Travel to Easter Island. Expedition "Siberia - Polynesia"

That ended our trip to the mysterious Easter Island. It is difficult to fit in one article all the vivid impressions: there were bureaucratic obstacles, and strange fruit, and whales, and sharks. But let's do everything in order.

Preparation and assembly of the catamaran - mid-November

It all started with a short telephone conversation with my friend Dima Trubitsin.
Dima: - “Hello, and swam across the Pacific Ocean, after about 3 months ?!”
I: - “Ocean ?? Yes floated !!! Let's meet in the evening, discuss ... ”



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A week later we were sitting at the same table as a team. Then we met with our captain Kulik Anatoly Pavlovich and dismantled the task of organizing the event. As it then seemed, the most difficult thing would be to get approval from relatives and from bosses at work. But I was greatly mistaken - it turned out to be very simple. Having shared my idea with everyone, I got the “green light” in all instances. At work, without hesitation, they were released for the necessary period of time in exchange for a detailed story. And the wife herself even wished to take part, but, as everyone knows, women have no place on the ship.

From that moment began an active preparation for the trip. Through the Internet, we found in Peru a guide, Renaldo, who agreed to take part and assist in resolving issues with customs and the port. He lived in Russia for some time, so he spoke very well in both Spanish and Russian. Next, we found a suitable place for the trial collection of the catamaran. Before the assembly, I have never seen a catamaran, and the result impressed me. During the assembly process, we studied in detail every detail, and this gave us confidence that the vessel is capable of much.



In parallel, having solved many other tasks, we finally reached the moment when everything was ready. The catamaran has already been sent to Peru.

Discover Peru. Machu Picchu - February 3

Tickets for the plane were on hand. We took the seats in the plane with the whole team and, not having had time to blink an eye, after a day and a half we found ourselves in the city of Lima. From here, in 1947, the great traveler Thor Heyerdahl started on the Kon-Tiki balsa-raft. We also had to start from this city and walk 2400 miles to Easter Island.





But first it was necessary to solve an important issue - to get the goods at customs. This task turned out to be difficult and took 2 weeks.
We decided, while the paperwork process is underway, to visit the mysterious Inca city of Machu Picchu.



The city is full of mysteries, on the Internet you can read completely different versions of the appearance of this city. Personally, I like the version described in Wikipedia (in general, our guide Renaldo told us the same version). It’s hard to imagine what kind of work the Incas needed to build a city at the very top. The stones were refined and stacked on top of each other with jewelery accuracy.





The rings and steps in the photo are the beds previously cultivated by the inhabitants. Each level corresponded to its agricultural crop, depending on the height above sea level. Now it is an exclusive tourist area.



Pretty tired of a three-day excursion to all popular places, we finally waited for a call from Renaldo with long-awaited news: the catamaran is cleared through customs and waits at the port. By the way, we were given an interesting place near the beach, and therefore for 6 days we were in the center of attention. It was interesting to all, what is this miracle yudo boat. Every day people approached - yachtsmen and local residents - and were interested in our plans, were surprised at the size of the vessel.

Start - February 17

In Peru, the Russian Embassy actively assisted us. Probably, it was only thanks to them that we still received the cargo and were able to assemble the catamaran almost in time. On February 17, an official start was appointed, and the mayor of the city, the director of the yacht club, representatives of the Russian Embassy and the Russian priest came to see off. They were surprised that everyone swims along the continent, and we are going to swim against the current and against the wind. They wished us a fair wind, smaller storms. Embassy representatives advised on Easter Island to try pineapples and bananas grown without fertilizers and chemicals.

Ocean - February 17 - March 7

This is the gift we made to our beloved women by March 8 - they called and said that everything, we already see the earth, we see civilization ...

Oh yes. I forgot to describe what was in the ocean. As Kulik says, “adventure is a poorly planned event.”
Therefore, we did not have an adventure, everything went in a regular mode - watch, fishing, lunch, sleep.

