Welcome to Easter Island
Lewis the Lion had barely had time to gather his thoughts on the Galapagos Islands when he was jetting off again from Lima Airport. This time to another place which was really rather exceptional: Easter Island.
Easter Island is 2238 miles from Lima
It is known as being the most isolated island on the planet as it is at least 200 kilometres from any other inhabited island. Again, this was stuff of dreams and Lewis the Lion knew indeed that he was a very, very lucky lion. Easter Island was also famous for being the island of a lost culture with mysterious, enormous statues scattered across the landscape.
A Moai at sunset (near Hanga Roa)
This time, his flight had been delayed by five hours and so he waited patiently in the airport, fighting the desire to sleep as he didn’t board his flight until half past three in the morning. It was strange that they even served the evening meal: Thai Green Curry at 4 o’clock in the morning! However between periods of disturbed sleep, Lewis managed to watch where he was on the little monitor in front of him. Here you can see the plane’s flight path as it was making its way into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Lewis the Lion watches the inflight screen to see where he is: over the Pacific Ocean!
Here Lewis sees that he is very close to arriving at his destination.
Lewis has nearly arrived at Easter Island
Funnily enough, on this flight also, like the flight to the Galapagos Islands, the air stewards and stewardesses, came around spraying insect repellent in the carriers above the passengers’ heads.
Lewis sees the air-hostesses spraying the aeroplane
On arrival at Easter Island or l’Isla de Pascua as it is called in Spanish, Lewis the Lion felt very excited at the thought of this next adventure.
Lewis the Lion arrives at Easter Island airport
They were greeted with strange paintings and statues, and an entrance to the terminal that looked like you were wandering into the mouth of a huge wooden whale.
The airport tunnel is like being in the belly of a whale
Lewis realised that it was a modern island nonetheless as there were cars and tractors driving on by.
Iorana – Welcome to Mataveri Airport, Easter Island
In fact, Lewis the Lion discovered that this island belonged to Chile and so the official language is Spanish, but also Rapa Nui. (Look out to learn Lewis’s magic words in Rapa Nui too).
Lewis has to fill in the visitor’s forms for Chile
As the island belonged to Chile, once again Helen had to complete a form declaring any fruit or vegetables. This time she was carrying two apples and so declared them in order to avoid paying a hefty fine. It didn’t seem to make any difference as the fruit was promptly binned and not saved as she had hoped!
Lewis the Lion and Helen seemed to wait a very long time to pass through customs, so long in fact that Helen purchased a National Park ticket at a 15% reduced rate whilst waiting. This turned out to be a good investment as it was cheaper than paying in the National Park itself.
Eventually, they made it out of the airport to be greeted by Jordi, who worked at the hostel. He gave Helen a very traditional Easter Island greeting by placing a garland of flowers around her neck. What a warm welcome!
Helen has a garland of flowers placed around her neck
As Easter Island is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Lewis the Lion was secretly hoping for a paradise island bathed in sunshine. However, unfortunately when he was there it was rather overcast and colder than one might have expected. Even though it might have been grey and overcast with intermittent, heavy showers, Lewis didn’t let it dampen his spirit though. He had been brought up in the UK and he had adopted a certain British reserve: he would make sure that he enjoyed himself whatever the weather!
And so that’s just what he did along with his new friends in the hostel: John from England, Karim from France, and Gemma and Singa from Australia. The friends had all sorts of adventures walking and driving across the island over the coming days, which he’ll tell you about in his next blogs. Here are some of Lewis’ photos of some of the sights he witnessed across island.
The moai at Ahu Tongariki
An overcast sunrise at Tongariki
He will tell you a bit more about these strange statues in his next blog.
But for now, if you were visiting Easter Island, what questions would you want to ask regarding these strange monoliths?
