Blog 3

Luck was with us and we woke to find ourselves anchored off Easter Island and as we had no tour escorting duties we were free to explore the island. We went ashore on the ship’s tender and met another couple in a similar position so we negotiated a joint deal for a whole day tour by taxi for $ US 125 which was pretty cheap as the ship’s official tour was over £100 for 2 people. Our taxi driver, Patricia, was a lovely lady and between her broken English and Sue’s rather better Spanish we had a good understanding of what we were taken to see.
The island is pretty poor and only the main roads were paved, the rest were dirt tracks and very bumpy. We didn’t get off to a good start either as we drove to the top of an extinct volcano where it was blowing a gale and there was driving rain too so we felt as if we were back in Yorkshire. However as we drove on the weather became calmer, the sun came out as we drove past many wild horses grazing in the fields and peoples gardens!
It was a delightful trip and of course we saw hundreds of the famous “Moai” statues carved by the original inhabitants as a tribute to their former chiefs. The locals believe that the soul lives on through these carved figures and somehow they dragged these huge carvings into prominent positions all over the island. It was an amazing feat by these primitive people who eventually died out through a lack of recourses to sustain their ever expanding population. Might there be a message here for the world at large? The legacy is there for us to wonder at all these years later. You will get an idea of them all from the photographs.
Sue ingratiated herself with the locals as you can see both on the island and on stage back on the Saga Ruby where a local group came to entertain us with their music and dance.
A super day which we enjoyed very much, now it’s full speed for Pitcairn Island, home to the mutineers of the Bounty back in 1789. The names Christian, as in Fletcher, Adams and Smith are still the main surnames on the island today.