Callao (Lima) to Papeete, Tahiti

Sail away from Callao on mainland Peru, bound for Polynesia. Our first port is Hanga Roa on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to look in awe at the famous ancient statues with huge heads, the mysterious moai, of which there are more than 1,000 on the island. Now we enjoy two days sailing across the wide Pacific, Earth’s largest ocean, as we head to Adamstown, the only settlement on the volcanic quartet of Pitcairn Islands, a community of 35 people who are largely descended from the 18th-century mutineers from HMS Bounty. The coral island of Raroia now comes into view, renowned for pearl farming, then two islands that will delight divers, Fakarava, an atoll favoured for encounters with sharks, and Rangiroa, a similarly amazing underwater world of kaleidoscopic fish. Finally, we arrive amid the swaying palms of Papeete in Tahiti.