DAY 113
Full day tour = full tourist mode :D 5 min into the tour, the bus breaks down but they bring a replacement swiftly. Our first stop is Akahanja. It's a rocky plain by the sea with ruins of boat houses and fallen Moais looking inland. We first wonder why they were giving their back to the sea but it's not that. They look at the village they protect. They are he ancestors watching over the family/tribe. At some point in their history, they decided to overthrow the Moais, claiming they were not protecting them anymore. Only the ones with mana (the finished ones, with their white coral and obsidian eyes and hat) got destroyed. That decision was a consequence of a big population collapse due to wars, food shortage coming from political instabilities. The whole thing probably started with changes to the ecosystem.
Next stop is Tongariki, a line of 15 Moai well restored by the Japanese after the 1960 tsunami. It really is an impressive sight. Once again they look inland. All the Moais of the island came from the same place. It's called Rano raraku and it's close to Tongariki. Most of the Moais are buried in this Moai factory. Only the head is sticking out. It was to protect them from erosion until it was time to deliver them. The place gives the weird feeling that someday the work just stopped and everything was left as is. The site also hosts a seated Moai, probably the oldest one of the island. The mountain is unsurprisingly a volcanoe and it's possible to visit the caldera. A lake is sitting in the middle, everything here is greener and the soil is orange. It looks like a different world.
Next in line is "Te pito kura", the last Moai to have been overthrown around 1838. It's the biggest ever erected. It's 10m high and weights 80 tons. The hat (pukao) itself weights 12 tons. Finally we arrive in Anakena, the one and only sand beach of the island. The Polynesians were able to make landfall here and shared the island between the families. They came with chickens and seeds. Rapa Nui is a volcanic island but none of them active. There is no river so they had to collect rainwater and filter water from the calderas. Their subsistence came mainly from fishing. The Moais are smaller (and older). The race to gigantism wasn't yet started. It's a beautiful beach wig white sand, palm trees and weird looking statues looking away from the sea.
We use the inland road to head back to town. Horses are roaming freely here, it's a odd sight to see them running on the roads! They use to have lots of sheep too but in 82-85 they had to choose between tourism and sheep as they were causing erosion and damaging archaeological sites. Back in town, we have a drink with our tour friends. Some of them go to the dance show but we keep it for Thursday. We go get dinner instead and are lucky to have a documentary on TV about the Moai and how they were walking them to their final destination. We thought for some time that they were using trees to move them and that it may have caused to environmental problems but the main theory now is that they were walking them. With ropes attached on each side, the moai was kept off balance and then tilted side to side like a pendulum to make it walk. It also matches with stories about walking Moais that were previously thought to be legends. We all get together for another Pisco sour after the show. We're curious about the show but they really liked it so we should too ;) We also made a four-legged friend tonight and it keeps on following us, enjoying our company I suppose.
DAY 114
To our surprise, our dog friend is still here in the morning. She just slept in front of our door! The plan this morning was to hike all the way to the crater located at the south tip of the island. But it's rainy and I don't feel so great so we abort. It clears a bit in the afternoon and we go to the museum. In the meantime we lost our dog in the city. I'm sure we'll see her again ;) The museum is interesting and gives us more details about the reasons behind the overthrowing of the Moais. A new religion "Tangata manu" (the bird man) appeared with an ecological message probably due to the problems faced by the islanders. The much needed change in customs and way of life was not easy and led to political instability and wars. The Moais, representing the old ways, had to go...
The way back from the museum pass by the "sunset Moais" so we give it a 3rd try and we're finally granted a spectacular sunset. It's all about perseverance :D
We're walking back towards town when we hear a "thud" followed by a car breaking. People are driving very carefully here but with all the dogs roaming the street, I think about it right away. We turn around to check it out and see the car passing by, not even stopping. It's a young dog, he's bleeding out with his pals around him in shock. They lick him and look at us for help and comfort but there's so little we can do. A guy stops and carry the dog on the side. It's heartbreaking. We stay with him until the end, petting him gently so he doesn't leave this world alone...Still shaken by what just happen, we stumble "our" dog from yesterday. She's once again super happy to see us and it's good to see us, especially after that.
DAY 115
Once again she slept on our porch and leave with us as we start our hike towards the crater. She's not in the mood for hiking though and abandon us in town again ;) We though the coast was jagged but it's a different level of jagged south of the town. The show of waves breaking on rocks is even more mesmerizing. The trail to the crater is named "Te ara o te ao", meaning the road of command. Each year they were going there for the bird man ritual. First climbing the crater then descending it at the southern tip of the island then crossing over to the small island in front to wait for the birds to come. The first one to bring back an egg was chief for a day. You could also send people in your stead so you could skip the physical aspect of the trial and still end up chief... On the way up, there's a recreated village with traditional boat huts and cultures with the rocks around to keep moisture. I didn't think the boat huts had that much space inside and so much height. It's very hot inside unsurprisingly but they were used mainly at night.
