlike anything we had ever seen before- made of slabs of stone layered on top of each other with a stone roof made in a similar way with a central stone like a cantilever bridge. They then had grass and mud piled on top to protect them from the elements and a tiny door that you could just crawl in and out of. This village was also the vantage point to watch the annual birdman cult ritual. It was used to decide the next leader and involved a competition to retrieve an egg of the sooty tern that breeds on the small motu (islets) just offshore. Young men descended the cliffs, swum to the islands and stayed there to search for the elusive egg. The first one to find an egg and communicate that back became birdman for the year. There are petroglyphs overlooking the islets that depict Tangata Manu (the birdman) and Make Make (their god.) The most stunning thing though was the volcano Rano Kau itself. You could stand right on the edge of the crater that looked like a huge witch´s cauldron filled with reeds and a dark green colour.

After lunch we headed inland to see the only seven Maoi who are in that position and also face the ocean. They are said to represent the seven explorers from Polynesia that first discovered the island. Like everywhere that we have been the most amazing thing is that we have been the only people there. No ticket office, toilets or any other visitors- just us and whatever we are looking at. To us it is just unbelievable and you cannot imagine what these places would be like in Europe or elsewhere- I mean how commercial is Stonehenge? Rapa Nui has over 900 Moai in 250 locations around the tiny island- it must be one of the most attraction filled places on Earth. The fee to visit all of these things? A 5 quid national park fee for all of them the whole time you are on the island...you pay at the ceremonial village and noone ever asks you anywhere else if you have paid the fee- perhaps a reason they are underfunded. From there we drove a little further along the crazy dirt road filled with lakes and massive ruts to climb down a hole into some huge caves. Again we were the only ones there and with our torches we explored the huge lava tunnels that went on for hundreds of metres. Sometimes you had to bend right over and even I hit my head! Apparently the tribes used to hide their woman and children down there when the slavers came and if you go down with a modern day native they can take you for miles and miles underneath the whole island. We had a great time exploring them for about an hour and luckily found our way out again! The drive back to where we were staying was great as well with lots of moai along the coastline smiling at us.

Yesterday was also our 3 year anniversary and so the guesthouse owner recommended that we go to a place where you pay a fixed amount and the chef cooks local Polynesian dishes of his choice. The seafood was amazing- delicious Cerviche (chunks of raw fish in a dressing with tomatoes and onion,) fish and prawns. This was accompanied with packet mashed potato- perhaps not such a native dish.... the atmosphere was also hilarious...there was just us and one other couple in a very brightly lit restaurant surrounded by lots of empty tables and a very loud ticking clock! We had a lovely evening though...

Today we had paid to go on a full day tour to learn more about the history and culture of the island. Sabrina, our tour guide, was fantastic. Born and bred on the island she had been told the myths and legends throughout her childhood and was really interested to discuss the culture and problems. We learnt that many of these myths were communicated through what we would call cats cradle. It is from here and every movement has a song that accompanies it and a lot of symobolism to remember the history of the island. We started off at two sites with unrestored Moai and learnt that all of the ones that are raised and standing upright have been restored to be that way as all of them were toppled in the wars between the tribes. The Americans kept asking why they don´t just put them all back up but I felt that it was also good to see them in the way in which they were for hundreds of years. Sabrina, too, said that she felt that it was part of the island´s history that they were toppled and it she felt sttrongly about keeping some examples of that. After that we went to Ahu Tongariki which was the most stunning display of the Moai in terms of scale and location. As you can see in the picture 15 of them line up along the largest ahu or platform built. A tsunami in 1960 demolished several of them and scattered some parts such as the topknots as far as a couple of kilometres inland but the site was restored by a Japanese company in the 1990´s.

We then headed to the highlight of the day which is referred to as `the nursery´or Rano Raraku. This is where the moai were carved out of the slopes of an extinct volcano. All along the hills moai stand partially buried, while on the rocky surface there is a jigsaw puzzle of partly carved moai, the largest of which is a 21m giant. More than 600 of these stunning figures stand and lie around and it really is spectacular. We saw a great example of how they carved them by digging channels around the rock and chipping away with basalt and also the only kneeling maoi that has been found. We also walked to the crater of the volcano which is a silent reedy lake that acts as an amphitheatre full of handsome heads both standing up and lying down. This was where we discussed how they moved them which has many differnt theories. Many myths discuss them walking but the theory is that it looked like this as they were often transported upright on rollers and pulled with many ropes. In all likelihood they were many different ways to get them to their platforms depending on the size and the terrain. It is impossible to comprehend how many there are and how long each one took to carve and transport.

The final spot of the day was the only real beach on the island- Anakena -which was the landing place of the Hotu Matua, the King and Queen of the island. The beach is beautiful but it was absolutely pouring with rain so we used the time to talk more to Sabrina and learn about the culture and history of the island. The main concerns of the islanders are being governed by a country that is so far away. They do not even have their own senator or representation in parliament and feel that it is impossible for Chile to understand local issues. The national park in particular is desperately short of money which is an advantage in some respects because it means that sites are not patrolled and we have been the only people there but is overall not great because it means it is impossible for them to ensure people are not damaging the history by touching or even carving on the Moai. Some people talk wistfully of independance from the mainland but in all practicality this is not going to be possible- they have become to reliant on the one air link from there for goods and most importantly tourism as well as grants and subsidies for education etc.

We are devastated that tomorrow is our last day here and have hired a car again to see the last sights and return to our favourite ones. This is the last place we will visit in South America and like so many of the places we have seen so far will stick in our memories forever (particularly as we have bought two massive wooden maoi we have to work out how to get home!)