Our day started as usual with walking, stretching/ gym, and breakfast. JL then went to see his speaker talking today about a historical mystery, while I went to line dancing. I then went to my Knit and Natter group (now working on the back of my bear!).
At noon everyday the captain comes on the tannoy to make an announcement about how far we have traveled/ weather forecast etc, and today we all listened carefully as we wanted to know about precise arrival times at Easter Island which we would be sailing past in the afternoon. We got a shock when we listened though - the captain told us that there was a passenger who was critically ill in the medical centre, and after long discussions with the ship's doctor and the maritime authorities, it had been decided that he needed to disembark ASAP to receive further medical attention. We would therefore be sailing at full speed from now until the island where we should arrive by 3.00, and the passenger would be taken by tender boat into the main town of Easter Island, then either taken to the island's hospital or taken by air to Valparaiso (the nearest big town, 2182 miles away) if necessary. He announced that the slow sailing past the island was therefore cancelled.
We had lunch feeling very strange - it must be immensely scary to be so ill so far away from land... I felt so sorry for the man and his wife :-(
I had my pedicure from the day before booked for 1.30 so I went along to that as planned, and now have pretty turquoise coloured toenails. As I left the spa I could already see people congregating on the open decks so I went up to find JL already there as we were sailing past the island on our way to the town. Even though we were going at full speed, there were still wonderful views of the landscape. The island is volcanic and there are a number of peaks all over it. It is most famous however for the large stone moai statues which were carved by the inhabitants between 1100 and 1680 AD which are scattered all over the island. In doing this they cut down almost all of the island's trees to use to transport the statues, and this large scale deforestation led to the extinction of various other natural resources, and eventually internal warfare broke out, significantly decreasing the population. By 1877 there were only 111 people left on the island (from a previous population of 15,000), after visiting sailors brought diseases which killed many, and other islanders were captured for the slave trade. The population has recovered in recent years and there are now around 5,800 inhabitants.
The ship took us quickly to just outside the bay, where a boat was sent from ashore to meet and guide our tender boat with the ill passenger on board. The main town is right by the island's air strip the longest in the Southern Hemisphere as it was a back up landing strip for the space shuttle and we were told by the captain that a plane was soon to be arriving from the Chilean mainland to take him there if necessary. In the meantime he would be cared for at the hospital on the island.
We stayed just ashore of the town for about an hour while the transportation took place, which allowed us to look at the shore using binoculars and camera zooms. Around the bay were a group of 5 moai statues (one of which apparently has eyes if you are able to see it from the inside of the island) and a single one in another place. The town seemed very small and spread out but many houses were visible.
The tender boat came back before too long and we were told that the passenger had been safely transferred to the island hospital. The captain then said that because we were ahead of our original schedule, we would be able to go back and do the original slow sail by of the island, going closer to the shore than previously. He got the port presenter up in the bridge so she could narrate to us what we could see. She had a map which showed a large number of moai along the southern shore where we would be sailing. After a while though we discovered the problem was spotting them! There are 887 moai statues on the island, which is only 63 square miles in size. You would therefore think the the statues would be all over the place - I certainly imagined them lined up along all the shores! Instead it was more like a treasure hunt game! Those people on deck with the strongest binoculars had little groups of followers round them, trying to find any statues! Every tree, bush, and water cooler was inspected, and shady patches of ground were looked at even more closely to see what was hiding there, but to no avail. Even the captain and the port presenter were flummoxed! Eventually we sailed past the quarry which is where the stone for the statues originally came from, and at last we could see statues (and parts of statues) all over the hillside (where they were left when the islanders ran out of wood to transport them to their eventual destinations). I took photos with my camera at its maximum zoom level but sadly they do not capture the amazing detail on the moai, many of which have carved faces and elongated ears. It was still an amazing experience however, and as the captain turned the ship round we had a good look from all angles. There was not a great deal else to see on the island, other than a flock of sheep and lots of hills!
We then headed back on our original course, past the biggest volcano and two small land masses just off the main island, one of which was used by ancient tribesmen as a challenge - they had to jump into the shark infested water and swim to it and capture a bird's egg, before swimming back to shore. If they won, their clan would rule the island for a year!
We took a few more photos and then waved goodbye to Easter Island. We realised we had been up on deck for over 3 hours, and when I went back and looked at myself in the mirror I realised that the sun lotion I had put on a few hours ago had not quite been enough! (I certainly have some colour now mum!)
I just had time for another day's abs challenge before going to dinner. After dinner we went to see the Headliner's Queen tribute show again as it was so good the first time! We then went to the theatre to see a guy called Marc Paul who is a mind reader. It was very interesting but I am very skeptical and didn't quite buy in to any of it! My favourite bit was the start when he got members of the audience to pick a 2 digit number and then proceeded to fill in a grid of other numbers when each row/ column/ diagonal/ group of four all added up to the given number - it was amazing!
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