Sunday at the Palace

The Presidential Palace in Santiago

Robert checks out the livestock

Gail checks out the guardsmen

We spent an enjoyable Sunday looking at some of the spots we had missed on our previous visit to Santiago. The presidential palace is quite spectacular with lots of open space around complete with pools, fountains and statues. The guards on duty were friendly.

We also wandered around looking at shops and some of the other public buildings.
We leave for Sydney on Monday night and arrive on Wednesday morning.

More Mouai

Look carefully and you will see
us straightening the leaning statue.

See what they look like when

no-one straightens them. We

learnt how in Pisa when we

fixed the tower.

Restored after being toppled

and washed inland after a tsunami.

The quarry where the mouai

came from. These heads are

full figures buried from erosion.

The headpieces are a different

kind of rock from another quarry.

We have now toured all the major sites on the island and also visited a lovely beach where we swam to a backdrop of royal Mouai (the last picture). Tomorrow afternoon we fly back to Santiago.

Meeting the Moai

This is the only group of moai that
are facing towards the ocean.

Now you can see them from the front.

There are lava tubes from the

extinct volcanoes. This one

reached the sea.

Overlooking the crater of one

volcano - now one of the water

supplies for the island.

These houses were lived in for

about 1 month each year during

the birdman festival used to

select the king.

We spent a day travelling around the western side of the island with a guide. Today we will explore the southern side of the island with the same guide - hope to meet more moai.

Easter Island

Gail in the garden of our accommodation.

Our first moai along the beachfront

just along from our accommodation.

We left Santiago quite early yesterday morning for the 5 hour flight to Easter Island. There is a 2 hour time difference so we arrived at lunchtime where we were met with flower leis.

In the afternoon we bought supplies to cook dinner as we have a kitchen here and are missing our own cooking. We walked along the coast looking at the little port where turtles play, tiny beaches with people swimming and sunbaking and platforms where moai are standing.

We are looking forward to our first full day travelling around .