Today was a lazy day. We woke quite early but didn't get organised so much so that the lass on reception had to remind us to go and get petrol so we could return the hire car. She’s really helpful and delivers bread, still warm, for breakfast. Today she gave Joan a necklace made out of shells and some flower pins for her hair as a birthday present. Very kind.

She also informed us that there has been a sudden strike of all airport workers for 48 hours throughout Chile. Many people are stuck on the island and the airport is very busy with concerned tourists. She seemed pleased that we just shrugged our shoulders. The strike lasts till Friday night and we are due to leave on Sunday. There’s a possibility of disruption but there’s no use fretting about it.

Near to our accommodation there is one of the most famous Moai at a place called Tahai. We can just about see him from the garden so we decided to pay him a visit. (For the record, most Moai are male so we’re not being sexist.) It wasn’t far to walk but the temperature feels so much hotter than the 21 degrees Celcius that Google tells. Maybe it’s the high humidity or the sun high in the sky beating relentlessly down?

There are three platforms or "ahu" at Tahai. The most handsome Moai stands alone with coral eyes in tact and proudly wearing a top-knot. The other Moai are a little worse for wear but it’s still an imposing sight. There’s an amazingly constructed slipway down to the ocean where a dog frolicked in the incoming waves. On the land above there are some low level round houses like the ones we saw at Orongo yesterday. Three men were busy cutting the grass with big strimmers without any Health and Safety cares in the world.

Further down some marquees were being erected and it turns out there is a festival this weekend. Hopefully it’s not like the one at Malargue last year where hundreds of goat kids were simultaneously barbequed on a football pitch.

The sun was so hot today and even our feet and ankles are tanned. It was a job to stay cool so we headed for a simple looking restaurant on the main street that served pizza vegetariano. Given that we made up two thirds of the clientele, let us say that the service was unhurried. Our lager beers in cans took about half an hour and the pizza, on a pre-made base was well over an hour. There was a slightly sickly sweet smoke fragrance that we have noticed before in Amsterdam that might have contributed to the laid back attitude. Still respite from the heat was very welcome. The local dogs seemed to think so too, curling up and sleeping under the restaurant’s canopy.

After lunch we did a little souvenir shopping. Joan managed to add to her newly started collection of aprons from around the world – she now has two. It was so hot we made our way back along the coast and past the Moai up to our cabana were we lay down and tried to cool down. The cat joined us too.

It was still too hot to sit out at seven o’clock but we made up a picnic and set off to the beach to watch the sunset. We weren’t alone. In fact there were more people than we have seen at one place, at one time, on Easter Island, may be as many as a hundred but we were all spread out on the natural amphitheatre looking out to sea and towards the Tahai Moia. The sun descended quickly but an awkward cloud blocked a traditional sunset view. But to be there with the Moai as it went dark was quite moving. Quite quickly afterwards the people dispersed and we moved to the edge of the water behind the biggest Moai and watched the waves crash in. As the light faded the stars came out and there was Orion, upside down.