Sunday, and the day all guidebooks indicate that visitors to the island should go to the Catholic Church and listen to the singing. There were three services that day, the 9am one being the better one for the singing the hotel owner advised. Between the local people and tourists the church was full with the singing in the Rapa Nui language being quite chilling, full bodied and easy to listen to. At the end of the service, less than an hour long, the priest stood outside to have photos taken with the tourists.
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| The Catholic Church |
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| The priest ready to enter |
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| The choir and band |
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| The priest |
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| Inside the church |
While on the island I did have a look round the power station after first being refused because of what photos previous visitors had taken and put on the internet. I was even invited to a barbecue there as it was payday and the station staff were having a little celebration. The station had five Caterpillar engines of different outputs while it, and the surrounding area, looked no different to any diesel power station in Papua New Guinea.
There were a lot of horses running free on the island though still owned by the islanders. I was told that they were originally used for transport purposes but after the advent of the motor vehicle the islanders could no longer feed them so they were left to roam and thus increased in numbers so that they are becoming a nuisance now. Also lying (and I mean lying as they did little else) about the place were plenty of dogs looking well fed and very friendly. They would follow people if they thought food would be available, wanted to be petted, and I hardly heard a dog barking the whole time I was there.
The barges are used to transport cargo form ships anchored off the island as there is no harbour there. Fuel is pumped through an underwater pipeline from tankers anchored off the island as well.
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| A stormy day |
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| Street Art |
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| Street Art |
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| Carving |
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| Carving |
A lot of the beautiful carvings were of eucalyptus wood as this grows to a large size tree. It’s also used for house building and fence posts, only the posts have to be watched as they grow shoots quite easily as far as I could see.
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| A stormy day |
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| The old navy prison, the oldest building on the island |
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| A stormy day |
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| Young girls on the same tour |
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| The same beach two days later |
One thing about travelling is the people I meet. In the hotel in there were Swiss, Canadian, American, Russian and Italian single travelers and we went round together when possible, language not being a problem. On my last day there a group of three men arrived from Scotland, none of them Scottish! They were all university lecturers going to a math conference on the island. This was organised by one of the men and as he said, a good way to see the world a someone else’s expense.
It did rain a lot while I was on the island, four days with rarely a stop (very unusual according to the hotel manager) but I still kept going out. There is a lot to see round the island but to take photos one needs to be at the different places when the sun is right which means that organised tours do not always work out. I hired a scooter and went to places at the right time for some of the photos at least.
After the church service it was a last look round the village before catching the plane to return to Santiago. Time enough there to unpack one bag and sort out the other, leaving hot weather clothes in the hostel luggage room and getting ready the cold weather clothes to take to Ushuaia and the Antarctic.
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