Log Book - Easter Island

Saturday, 03 April 2010 06:01 Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 May 2010 00:12 Written by Delphine

Our trip in South America ended in the beautiful Eastern Island. It is a nice way to finish these 4 months in the south-American continent. New adventures, new associations and new landscapes are waiting for us in another continent. This new step in our world trip is a good opportunity to do a “making up” regarding what “En piste pour le monde” did during the first 4 months (we will publish a post pretty soon explaining all the concrete actions already done). But right now, it is time for us to explain how was our week in the middle of the Pacific…

We spent 5 nights in a camping in Eastern Island.

Eastern Island is an isolated island owned by Chile. Located far from 3700 km to the Chilean coasts and 4000 km to Polynesian islands, this island is of volcanic origin. The 3 volcanos, Pua Katiki, Rano Kau and Maunga Terevaka emerged 3 million years ago (for the first one) and created the island we know it through these eruptive processes. Why did they give it this name? Because the first explorers discovered it during the Eastern weekend!

We spent 5 wonderful days with Sophie (a young French girl traveling in South America for 6 months), Cécile (another young French girl doing a world trip for 8 months) and Andrew (a young Australian guy starting his travel in South America, Eastern Island was his first step in his new “back packer’s life”!). We met them in Hanga Roa Camping (where we slept for 5 nights) and we explored the beauties of the island together. We rented a car for 5 people for 24 hours to visit the touristic sites and to assist to a sunrise in Tongariki (place where there are 15 majestic moaïs in the coast).

The team waiting for the sunset.

Which moments were very special during these 5 days?

- Two beautiful sunsets offering different lights and colors every single minutes…The sky was plenty of pink and orange clouds, it was amazing. You just have to see it once in your life, we were breathless in front of this scene.

- Having our breakfast in front of the sunrise: the fact of eating bread-Nutella, in a geological sacred place, with nice people in front of such amazing spectacle of color made us think about our future “café-croissant” in a grey morning in France!

- An all-day riding a scooter and discovering the last touristic sites (that we did not have the time to visit with Andrew, Sophie and Cécile). It was Maxime’s dream to go around the island riding a scooter, as you can see: sometimes dreams come truth!

- Having a few beers with our « road friends » and tent neighbors…