dlography: Day 14 - October 13, 2011

Last full day in Easter Island :(

Today was a half day tour which started at 9:00am, visited sites, got a two hour break for lunch and lounging, and then got picked back up afterwards to finish off the tour.

In the morning, we visited Orongo, a stone village and ceremonial centre. Orongo is located at the top of the crater called Rano Kau. The edge of Rano Kau drops almost 300 meters to the water below and has a breathtaking view of the rock formations. History has it that competitions would be held each year starting at the top of Rano Kau; competitors would have to get to rock formations and fetch an egg of a frigate bird, and bring it back. The winner would be the leader of the area for a year until the next competition.

We visited a few other sites in the afternoon, most notably Ahu Akivi, where seven Moai stand and are the only ones facing out to the sea (all other Moai face inland so the deceased can look over their old tribe). The seven Moai were constructed for seven travelers from Tahiti that set out on a journey to find Easter Island. Their chief had a vision that there was an Island to the east of them, so he sent the seven travelers to find it.

All this information I've written came from our tour guide. He was born in Easter Island and has formal training in the history of the Island. His information contradict a lot of information I read on the Internet, and not to say that he's wrong or the people on the Internet is wrong, but since nobody really knows what happened, the information may or may not be false. He mentioned that all the information he told us was 40% scientifically proven and 60% stories from generations in the past.

Day 15 - October 14, 2011
We left the next morning and started our journey back to Toronto on October 14th at around 1:00pm. We arrived home on October 15th at around noon. Long waits, long plane rides, but we got to sit beside each other in twos without interruptions.