Day 44 – Easter Island

Day 44 – Easter Island

Sunrise wasn’t until 8 AM.  When we reached our final position off the west coast of Easter Island around 6 AM, all that could be seen was the city lights.  The sky gradually grew lighter as the sun crept closer to the horizon.  With an overcast sky, I was hoping for a colorful sunrise as the sun finally rose over the island. 

I encourage everyone to read Captain Jonathan’s blog for this day to learn more about the challenges facing the crew today.  We never dropped anchor to avoid damaging coral.  The ship hovered in place using the Azipods and Thrusters under the close watch of deck officers. 

We have never been to Easter Island and elected to take a ships tour for $300 instead of the private tours for $130 plus $80 park fee or $210 total.  After reading the experiences from the 2019 World Cruise, I learned tendering stopped in the morning and only a few people on private tours were able to get off the ship and even some people on afternoon HAL tours were disappointed. 

Not wanting to get up early for the tender ticket line, I looked at the $90 premium for the HAL tour as simply the price of an early tender ticket.  Even so, I booked the HAL tour over 1 year in advance of the cruise and was able to get the earliest time slot.  If I had waited much longer I would have had to sign up for the afternoon time slots with a greater risk of tendering being cancelled as the day went on. 

NOTE:  We found out later that some people booked a taxi tour on the island for $50 per person, but this didn’t include the National Park entrance fee.  If you want to visit the parks on your own, you can buy a ticket for the National Parks at a pop up tent on the pier for $80 USD or 54,000 CLP (which is about $68 USD). Using CLP saves some money. If you are on a HAL tour, you will never see your park ticket until they are passed out at the end of the tour.  The park tickets are good for multiple park entries during the day.  If you are on a private tour, your tour operator will advise you how to get your ticket, or they may buy them for you and charge you later. 

While they don’t have entrance gates at many of the national park sites where you see the Moai, you are still required to have a park ticket in your possession which may or may not ever be requested for inspection by a park ranger.  Two of the most popular sites Orongo Village and the quarry at Rano Raraku are places that you are only allowed to visit once per admission ticket and they stamp the ticket when you visit these places.  

As I was walking to the bow at 7 AM, I checked out the tender line outside the Ocean Bar.  The first person in line arrived at 3:30 AM – 5 hours before they planned to start handing out tickets.  Someone who arrived at 5:30 AM was the 15^th person.  If I got into line at 7 AM there would have been about 100 people ahead of me. 

I spent a few minutes up on the Deck 6 observation area before heading up to the Crow’s Nest where a buffet was set up with Rapa Nui rolls, orange juice and coffee.  Folding chairs were also in place to accommodate more people who wanted to watch the scenery, although I don’t know why as there wasn’t much to see from the ship.  Here is a link to the recipe for Panama Canal Rolls, which are identical to Rapa Nui rolls.  Later on I spotted the crew passing out juice and rolls to the folks in the tender ticket line. 

Our tour show time was 8:45 AM.  We arrived at 8:30 AM and received tour dot number 6.  Each tour probably had about 40 people.  This ended up putting us on the second tender.  The first three groups were called for the first tender about 8:45 AM and groups for the second tender were called around 9:10 AM.  Our group was called at 9:20 AM.  We walked down the crew staircase to the tender platform and boarded the tender about 9:30 AM.  Fifteen minutes later the tender was filled and we left the ship. 

NOTE:  The tender was moving quite a bit when we boarded, going up or down 2-3 feet depending on the timing.  There were 2 crew on the platform and 2 crew on the tender to assist passengers.  People have been killed while trying to board tenders, and this is probably one of the most dangerous activities that passengers will take part in during any cruise.  Listen to crew instructions and don’t move until requested.  

We never did hear them call any tender ticket numbers, but I think they started letting people with private tours get on the third tender, probably around 10 AM.  Over 600 people booked ship tours according to one of my sources, which is about half the ship. 

Our tender took about 10 minutes to get ashore and 10 minutes to unload.  If you need to get a National Park ticket for your independent travel or tour, you can buy one at the National Park tent shown here.

Our tour bus was a short walk to the right and we were on our way at about 10 AM.  Tour 6 was assigned 2 buses, but only one guide who was in the other bus.  We didn’t get any commentary as we drove to the various sites.  The EXC guide, Glenn, was on our bus as an escort, and we had interesting commentary from him as we drove around. 

The limitations of the tour, such as the guide not being on every bus, was disclosed as part of the tour description and repeated here: 

Easter Island Mystical Moai Statues & Highlights

Departs: 1:45 PM Approximately 3½ Hours Price $299.95 – This includes the $80 USD National Park Fee – Private tours won’t list this as part of their cost.

