Rapa Nui and Tahiti

9 April – 12 April, 2016

Rapa Nui

I want to start by saying it was really hard to write this blog. My experience in Rapa Nui was so amazing it’s hard to put it into words, so this will be…interesting.

I took an early flight from Santiago to Rapa Nui on the 8th. It’s a 6 hour fight but the plane is very nice with a fancy in-flight meal and lots of TV and movie options.

You could definitely sense the underlying excitement from the passengers on board.  We were going somewhere special…the land of the giant heads, left behind by an ancient civilization.  It felt like I was about to step in to the past, or that I was an archeologist about to embark on an exciting expedition like Indiana Jones or better yet a Leakey.  We landed at the small airport in the afternoon.  It was hot and it took forever to get my luggage but I had arrived!

The owner of the cabin (we’ll call her T) picked me up from the airport and even brought me a beautiful garland of plumeria.  We drove through Hanga Roa, the only real city on the island and she pointed out the key landmarks I needed to know to find my way around. There are no street names so I had some interesting street signs.  Turn left a the church (I think it’s a church) and right at the dead christmas tree.  It worked.

The cabins were a bit removed from Hanga Roa and WiFi was very sketchy. Once I settled in and realized that I couldn’t get WiFi, I decided to walk to town to find some food and look around a bit. It was brutally hot and definitely more than a 20 minute walk in to town (not quite what the owner had described) but it was still so awesome and everything had a magical glow to it. On the way in to town I ran across a British guy I had met in Chile…walking along, eating strawberry ice cream with some smeared on his face for later. We chatted for a bit, exchanged whatsapps and discussed potentially exploring the island together. He suggested a place to eat so I went in search of his recommendation. The recommendation was actually quite good with a very nice view.  Maybe not the best meal I’ve ever had, as he described it, but pretty decent. I’m noticing a trend of over exaggeration on the island.

That night I learned that island time is a serious thing on Easter Island. T had told me that she would return at 6pm to check in on me, make sure I had everything I needed and help me rent a scooter to get around the island. T finally arrived at 6:45…meanwhile I had no WiFi so I couldn’t coordinate anything with the British dude about the next day. Oh well, I decided to rent a quadrimoto (ATV) since I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle/scooter. T’s daughter showed me how to drive it and let me practice a bit. I practiced a bit more the next morning and was ready to go. I must say it felt pretty damn amazing to ride around on the ATV especially once I hit the highway. It’s an indescribable and empowering feeling.

Here’s a map of Easter Island with the locations of all the giant heads as a guide. There are a lot of statues on the island and three main roads that lead to them.  The northern coastal region (between Ahu Tahai and Playa de Anakena) doesn’t really have legitimate roads so it’s pretty much inaccessible except by foot or horse.  You can get to Ahu Te Peu and Ahu Akivi by road though.

On the ATV I started with Ahu Vinapu and worked my way east. Most of the moai (the giant heads) on the southern side of the island are knocked down. I believe all of the moai on the island were knocked down at some point but some have since been re-erected (these are the pictures you’ve probably seen most often). The re-erected moai can be found at Tongariki, Anakena, Akivi and near Hanga Roa. There are also a bunch of partially finished or completely finished moai at Rano Raraku, which was one of the quarries where the moai were carved.  Many of the moai were in the process of being transported when they were either abandoned because they were damaged or for some other reason. This was also were the Rapa Nui practiced their variations of the moai. They’ve left behind some that didn’t turn out the way they wanted and erected some made in a different style.

The day was absolutely amazing day from beginning to end. I had this great feeling of excitement, probably heightened from the ATV adrenaline :-). When I arrived at Ahu Vinapu I was the only person there and it just added to the uniqueness of the experience. Immediately, I noticed how similar the stone structures were to what I saw in Peru. The stone was cut very precisely and fit together like a puzzle. After Vinapu I continued along the coast.  The views were amazing. The waves crashed in to the rough coastline where little sneaky animals hid. The rocks along this coastline tell the story of the volcanic island. And with the remains of the moai, the scenery was truly fantastic. As I got closer to Rano Raraku, I parked along the coast to eat my yummy avocado sandwich and enjoy the views along with the ocean breeze.

I then thoroughly explored Rano Raraku and realized that it was already 6:00pm and I had agreed to meet a friend from Chile, Lina, at 7:30pm for dinner.  So, I rushed through the North East part of the island.  This side had more stone carvings, remains of villages (chicken coops, storage spaces, etc.) and of course more moai. The last site that is accessible by road on this side is Anakena. Anakena is the larger of the two beaches on Rapa Nui, the rest of the coastline is rocky.  Per wikipedia, “Anakena was the landing place of Hotu Matu’a, a Polynesian chief who led a two-canoe settlement party here and founded the first settlement on Rapa Nui.”  This is probably one of the most famous sites on the island.

By the time I finished at Anakena it was already 7:15pm. I was definitely going to be late for dinner and on the way back it started pouring rain. It felt absolutely magnificent. The cool rain beating against my face while I flew down the highway towards Hanga Roa. During the ride back, I remember thinking to myself, is this real life? am I really here? could I be this lucky? To top things off, sweet Lina waited for me even though I was super late and when we went to dinner we ran in to the British dude so we all had dinner together and then ice cream. A wonderful, wonderful day.

The next day I wandered around with the British dude on the ATV he rented.  We ended up going to some of the sites I had already visited and a few that I hadn’t the day before. The following day I spent some more time with Lina and checked out the moai in Hanga Roa as well as some of the carvings along the shore. We saw the sunset, had dinner and admired the stars before I headed to the airport for my flight to Tahiti.  I got to the airport by 8:30PM and at about 2:00AM they told us the flight was cancelled :-(. So we had to stay in Rapa Nui another night. FYI…LAN sucks. I spent the next day wandering around with Lina some more…we got some ice cream. I finally got on the flight to Tahiti at 6:00PM.

13 April – 15 April 2016

Tahiti

I arrived in Papeete, Tahiti on the evening of the 13th…I think…I’m still confused about the dates…I lost a day somewhere. I had originally planned four days in Tahiti but because I didn’t know that I would lose a day in travel and my flight was cancelled/ delayed I was left with only two days. Not enough time to really do anything or go anywhere so I just enjoyed the beach and my hotel. I did do an introductory dive near the hotel…that was really amazing. I got a massage :-). And I saw the rehearsal for the Mr. Tahiti contest. They were having the pageant at my hotel the next day.

Oh and I also went crazy with some sunset photography…

Good bye beautiful Rapa Nui and Tahiti…on to the next beautiful island…New Zealand!