An Easter Island day

I must apologize as I’ve failed to paint a picture of this grand island for you. It’s a small island, roughly 117 km in circumference. The island survives off tourism, as that is the profession of choice for most Easter Island inhabitants.

The island wakes around 6:30 AM to the sound of roosters, whose imminent death is being plotted by my English roommates. The day starts with most locals selling fruit along the main street in downtown Easter Island until noon, when they pack up their trucks and head home. A few hundred meters past this main street sits the center of town with a restaurant on the ocean, a small outdoor surf shop, a scuba diving center, an information kiosk, and a small sand beach for locals to lie out on.

Its foot traffic is minimal and the 50 odd cars and scooters on the island take their customary lap around the town’s center a few times per day.

The oceans entry point is about 100 feet long, but as one swims out, its perfect right hand waves breaks about 200 meters off shore in epic fashion as its consistency resembles the surf of Bali, Indonesia.

Locals spend most days riding wild horses, surfing, and working in small shops while tourists roam the streets and take in the scenery. The Moab’s are the highlight of the island as they are both mysterious and historical and can take up your entire day in exploration.

Around 3:00 PM each day the sky’s open and rain hits the ground in beautifully violent fashion for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, a rainbow typically appears and the sky is clean as a blue canvass until the sun begins to set around 9:45 PM (no that is not a typo).

From there, one grabs a bite to eat, a tall glass of freshly squeezed pineapple juice, and relaxes to the sound of local music, dancing, and good conversation while gazing at the millions of bright stars in the sky until he or she lays their head down on a pillow, anxiously awaiting the rooster’s wake up call.