For myself, I noted the following interesting facts:

1) The body gets used to everything.

The first difficult question - what is seasickness in practice? On board, each in his own way endured this ailment, we could be divided into 3 groups:
• Mild form (no disease). It feels about like reading a book in a minibus. Feeling slightly dizzy, sometimes nauseous, if you do active work. I was lucky to get into this group.
• Medium shape. The vestibular apparatus still fails, and you have to “pay tribute to the ocean” about once or twice a day.
• The heavy form was in one team member, and, as he described later, "I was ready to swim back to swim, if only this madness would end." It was necessary to give about all the food to the ocean 3 times a day. This was accompanied by a complete rejection of physical labor.
But the most interesting thing that united us was one thing - our organisms adapted approximately simultaneously, and on the 4th day of wild shaking everything went away.

2) It is better to be healthy.

In a wet salted environment, our cuts healed longer. The advice is simple - if you are in the middle of the ocean, take care even of the smallest injuries and cuts.

3) The films do not agree.

Often in films about Viking travels on the seas, the appearance of a bird on the horizon means the imminent appearance of land. This is not entirely true. You need to know what kind of bird it is! Every day, even being over 1000 miles from the earth, we saw different birds. But these are sea birds, they can live without land for a very long time. And only having approached the island, we discovered new types of birds that always return to the island.

4) A man nasvinychit everywhere.

For all the way, we did not come across ships or airplanes, i.e. we were in complete union with nature. But approximately every third day we saw traces of a man. Garbage - that's what we came across in the ocean. Polyfoam, bottles and floats from nets. Imagine a vessel measuring 10 meters by 5 meters in the midst of an endless ocean that still stumbles upon garbage ...

5) Fish can fly even better than some species of birds :)

Every day we observed how fish jumped out of the water and about 40 meters, changing direction, flew, most likely fleeing from annoying tunas. At night, they even managed to fly into our tent and hit someone's head.

Easter Island March 7

Being in the ocean for 16 days, we, of course, began to increasingly look at the horizon in the hope of seeing at least some hints of the earth. The GPS navigator told us: “Everything, guys ..., is almost in place.” It is difficult to describe how, after all, I was delighted to see a cloud of clouds on the horizon, and under it the outlines of the earth !!!



But even here a small test awaited us. Having requested permission to enter the port by radio, we were refused, as it was already evening and there was no one to meet us. All dreams of bland soul and cozy bed have vanished.



But in the morning the port staff and the border guards swam up to us, quickly issued and gave the green light to the landing.

Exploring Easter Island March 8-14

How nice it was to get up on the ground! Some guys even got sick again, but, fortunately, only for a couple of hours. On the shore, the only Russian on the island, Ruslan, helped us organize the catamaran parsing procedure.



Easter Island is a small island, you can get around it in about 2 days around the perimeter.





On the island there are no sources of fresh water, they drink only rainwater, which by the way is very tasty.
Since everything is imported to the island from the continent, the prices here are appropriate. For example, a piece of meat in a restaurant costs 2 thousand rubles. Soda water costs 150 rubles. But a good opportunity to go on a fruit diet :) By the way, the fruit is very tasty.



And, of course, the idols (Moai). This is the only reason why tourists come here. Statues are placed everywhere, but, probably, the most part nevertheless lies upside down. However, in the tourist areas everything is restored.







Having examined the catamaran, having inspected the island, we did not want to leave such a calm, peaceful place. But even stronger than we were for home.



The return trip looked like this: by plane to Chile, we walked there, looked at the sights for 2 days, then flew to Madrid, and from there to Moscow and Novosibirsk. 4 flights in 4 days.
In Tolmachevo, we were met by the press, and immediately began to ask how the trip went.

Now, after three weeks of writing code in the office, this seems like something incredible.

Author: Alexey Kuskov, Lead Developer, Microsoft Technologies, EastBanc Technologies