Caves and a Birdman

A super quiet and comfortable sleep at the Hotel Ohana (not be confused with the Hostel Ohana, which our taxi driver the first night brought us to – on the opposite side of town, a whole 4 minutes away!). Rapa Nui is not really in the correct time zone for its longitude, so sunrise and sunset are a bit later than they might be elsewhere. This picture of the stars and Milky Way was out front of the hotel at 6:15 am. Not really even that early! I chatted with another two ladies who were friends from Brazil and Chile respectively, who were heading out for sunrise at Tongariki. For us, we’re going to have a slow moving morning with late breakfast and then head out around 10:30 again with Tito to see some different areas.

One of the most exciting things of the day was up on the chalkboard after breakfast.

Tito picked us up and brought us over to Tahai, which is in town, and is open to anyone (no pass check or guide required). It was really beautiful in the crisp morning sun.

One of the moai here has eyes, the only one on the island, which are made from white coral and obsidian pupils.

There are of course, some knocked down moai like everywhere else.

And more foundations of houses long gone to the elements.

Tito’s daughter joined us today. She was 8 years old, and was learning English in school. But was too shy to try it. Her and Ellie did have some fun together but they were silent to each other.

We then moved on, into the interior of the island to check out Ana Te Pahu. This was a protected site with pass and guide required.

See, they’re everywhere. I don’t think they have to show a pass.

This shows how much of the island looks – gently rolling terrain with low shrubs and volcanic rock scattered everywhere.

The main attraction here is the lava tubes.

The sunken areas where the tubes collapsed to be open to the air make fantastic natural greenhouses. The banana plants were flourishing in here.

But the fun part lies down in the dark…

There was a huge honeycomb on the underside of one of the cave entrances. Wouldn’t want to bump into that as it was buzzing furiously with bees.

We saw another group who’d been on a trip with helmets, headlamps, and boots to venture further down this tube into the watery darkness.

We walked in the dark carefully down the tube, using phones as flashlights. I knew about this and brought a headlamp but stupidly forgot it in the room. Just like forgetting the swimsuits yesterday! We arrived at another opening which was full of vegetation.

Tito pointed out a petrified tree in the solidified lava above our heads.

More views in the tube. It was actually completely dark in here.

Ellie pops out of another opening…

Ellie posing in the dark.

This part was pretty low and required crouching but not crawling. I forgot that I had my sunglasses on my head and got up too quickly at the end, giving one of the lenses a nice scrape. Ouch.

Ellie often refuses to be in photos but down here she was all for it. It was absolutely her favorite part of the day.

Finally, we pop out at the end of the walkable part of the tube, and there are some guava trees in the depression. Tito picked a bunch of ripe ones for us to try. Ellie didn’t like it, too many seeds!

We encountered another opening to the tube system. This one you’d need a rope to get in or out of.

It’s hard to tell the distance from this perspective, but we went underground from here to the two low clusters of trees in the center of the photo. Not sure exactly how far it was – maybe 300-400 metres?

More local residents kept a watchful eye on us as we walked back to the car. It was getting hot out.

Next stop – Ahu Akivi. This is the only moai site on the island that had the moai facing towards the ocean, instead of inland. It’s unclear if this was intentional or whether they were simply aligned this way to watch over a village that just happened to be in the direction of the sea. As well, the statues exactly face sunset at the Spring Equinox and have their backs exactly to sunrise at Autumn Equinox. Here we’re more than 15 km from the quarry at Rano Raraku. Just imagine people having to bring these statues all the way over here without machinery.

Ellie was getting hungry and tired in the sun so we didn’t stay too long at Ahu Akivi, and headed back into town for lunch.

Here’s another pic of the coastline right in town. Idyllic.

A moai right beside the harbor on the coastal road.

We had a few attempts to find ice cream. Tito had recommended a place right beside the harbor but unfortunately they were closed on Sundays. Then he suggested an alternative just down the road, but they weren’t open until 3. So the last place we went to was successful. It was just Nestle ice cream, not homemade like the other places, but it still did the trick to perk Ellie up on this hot afternoon.

Some more pics around town, including an enormous satellite dish at the telecom company’s office. Almost everywhere we went was using Starlink for internet, so this probably isn’t receiving a lot of data these days.

Up and up we go to Rano Kau, the stunning volcano on the southwest corner of the island. Remember how Rano means “volcano with a lake in the crater”? Well, this one was really quite interesting, as it wasn’t that deep and there were all sorts of patterns of reeds and other grasses growing in the very shallow sections.

There were some petroglyphs up here, too.

A view of the road up the mountain. To our right, French Polynesilies thousands of kilometres away.

Orongo, the site at the very top of the hill, will be our last stop today. Orongo was a village and ceremonial center of Rapa Nui in the 18th and 19th centuries; while it had no permanent inhabitants, there were houses up here that were occupied for several months a year.

Didn’t see any moo cows but there seemed to be a resident horse.

The walking trails up here had an amazing view.

These rugged islands off the coast are named, from the closest to furthest, Motu Kao Kao, Motu Iti and Motu Nui (the large one) and had a very special meaning to the Rapa Nui people late in the period. It’s a story about the Birdman cult. During this period, the leaders was chosen not by decree, appointment, or bloodline, but by a special challenge. This happened every year and involved aspiring men to hike up to Orongo, stay in the houses, and then when the time was right, descend to the crater lake and retrieve reeds and wood for building bodysurfing type rafts. Next, they would climb down (hopefully without plummeting to their death) to the ocean shore, swim across the strait to the island on the raft, and find an egg from the manutara bird (a white tipped tern) who nests there annually. The first one to make it back up to Orongo with the egg was named tangata manu “birdman”, the representative of the God Make Make for the next year.

