Christmas in Rapa Nui

Rapa Nui is just a mote in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Known for its many moai (the 1000 stone sentinals which bespeckle the island), Rapa Nui is also home to some of the friendliest, most outgoing people in the world. Of course one finds the disenfranchised everywhere, and so even here there are Grinches, albeit few.

Not blessed with the extra space in our budget to rent a car on the island, we ventured to hitchhike around this happy isle and were picked up by two local fisherman, Tete and Tovi. They not only took us to our destination (Anakena Beach), but they gave us a tour of various local sites including Rano Raraku (the infamous moai quarry). However, their chief focus (or obsession) was fishing, a trade which kept them daily fed, and so we were treated to their bounty more than once, dining on beautiful, tropical, fresh, barbecued fish, the best we’ve ever tasted, until our stomachs hurt and we had to offend them by ceasing our consumption. On one occasion we accompanied them, wetsuits on, harpoons in hand, to fish in their vast blue ocean under the gazing moai at Ahu Tongariki and the setting sun. Every time Tete caught a fish, he'd yell, "Not bad!!!" and laugh maniacally.

And so our stay passed quickly in the company of many good people, like those you find at home, and which the world is continually made a better place by. In Tahiti, it is with people like this, whom we only met at the airport, that we stay with now.

Mike and Kristen