Siri in Easter Island

We want to get a Rapa Nui stamp in our passports, so after breakfast we hurry into town to have them done at the post-office. We also have to fill up the rental car and deliver it back by 11am. Checkout is noon. Our placid days are over, but we still have time to finish what's left of the the birthday champagne and take a last look at the hotel grounds. The hotel claims check-in for our afternoon flight will be busy, and João, a robust Rapanui with a tiny ponytail, who drove us in from the airport, and also rented us the car, now returns us to the airport – we suspect to coincide with the arrival of the plane from Santiago. But the airport is fun, we have a snack, watch the crowd, and check out the stores. Everybody is just so calm – adults reading or chatting, children sitting in groups quietly drawing or playing. There’s no anxiety in the air. Throughout our stay we've noticed how relaxed everybody is - hotel staff and servers are invariably...

Today we are finally going to swim in the Pacific. We bring out the snorkel equipment that we brought from Brazil, apply plenty of sunscreen, and get towels and water from the hotel reception. We take the smooth road, which goes straight across the island to the Anakena beach. When we see a discreet grey van turn into an unmarked dirt road into a property shielded by dense vegetation - unsual on the island - we wonder whether we have discovered the imperceptible entrance to the very secluded Explora hotel,  It is situated roughly in the center of the island, between the two main roads and spotted most easily in the dark, when the lights from the distant one-story buildings are visible. We leave Victor at the beach to do his yoga and meditation and continue on to a dirt road leading to a point, past a moai where we see the beach from another angle, envying the people anchored there in their beautiful sailboat. We've seen them in the Hangaroa harbor, fetching supplies in their r...

We sleep in, exhausted from yesterday's celebration, and the sun is rising when we walk, or rather run, to breakfast through a sudden rain squall. The rain stops, the sun comes out again, and we discover the most glorious double rainbow plunging straight into the sea in a pool of gold. On our way back to our room the sound of the churchbells floats through the air. The service is supposed to be quite beautiful with islanders siging in Rapanui, and I say to Oswaldo, "We should go. It starts at 9." He says, " It's 10 to 9." So much for that. Instead we head out of Hangaroa, along the east cost road, to Rano Raraku , an extinct volcano, from the sides of which teams of Rapanui workers directed by master craftsmen sculpted hundreds of moai. It has stopped raining and the sun is again very bright as we walk up a steep path into the crater. In front uf us lies a huge, placid lake filled with reeds. The water used to be the only freshwater supply for the ea...

At 6.30am I call Victor's room and sing him the Danish birthday song with energy and feeling. He sounds really groggy, but sings along for the last part - and then he's awake! Thus we're all ready when Patricia arrives with the van for our Sunrise excursion, and manage to leave the hotel ahead of schedule at 7.15. You have to be careful driving in the dark on these roads, where horses and cows often stray into the road, as well as the many dogs. When we reach Tongariki, it's still quite dark, but you can distinguish the row of moai. Although there are quite a few tourists present, people sit or stand quietly, readying their cameras and phones. At our back we hear the whinnies of a group of wild horses and in the front the tireless pounding of the waves. The sun begins to rise on our left, behind the Poike volcano, and bands of colors striate the sky. Suddenly I remember a similar moment, floating in a balloon above Cappadocia in Turkey. There's something so spec...