Rapa Nui and the mystery of moais

We got to Easter Island on the only daily plane that gets there. When we got off the plane we felt like being in a different country. They share many similarities with Hawaii and Polynesia. For example they greeted us with a flower necklace and Laura also got a big yellow flower for her hair.

The son of the owners of the hostel we were staying in, Inaki Uhi, picked us up. The hostel was so close to the airport that you could even walk there. The hostel lied in Hanga Roa, the only area that is inhabited in the west of the island. It was very clean and we had a kitchen for ourselves, which was very useful to save some money because restaurants were incredibly expensive. Even the supermarket where we bought most of our food was expensive. The products didn't have price tag and we didn't know whether they were charging us the "touristic rate". It is advisable to buy food in Santiago and carry it on the plane.

The hostel was managed by a local family and the grandmother was the oldest person in the island with more than a hundred years. Her husband had been a mayor of the city long time ago, and there is a street with his name.

In Easter Island we visited the main archaeological sites and we could see many Moais, these huge human faced stone sculptures standing on top of ceremonial platforms (Ahu) and usually facing inland.

Many archaeologists are still investigating many aspects of the culture as the civilization collapsed after wars among different tribes fighting for the scarce resources of the island. For this reason it is still a mystery how they transported these massive pieces of rock from the quarry to the cerimonial areas. All the moais that are currently standing had been recently placed using crains because they had been thrown down during the wars.

At the end of Hanga Roa we found the cementery.

Close to Hanga Roa, we visited Ahu Tahai, from where we saw the sunset on two different days.

One of the days, we rented a car so that we could get to the remotest areas. In some of the places we were totally alone, which added extra mysticism to the environment. We visited Rano Raraku, an extinct volcano that was used as the quarry from where moais were extracted. There we could see unfinished, half carved moais, some still attached to the mountain and some others half buried in the ground. 

We also hiked to the interior of the volcano, were we found an archaeological exploration. They explained us that they were doing and inventory of the moais and for that they were unearthing those moais that were buried so that they could study them. They were also collecting the tools that were used to carve the statues. 

From Rano Raraku you could see Ahu Tongariki, which is one of the most famous images of the island, as it has 15 moais in line.

We also went to Anakena, which is a white sand beach with palm trees that lies in the north, and also has an Ahu.

Before returning to the town, we stopped at Puna Pau which was the quarry from where the pukaos, or red hats, were extracted.

The next day, we took advantage that we still had the car until 10am to go see the sunrise in Ahu Tongariki.

After returning the car, we hiked to the top of the volcano next to Hanga Roa, Rano Kau. The sights from there were impressive, you could see the interior of the volcano full of water and tortora plants and also you had views to two small islands.

In that privileged location lies the restored ceremonial city of Orongo, where you could see petroglyphs of the bird man.

On our last day in the island, we hiked to a different archaeological area that contained caves that finished on the cliff.

After Easter Island we went back to Santiago to say goodbye to our friends and we took a plane to our NEXT STOP: Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in the American continent.