Day 21 Easter Island

Today we started our hike at a burial chamber and walked over the cliffs to a 1km diameter volcano crater called Rano Kai.

The burial chamber was relatively modern having been made in the 15th century due to the higher precision of stone cuts.

We then walked 6-7 miles along the cliffs until we found the volcano crater

To the left you can see two small islands.

These are called the Birdman Islands where history tells us of the equivalent of an annual Ironman competition whereby the competitors are from the various important families on the island who have to climb down the 300m cliffs, swim 2km to the island to find a Booby birds egg and bring it back the same way (swim and cliff climb) to the top of the crater with the egg unbroken. This stone shows a petroglyph of the Birdman.

The next photo shows where the various families lived whilst the competition went on. This could take up to a month depending

Christian ministries stopped the competition in the 1860s after many hundreds of years of competing.

In the afternoon we went back to the quarry where the Moai stones were made as out previous visit was cut short because the park closed early. This shows a large Moai in the process of construction and the second one is a complete Moai.

Tonight we are going to see the sun set over some Moais on the west coast and tomorrow there is a swim and snorkel in the south of the island and a visit to the cliff caves.