11/09/2019 – Day off on Easter Island, Chile

We had a big sleep and a coffee in bed. I spent most of the morning catching up on the diary and Josh caught up with his mum and dad and some friends on the WiFi, which is painfully slow but still, it is something, and more than we had expected! A platter of cheese and ham, and a couple of boiled eggs were brought down to us by our host Peter for breakfast, and he invited us for lunch at 14:00 in the main house. We gleefully whiled the morning away, and I had a quick shower before we went for lunch. Peter’s wife was cooking, Petra was looking after the youngest daughter Leonora, and Josh and I set the table. Some guests had arrived just as we were about to eat so Peter got them settled in to their bungalow whilst we waited and chatted amongst ourselves. We had rice and fish and mixed vegetables, it was lovely. Then Peter and his wife took Leonora (3 years old) with them to pick up Annabelle (6 years old) from school. Josh, Petra and I washed and cleared up and then Josh and I went back to our studio. Josh had a shower and we got our stuff together and then went to go explore the island! It had been grey and drizzly in the morning but was bright and sunny by this point. Peter has a spare car that guests can rent out, but it is not booked so he offered it to us for the next couple of days. We jumped at the chance, and set off on a road trip. It is only Josh’s second time driving on the right hand side, and Peter had said there is no insurance on the island so we took it carefully! Luckily the roads are pretty much empty and the speed limit is something like 40km/hr. We drove up to the tip of the island to a beach called Anakena. It has white sand, the most turquoise water, palm trees, and stacks of Moai heads! We had a walk around the beach, there a fair few people swimming – apparently the water stays fairly warm all year round.

Then we drove back down the island on the other road (there’s basically only two roads on the island) down the coast. It was so scenic, and we spotted Moai statues all over the island! We stopped to take some pictures and go for little strolls here and there. We went back into the town and to a supermarket (very small shop, smaller than Tesco in Felixstowe) where we picked up some groceries, trying to make the most of having the car. We filled the tank back up (from the only petrol station on the island) and drove to the sunset point. It was perfect timing! I think the sunset at around 20:00 so we get much longer days here than we have been used to. We watched it set behind the Maoi statues, and then as it got dark drove the last little bit back to our accommodation. We had leftover tuna pasta for dinner, showered and fell asleep watching some Friends on the ipad.