Sunrise and having the best day

So, after putting it into the universe last night by typing that we were hoping for a clear sunrise this morning, I was slightly doubtful. But, guess what? It was amazing – BEYOND AMAZING actually!

We got up at 5am and we had heard a lot of rain through the night but as this was our last chance to see the sunrise we hopped in the car and drove 40 minutes to the site Tongariki as mentioned in my last post. The sun doesn’t rise here until really late for some reason, but the park opens at 7am so we got in and found a good spot to watch as dawn broke over these huge ancient statues nearer to 8am.
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There was a few points this morning that I actually got a little emotional, one was this sunrise as it just made me see the world for how beautiful it is and the second was in the car listening to Joss Stone – Super duper love’ as I love that song and it was a truly happy moment to be signing in the car with Leo while having a brill day…maybe I’m due my period. 

This morning was so incredibly fantastic, we were on cloud 9 so we then thought it would be a great idea to climb Terevaka – the highest mountain on the island for some exercise and I will tell you right now, if you are used to hiking and seeing beautiful views then I wouldn’t actually recommend it.

​Neither of us would – like don’t get me wrong it was good, but the views just weren’t brilliant in the slightest, pretty anti-climatic overall. Then the weather turned, the gods must have heard us saying it wasn’t very spectacular and they punished up with torrential rain – THE ENTIRE WAY DOWN!
As soon as we got to the bottom, the ground was bone dry and it hadn’t rained a drop – karma? Ok, we got the message. 

​The plan was to drop the car off this evening so for the afternoon we went to the beach, Anakena located at the Northern point of the Island. WOW – just wow, maybe because the weather was amazing but it was one of the nicest beaches I reckon I have ever been too. We were even lucky enough to get a traditional show thrown in down the beach, must have been because it’s Easter. Anakena is a white coral sand beach and is home to Ahu-Ature which has a single moai and Ahu Nao-Nao which has seven.

Tomorrow is our last day in Easter island and we are happy to be heading to Santiago on Monday. We have enjoyed it here but I wont lie, we have felt very intimidated due to the governmental unrest just now and the politics that go with it. We did end up buying our tickets for the National park even thought it is currently illegal to do so, but we weren’t allowed in otherwise and the local at the gate got pretty pissed off with us when we presented a STAMPED LETTER from the government to state they had to let us in for free as it was the law.

It’s left a horrible taste in our mouths as Easter island 100% relies on Tourism and for the situation to affect tourists so much and for the officials to be so rude to us, I would hesitate recommending Easter Island and probably wouldn’t come back, regardless of how spectacular the Moai’s are and the landscapes.

Anyway, off to bed to watch a movie and try and cool down, today has been the hottest day since arriving, but tomorrow we have planned next to nothing apart from treating ourselves to anything we want to eat and watching the turtles in the harbor!