Easter Island

April 2003

Easter Island. A mysterious island full of strange carving facing out to sea, Polynesians who speak Spanish and horses roaming all over the place. I met all of them ... in four days cruising around the island on a dirt bike.

Yo Tuve Un Accidente Con Un Caballo

Well, three and a half days in reality given that I hit a horse on my last full day on the island. The ironic part of this is that after falling off twice within five minutes on a wet and slippery dirt track the day before, I decided that I would stick to made roads. And then I hit (or just missed, I still don't know) a horse who decided to stop grazing by the side of the road and run across the road in front of me. One second, I had a horse filling my whole field of vision ... and the next, I am lying in a bush with a dirt bike on top of me and hurting like hell.

After, the accident, I got the bike righted and then went to check on the horse. I looked over the hedge and saw a bunch of brown horses all with brown and white markings like the one I ran into. None of them seemed to be lame or lying dead anywhere so I presume the horse was okay. When I returned to the bike, I couldn't get it started and had to get a lift into town to return the keys and helmet to the dealer. He wasn't totally happy about the lack of bike but siad it wasn't unusual. Accidents with horses are the most common type of accident on Rapa Nui.

After handing back 'the bike', I caught a taxi down to the island's hospital. I can't say they had the most modern facilities but they diagnosed a minor fracture to my wrist. And later in the day after I had left they had a free horse meat 'hangi' (BBQ). I don't think it was my horse though.

Anyway ... on to the photos ....