World Largest Outdoor Swimming Pool - San Alfonso del Mar

If you like doing laps in the swimming pool, you might want to stock up on the energy drinks before diving in to this one. It is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, has a 115-foot deep end, and holds 66 million gallons of water.

Chile, home to immense natural beauty from lakes to parks to beaches, can now add another appeal to its two million tourists annually with the Guinness World Record holder of the world's largest pool, The Crystal Lagoon at the San Alfonso Del Mar Resort.
San Alfonso is located at only 90 kilometers apart from Santiago in Algarrobo's northern sector, the closer beach spot to the eastern sector of the capital city.

Swimming a length in this, the world’s largest outdoor pool, would mean stroke after stroke for more than three fifths of a mile – that’s 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.
The enormous man-made lagoon is set halfway up the country’s Pacific coast, in the city of Algarrobo, and is filled with 66 million gallons of crystal clear seawater.
It also hold the Guinness record for the world’s deepest – so if you don’t feel like diving 115ft to the bottom, it might be best to bring some spare goggles.
The Crystal Lagoon reportedly took over five years to construct, which totaled over $1.2 billion, and opened to the public in December 2006 and costs over $3 million to maintain annually.
It uses a computer-controlled suction and filtration system to suck water in from the ocean at one end and pump it out at the other, while the sun warms it to 75 degrees – nine degrees higher than the sea.

Chilean biochemist Fernando Fischmann, whose Crystal Lagoons Corporation designed the pool, said advanced engineering meant his company could build "an impressive artificial paradise" even in inhospitable areas. It uses hardly any chemicals.
"As long as we have access to unlimited seawater, we can make it work, and it causes no damage to the ocean."

For sport lovers, there are sport schools imparting training classes on sailing, kayak, scuba diving, swimming, ocean navigation, golf, tennis and paragliding, and they also will find at their disposal artificially-lit five-a-side soccer courts, volleyball courts and tennis courts, a real statutory soccer field, a last-generation 3D golf simulator and a gym with large windows that enjoy a stimulating overview of the lagoon.
Children have play grounds and entertainment activities organized by child monitors, whereas teenagers have an exclusive space destined for them - the Teen-Pub -, and also SubTerra discotheque, where often music recitals and live shows are featured.
The Beach Club with spa, a tempered beach under a crystal pyramid, open-air Jacuzzis, sauna, beauty parlor and gym; the Blue Spa, the first medical spa in Chile; the cybercafé; the exhibition and cultural activities room; the open-air amphitheater; the Lighthouse Café with icecream parlor and teashop; the sushi Lighthouse; the supermarket and the North Bay pub-restaurant with its own dock and a large terrace along the lagoon’s coastline – where often amusing parties and shows are held – are also part of San Alfonso's facilities.
To all that, the South Bay development has to be added, where the SubAqua Café stands out for its inner aquarium, the largest in Chile, which holds more that 60 Chilean species that can be appreciated in full magnitude through a 25-meters-long glass surface. A giant 100-meters-long water chute is also located in this zone. This sector will be completed by the South Bay Pub that will have a multiple-level restaurant, a Jacuzzi-bar with a giant screen and a gym.

Along with views of the sea and white sandy beaches, visitors can engage in a myriad of activities from boating to snorkeling.
San Alfonso has created a private world with activities for all family members to spend days full of enjoyment without ever leaving the resort.

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Easter Island

Easter Island, situated in the southeast Pacific over 1,000 miles from the other islands of Eastern Polynesia and some 1,400 miles west of South America, is one of the most remote inhabited places in the world. Between 600 and 800 A.D., a group of colonists from an unidentified location in Eastern Polynesia settled on Easter Island after sailing in a southeasterly direction for many weeks. The name Easter Island originated with the European explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who first saw the island on Easter Sunday, 1722. Today, the Easter Islanders call themselves and their homeland Rapa Nui. Rapa Nui society was organized following the classic Polynesian pattern: an aristocracy composed of ranked hereditary chiefs (ariki) with political authority over the commoners, who constituted the majority of the population.


The art of Easter Island is distinctively Polynesian, much of it centering on the creation of religious images. The most recognizable art form from Easter Island are its colossal stone figures, or moai, images of ancestral chiefs whose supernatural power protected the community. Between roughly 1100 and 1650, Rapa Nui carvers created some 900 of these sculptures, nearly all of which are still in situ.

Moai Figures

The moai represent ancestral chiefs who were believed to be descended directly from the gods and whose supernatural powers could be harnessed for the benefit of humanity. The massive stone figures were generally erected on temple platforms (ahu) along the coast, where they faced inland to keep watch over the local community. Most were carved from soft volcanic tuff at Rano Raraku, an extinct volcanic crater that served as the primary statue quarry. The giant stone sculptures commonly weigh between 10 and 12 metric tons. Their average height is roughly 13 feet, but they range anywhere from 8 feet to an unfinished example over 70 feet high. Moai are characterized by long sloping noses, strong brows, deeply inset eyes, and prominent chins. Some examples also wear a hatlike cylinder made of red stone on their heads, which may represent a headdress or elaborate hairstyle.

Each moai was commissioned by a specific individual or group and created by a team of expert stoneworkers under the direction of a master carver. As many as fifteen people began by quarrying a large rectangular block using basalt picks (toki). Once the figure was roughed out, the master carver and his assistants added the fine details, usually beginning with the head and face. Afterwards, a team of workers used ropes and levers to move the sculpture down the quarry slope. It was then set upright and the remainder of the carving was completed. The finished sculpture was then moved to its final destination using a wooden sled or rollers. Experimental re-creation of this feat by modern archaeologists suggests that it required approximately 40 individuals to move an average-sized moai,

By the time Europeans first reached Easter Island in 1722, the moai tradition was already in decline. Early explorers reported many moai still standing, but by the mid-nineteenth century, all had fallen due to neglect or warfare. Many have since been restored by archaeologists.

Other art forms on the island include petroglyphs, many depicting birdmen and other fantastic creatures, as well as a variety of wooden sculptures. One type of wooden image, the naturalistic male figures known as moai tangata, may depict family ancestors. Although their imagery is conventionalized, they may be individual portraits. What appears to be hair on the top of their heads is actually a low-relief carving depicting fishlike creatures with human heads and long flowing beards, possibly representing shark-human spirits (nuihi). In a number of respects, the moai tangata bear a close formal resemblance to the larger stone moai. With their enlarged heads, frontal orientation, prominent stomachs, and arms that extend down the sides of their bodies, both types of image embody a classically Polynesian conception of the human form.

Easter Island art also includes barkcloth images, wooden ornaments, and featherwork. Apart from the stone figures and petroglyphs, virtually all surviving works from the island date to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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