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Easter Island / Rapa Nui and the Moai (September 2013)
 
We have to admit we had high expectations when we came to the Easter Island. Usually high expectations are a bad thing because many times the destination can not live up to the expectations. Well... not in this case!
Easter Island was even more than we had hoped and imagined for! It is very hard to impossible to describe the magic of this island with words. The pictures also won't do it justice properly.
 
Tongariki
find the the error ;-)
 
For an island that probably makes about 95% of it's income with tourism the Easter Island felt surprisingly untouristy. The people were genuinely friendly, very laid-back, happy and not trying to sell us anything. The island still had an original feel to it and was a pleasure to stay on.
 
Rano Raraku
Rano Raraku - the place where the Moai were originally carved
 
We were incredibly lucky with the weather - apparently it had been raining a lot the week before we came but we were blessed with sunshine and blue skies during our stay.
 
We explored the island and the Moai statues for one week and had a very beautiful and surreal time - once in a while we even had to pinch ourselves to make sure we were not dreaming...
This is indeed a very special place on earth.
 
Ahu Akivi
Ahu Akivi
 
 
more photos in the gallery
 
 
NOTES & ANECDOTES

98% of the Moai statues look direction inland. There is only one single place (Ahu Akivi) where they look out onto the ocean - direction French Polynesia / Tahiti. "A particular feature of these seven identical moai statues is that they exactly face sunset during the Spring Equinox and have their backs to the sunrise during the Autumn Equinox" (source: Wikipedia)
 
surprisingly ;-) there was a lot of LAN Airlines silverware in our Hostel (LAN is the only airline flying to the Easter Island)
 
little joys while traveling: paying for a room with shared bathroom and instead getting a room with private bathroom for the same price :-)