Diving the Motus
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
248
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Rapa Nui,
Chile
Monday, January 22, 2007
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After handing back the car in the early afternoon, I was completely exhausted from the driving an visiting of the last 24 hours, and I only had time for a short nap before getting up again, taking my first shower in a couple of days. It did do the job of waking me up a bit, and I headed to Hanga Roa harbour to the Orca diving center.
Easter Island is reknowned for its crystal clear water: there is no pollution, and almost no sand from the volcanic island. Many aquatic species are endemic (not found anywhere else), but that's a bit too much aquazoological knowledge for me. Anyway I did not want to go for the marine life, but more for the alledgedly impressive underwater sights resulting from such clear water.
THE dive not to be missed was apparently the one around the two Motus, these two small islands on the south of Rapa Nui, where the guys would compete to get the first egg and become the birdman etc, if you read the story or saw he movie...
I had asked for a dive there, and they were not keen to go. Alex had asked on his side, and they were not too keen either. So it was a huge surprise, when we went the day before, and asked for it, that they said ok. Alex is an experienced diver, and I must have made a good impression, or maybe it was just that the condition were not right the other day and were good now...
Anyway, that's where we dived.
The setting is like that: even from the boat, as you head to the Motus, the water color is an incredible deep blue, and you have fantastic views from the sea of the cliffs of volcanoRano Kau.
Down into the water. The dive took us along the two Motus, at around 25m deep. The seabed was between 40 and 70 metersdeep... and we could see it as if we were next to it! And good surprise: lots of corals, and many fishes as well. It was a wall dive, where you float along a vertical wall. Just great. I experienced what they call "the big blue": turning around to face the ocean, nothing in your field of vision other than the blue, the clear blue, the big blue... truly magic, a zero-gravity experience, a total loss of space and time. Not for too long though, had to be careful not to sink!
Between the two motus, a canyon at 20m depth, with the swell taking you back and forth, that was cool too.
But really, the perfect visibility made it a special experience.
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