From the port of Hanga Piko, you’ll head to the ceremonial site of Tahai in the village of Hanga Roa.  Here, you will see three restored platforms and the only Moai statue with its eyes re-inserted.  Your next stop is at Rano Raraku on the south coast.  Follow your guide on foot through the quarry that yielded stone for all the Moai statues carved on Easter Island.  There are still 397 statues in varying states of completion on the slopes of the extinct volcano.  Several minutes drive away is the restored 656-foot platform of Tongariki, with fifteen re-erected statues.  Finally, you’ll drive to Anakena Beach, famous for its pink sand and its two restored platforms — Ahu Nau Nau and Ahu Ature Huke — before returning to the ship.  Notes:  Easter Island has a hot and humid climate.  Bring bottled water from the ship; there is nowhere to purchase water on tour.  Minimum age is 12 years.  Walking is over uneven terrain at the volcano.  Wear sunscreen, sunglasses, light clothing and comfortable shoes.  The walk at Rano Raraku quarry is over uneven terrain with an incline; participants must be reasonably fit.  Tourism infrastructure is very limited on Easter Island. Transportation will be by way of several different types of vehicles, including minibuses and vans. A guide waits for you at each point of interest and provides narration and explanation with a loudspeaker rather than riding with you in the vehicle.  The ship is at anchor on Easter Island and the Immigration clearance process can take more than an hour.  Having your immigration card filled in prior to arrival will expedite the process.  Very few vendors on Easter Island accept credit cards;  bring US dollars or Chilean pesos.  

We arrived at our first stop, Tahai in the village of Hanga Roa, about 10:20 AM and had 20 minutes to explore the site.  This was enough time to see the Moai and take some pictures.  This is the site with the Moai that had its eyes reinserted, the only one like it on the island. 

On the way back to the bus there were a few tables set up by locals selling souvenirs.  You get a much better price if you pay in Chilean Pesos as they generally used an exchange rate of 500 CLP to the dollar instead of closer to 800.  Not a big deal for small purchases, but keep this in mind if you plan to spend more than $20 or so.  One of the vendors took credit cards, but he was the exception. 

We left this site about 10:50 AM and arrived at our second site, Rano Raraku, about 11:20 AM.  This site is known as the Quarry and is where the rock used to carve the Moai was extracted from the ground.   There are numerous Moai here, many are still partially buried and some are hard to spot without a guide available to point them out.  Our guide took us on a circuitous path, maybe a mile total distance, and over some steep and uneven steps. 

This picture shows of part of the path.  Some of the steps were 12 -18 inches high.  We climbed up several hundred feet as well. 

Anyone who has problems getting around will probably want to avoid starting up the trail and stick near the gift shops instead. 

After spending 1 hour here, we were back on the buses for our third stop, Tongariki, only a 5 minute drive away.  This is the spot where they have 15 Moai on a single 656 foot platform.  We spent about 25 minutes here looking at the line of of Moai from different perspectives. The sun was directly overhead so getting a good picture was difficult.

After we left here, we headed off to our fourth and final stop at Anakena Beach, 25 minutes away. There are only a few Moai here, probably ¼ mile from where we got off our bus.  There are restrooms here that charge 500 CLP or 1 USD.  We left the beach at 1:30 PM after spending 20 minutes walking around.  Our bus took 20 minutes to get back to the tender landing.  We asked to be dropped off in town, but they refused as they were running late – the afternoon tour was supposed to start at 1:30 PM and we didn’t get back to the tender pier until almost 2 PM. 

Once back at the tender landing we spent 20 minute browsing the tables of souvenirs spending the small amount of Chilean Pesos we still had. 

Normally a tender ticket is not required to return to the ship, but today we needed one.  There were some large shade tents with folding chairs that made for a cool area to sit and wait for the next tender.  When we were ready to head back to the ship we were given ticket number 11;  They were currently calling numbers 4, 5 and 6.  Christel, guest relations manager, was handing out tickets and told us it was going to be about 1 hour before our number was called. 

As were were wandering around the tender area, I came across this local resident who was grilling a large tuna head in a small hut while enjoying some beers with friends.

Rather than wait at the tender pier, we headed down the street and found a nearby restaurant, Poerava café, where we ran into our tablemate, Susan.  Empanadas and burgers were on the menu, along with beer, wine and soft drinks.  The restaurant is on the second floor over a dive shop.  We sat on the deck and enjoyed a gentle breeze and a nice view of the bay along with our empanadas and beverages. 

After about an hour, we headed back to the tender pier right as they were finishing boarding a tender.  We were able to board immediately without waiting or needing tickets.  It was now 3:40 PM and we would be back on the ship around 4 PM.

While the forecast called for a chance of rain, the weather today was spectacular, and many commented that we would never have better weather on Easter Island. 

This evening we were joined for dinner by the cast of ABBA FAB:  Chris Whitely, Kathryn Williams, Matt Drury and Hollie Cavanagh.  We had a wonderful time learning more about their background and experiences. 

Yuri and Nato were the headliners in the Mainstage this evening.  Nato opened the show with some amazing quick costume changes and dancing.  Yuri came out after Nato left the stage wearing an orange, slinky style costume and performed an interesting routine where he never showed himself the entire time.  Yuri followed up with a interesting high bar routine after which Nato took the stage with an amazing display of skill spinning and moving with hoops, starting off with one hoop but ending up with over a dozen.  They joined each other for the finale with some amazing feats of balance, strength and dexterity.