A look at some of the houses of Orongo. What an amazing view they had.

Now a look down into the crater. The first viewpoint (mirador) we stopped at is basically on the opposite rim now.

More views up here. It’s so peaceful. What a magical place.

We stopped again on the way down the hill to take a look at town and the beautiful sky. That means it’s going to be a great sunset tonight for our last night here.

We were thirsty after being out in the hot sun all afternoon, so stopped at a mini market to get some Gatorade and chips. The prices in here were even cheaper than at home and we’re literally in the middle of nowhere in the ocean!

Oh yeah, now that we’re back in town, we get the random dogs again. Siesta time.

We had another brief but refreshing dip in the chilly pool that worked great for cooling us down quickly. Then it was pizza night! Woohoo! We got half and half since Ellie’s only into cheese these days.

After dinner, we went with our new friends from Kenora back to Tahai, where we will watch a magnificent sunset with dozens of others. It did not disappoint.

A lone surfer catches the last of daylight to get in a few rides.

What a perfect end to a lovely day.

Last day here now. It’s me getting out early now to catch sunrise at Tongariki. Ellie stayed in the room happily snoring away, and Tito picked me up at 7:00.

When we got to the site, well away from the few lights of town, the stars were more than I’d ever seen. There’s hardly any light sources for thousands of kilometers.

The quarry was dimly backlit by the lights from town (this is a 3 second exposure on an iPhone).

Soon, the sun started to come up and the several dozen people there enjoyed it all in silence. It was very, very special and I feel fortunate to have experienced this. This must be one of the greatest sunrise locations on the planet.

After the sun rose into the sky, I had to take a few more pics of this site. Simply amazing.

On the island, a movie called Wild Horse Nine, staged in the 60’s, is being filmed for the last few weeks. There are a few big names like John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi in the movie. We didn’t see them but Tito had seen them around recently. They were setting up for a filming session at the quarry, and we saw one of the actors arriving on site in this vintage car.

I almost forgot to take a pic of the mango trees growing in the hotel garden. Can’t get fresher than that.

We packed up the room and then got ready to leave. A farewell gift from the hotel was a simple, gorgeous necklace with a feather and a shell, and is meant to bring good luck.

We still had a couple of hours until flight time, so Juan from the hotel graciously agreed to bring ALL of our luggage, including backpacks, to the airport later on. We went into town with Dave and Deb, our Canadian friends, with them to return their rental car in town. We were able to walk around unencumbered by baggage of any sort, which was super helpful.

Random dogs on scooters on the main street.

My beautiful flower 🙂

Photo by Ellie

After a while we split the group up. Ellie and I had surveyed the special ice cream shop and it looked like it was going to open at 12:00. I really wanted to catch a video of the LATAM plane arriving from Santiago back by the airport at 12:30 and it was about a 20 minute walk over there. So Ellie, Dave, and Deb went to the ice cream place and I walked over to the flight approach path. Ellie wasn’t disappointed in the least with her outcome.

I did get my video of the arriving flight and it was very cool. I also encountered a planespotter from Santiago who was at the same place with a massive dSLR camera. After that, I walked back to the airport to meet Juan with our luggage, and passed one of the few gas stations on the island. It looked from the signage like it used to be a Shell and was now unbranded. I don’t think I saw any chains whatsoever on Rapa Nui other than the banks.

At the airport again. As you can see, very small.

There are a few people here waiting for arriving friends and guests.

This is the entire departures hall. I’m standing at the check in counter to take this picture, and the line is towards security.

Another random dog, by the gift shop in the airport. Just chillin.

There was another PDI check at exit, this was actually before security just like in Santiago. Very tight controls here! I’d imagine if you overstayed your declared time you’d have to pay a fine.

Under the security belts, there were a ton of rocks and seashells confiscated from passengers. These are all natural artifacts and are not to be removed from the island.

Now, here’s the cool part. The departure gate area has an indoor space.

A covered outdoor space.

And a beautiful garden, right beside the apron, even with its own moai. I’m in love!

Here are our new friends Dave and Deb from Kenora.

Iorana, Rapa Nui. It’s been so great to be here! 3 days wasn’t enough. If I were to do it again, I’d stay for 4-5 to have some more time to wander around town. The moai are what make Rapa Nui famous, but it really has a lot more to offer. It definitely shows that it’s part of Polynesia, with the very interesting history, surfing culture, laid back attitude, and just the feel of the place.

We had an uneventful flight back to Santiago. The menu was the same as the way out, so I ordered the ravioli. It was a bit dry, the beef was better.

Ellie’s kids’ meal – something like salisbury steak

The sunset, enhanced by the air pollution from Chile, was quite nice.

Another invitation from a friendly flight crew to visit the cockpit on arrival in Santiago. Ellie checks out the HUD on the Dreamliner. Like a real life video game!

Hugo picked us up again at the airport and brought his sister Giovanna to meet us as well. Very kind!

We checked in to our hotel for tonight in the Las Condes district of Santiago, Hotel Icon; got a corner room with a great view in many directions. Nighty night…