Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

[Martin Hash]

There's no place more mysterious than Easter Island (or Rapa Nui or Isle de Pascua depending on who you ask), one of the most remote places on earth where a millennium ago, the inhabitants carved hundreds of giant art deco heads from the side of a volcano, then disappeared. It wasn't on my itinerary but it was on my wife, Gwynne's, so when an opportunity came up to visit, we took it. Withing 15 minutes of landing at the tiny airport, we saw our first Big Head. In fact, there was a Big Head visible through the window of the cabin we were staying in.



There was also a volcano, of course, Rano Kau; the kind beautiful virgins are throw into, but that was it. There's no port; everything has to be flown in, so even the cheapest meal for 2 is $100. You have to rent a car, there's no convenient way to get around; we saw people on bicycles who looked unprepared for the grueling ride from Big Head to Big Head. We could, and did, walk along the beach into town, a couple quaint streets with convenience stores that sold copious amounts of liquor. We took advantage of being on the Big Head island to buy some local pisco (wine) bottled in a Big Head container. It was quite expensive but as décor for our liquor pantry, it's cheap; we're never going to drink that pisco. 2-1/2 days of visiting is ample.

Big Head Pisco.jpg