It's not a very long walk to Rano Kau, the crater. The side close to the sea has started collapsing making it some kind of amphitheater opened to the sea... Impressive sight. It's protected and one of the last refuge for biodiversity. Due to its location and shape, it's protected from the wind, fires, etc...down there are what looks like countless ponds but it's in fact floating plants similar to the ones found in lake Titicaca which is more than 4000km away! We cannot go all the way around but on the far side, you can see the island through the amphitheater so we go check it out and hike along the rim. It's also a bit higher on the far side and we can see the sea of 4 sides! It's small island indeed and we have the view of the islands through the collapsed part as advertised ;)
Back to the main vista point by the road, 3 dogs decide to tag along on the way to Orongo. There, we find the ruins of an ancient ceremonial village dedicated to the cult of the bird man. That's where the chief for the year used to live too. It has lots of low houses with double walls of stones with earth in between. The village is exposed and facing the sea so they needed insulation. The petroglyphs and rock art is barely visible now due to erosion. In the museum, the pictures from 100+ years ago show how much we lost.
Ana Kai tangata is a ceremonial cave not far from town. It had paintings but they're mostly gone too. It's a gorgeous cove however with the cave is open to the sea so it's no surprise the paintings didn't last. We follow the beautiful coastline towards town and are still mesmerized by the big waves crashing on the rocks. Another dog joins our pack so we now have 4! By accident, we find a semi-natural pool in the rocks. It has been done by a nearby hotel. Th waves crash on the rocks below and when they are big enough, the water lands in the pool. Next to it is a hole with a tunnel that goes all the way to he shore. When a wave is big enough, he water shoots up, fill the little pond around the hole before being drained once again...What a show! One of Rapa Nui best kept secret for sure ;)
Hunger forces us to leave this magical spot but we find a restaurant on the way that is by the sea so we can keep on being hypnotized by the waves. It's getting late so we run back to the hotel, shower, change, rent a car and buy tickets for the dance show. We walked 18km today, first big hike since Kilimanjaro. It's so much easier at sea level ;) Car rental here is for 24 hours and we'll try the sun rise at Tongariki. The dance show is fun, Very energetic and entertaining for sure. At some point they bring people on stage to dance with them and Mar is one of the lucky one ;)
DAY 116
The sun rise business was a complete failure. We walk up on time, got there in time but the sun never showed up. All we got was fifty shades of gray. Even in these conditions the site is impressive and a herd of horses is grazing all over the place while keeping us entertained. There's a few sites we skip during our previous tour so we do it now since we are motorized. The petroglyphs at Papa Vaka are almost all invisible too so that's probably why we didn't stop the first time. At Anakena we were hoping for a coffee but it's deserted :( the day is not starting very well... Next stop Puna Pau. It's raining so we opt for a power nap waiting for it to pass ;) It's the pukao (Moai's hat) quarry. Like the other quarry it has lots unfinished pukao lying in a field. They were roughly shaping them here then fine tuning them on the Moai itself. The rain resumes and chases us away. We were considering renting a quad instead of a jeep. It would not have been fun! Next up is Ahu Akivi. The site has 7 Moai and is very similar to Tongariki. Here it looks like the Moais look at the sea but in reality they look at the village; No breach of Moai protocol! And the rain chases us once again.
The island is really small so we just go back to town for lunch. The weather is clearing up so we decide to try the summit! Our car is a small 4*4 so we cheat and take it as far as possible. Eventually we have to leave the car and start walking and of course, 10 minutes into it, it starts raining again. We couldn't pick a worse day to rent the car it seems. Maps.me lead us to the wrong place first where we see a car even better at cheating. From the volcano we see the summit though and resume walking in them at direction. Finally up there we find the horse skull we were expecting. The Brits we were with on the tour went there and told us about it ;) We see the whole island from the top but it's very cloudy and windy so we can't stay long. On top of that there are a few things we want to check out before returning the car.
Next up is Ana te pahu, a very long lava tunnel. We explore it for a while. Supposedly you can exit at another place but we don't have much time left. Some sections have collapsed And plants started growing in the tunnel. The main entrance even has banana trees inside the tunnel!
Te Peu is an unrestored village. The strange thing here is a big boat hut (40m) probably used as a town hall. Not much is left apart from that though. We try to go to "las ventanas" but the road is so bad we don't see a way through with the car. We could walk but time is running out and it would leave us with very little time in the cave. So we change plans and drive to the other side of the island to Virapu. It's close to the rental place so won't have to pay for a second day ;) The site has 2 ahu (ceremonial platform) with fallen Moai. The oddity is a female moai sculpted in the red rock. Her features are almost completely washed it by erosion. Originally the Moai had two heads and was used to dry the bodies before burying them. One of the ahu is showing delicate and advance masonry. A technique used by the incas! Some legends both in polynesia and in South America talk about an military expedition from a inca King. It's definitely possible that infrequent exchanges were happening between the two worlds.
On the way back to town, we stop once again at the pool and wave geyser for a short bit. After returning the car, we go see the sunset and (Murphy's law) after a day that only saw shitty weather, we have a spectacular sunset... Karma is a b!
DAY 117
Unsurprisingly, it's sunny today (ah Karma...). I suppose dawn was gorgeous with all the colors we missed yesterday... Since it's the last thing that remains for us to do here, we hike to "Dos ventanas" and back. It's really tough to find the entrance of the tunnel but maps.me redeems itself and indicate the entrance. It's a long tunnel that had two exits in the middle of the cliff. It's nice but does not beat the pool/geyser spot ;) The rain starts as we hit town and does not stop. Our last afternoon in Rapa Nui is a bit miserable. To add to the rain, our flight is delayed 2 hours. Not fun when it's supposed to leave at 12:15am and leaves at 2:20am...