(Part 2 -
Part 1 can be found here)
DAY 3 : The real stuff : Tongariki sunrise, Rano Raraku, the south eastern coast and Arakena.
We took the road around 5.30 am to pick up our friends at their hotel and drove towards Tongariki, where you could see a whole bunch of other cars doing the same. The drive from Hanga Roa being about 30 min or so (roads are clearly not highways on the island) we wanted to make sure we would get a good spot as I knew this was a popular place. The parking lot started to fill up quite fast after we arrived onsite.
Tongariki is maybe the most picturesque site of Easter Island where 15 Moais are standing aligned back to the ocean and facing the volcano Rano Raraku, right were it is believed the stones were carved to make those magnificent statues. Watching the sunrise on Tongariki is one of the biggest attractions on the island.
Tongariki site
Tongariki Ahu and The Volcano Rano Raraku
Behind Tongariki; the Volcano Rano Raraku
Anita, Rolend, Martine and Eva in Tongariki
After this, we drove back to the hotel to enjoy breakfast and drive back on the coastal road on the southeastern part of the island, from the Ahu of Vinapu, next to the island's harbor until Tongariki, where the highest concentration of statues could be found. This is when I realized that the tourism must have clearly developed too much on the island as all the sites on the way are now gated and controlled by employees, which was not the case a couple years back as far as I can recall...
One of the many Moais on the South Eastern coast
Oppossum wanted a selfie too :-)
You may think this is part of the rocky formation, but it is actually a fallen Moai
We then went near the Rano Raraku volcano, to the quarry where the Moais are thought to have been made out of volcanic stone by the native islanders. I read somewhere that almost half of the islands Moais are located in this area (some locals call it "the Moai factory"). After reaching this site, I could not believe that I did not visit this place during my first trip, as it was certainly one of the highlights of this island !
It's not a stone, it's a Moai !
i cannot believe I missed that place during my first trip in 2017 !
The "Moai factory"
We started our visit of the area by climing up to the volcano crater and have our picnic there. It was lovely as most of the tourists did not attempt to climb up and we were therefore almost alone. Only some horses were enjoying the view with us !
On top of the volcano Rano Raraku
Moai heads "growing" out of the ground
Rano Raraku crater
We then headed back down and followed the trail to see "the open air factory", with some great views on the Ahu of Tongariki and the ocean...
Moais... Everywhere !
View of Tongariki behind this guy...
Tongariki
Straight out of the box !
Moai in progress !
By 3 pm it was time to take back the road to continue our journey across the island, this time past Tongariki on the North side of the island, where you could find a lot of Petroglyphs, the only two accessible beaches of the island and the "magnetic stone".
For the ones who have some time to spend on the island, you can find some day-hikes to some areas not accessible by car. I wish we would have done that, but our time was limited and I wanted to show Eva all things I've seen the previous time...
A little island style chapel...
Pteroglyphs
The "magnetic stone", which represents the center of the world for the Rapa Nui (so I was told)
Only two "real" beaches are accessible on Easter Island, Ovahe, which is the smallest, wildest one, and facing the La Perouse bay (which has some turbulent waters) and Arakena, the most famous and largest beach of the island.
Ovahe (which I discovered on this trip) requires to park and walk on some cliffs. A sign indicates that you go there at your own risk. Since it was quite windy that afternoon we decided to stay at the view point and enjoy the scenery from above. The waters were a bit agitated but this did not refrain some tourists to go into the water.
The two beaches of Easter Island. Arakena is the most famous
Ovahe beach
Right behind point Rosalia hill, is located the most famous beach of Arakena, with the very picturesque Palm trees, Moais on the sand and chickens running on the beach ! Arakena is also one of the few places outside Hanga Roa where you can find a few restaurants and souvenir shops.
The more peaceful Arakena beach
Ahu Nau Nau on Arakena
Ahu Ature Huki
We stayed a bit on the beach and by sunset headed towards Hanga Roa for dinner, followed by some star gazing from the hotel gardens... (The pictures don't look great but it was nice)
Without any light pollution on the island, it makes you enjoy watching the stars !
DAY 4 : Volcano Terevaka, Lunch at Arakena,Tongariki during the day...
On our last full day on the island we decided to hike towards the island highest point : Mount Terevaka. It had rain during the night and the beginning of the path was quite muddy, but eventually, thanks to the windy and warm conditions the hike was not as bad as it could have been.
Hiking towards Mount Terevaka, view on Hanga Roa
Since I am honest with my readers (:-)) i want to say that there are actually two (well, three actually but the 3rd one is smaller) volcanic craters in where the maps suggest mount Terevaka is. We were not sure which one was which so we took pictures from both ! (The signage outside of the top touristic hotspots of the island is pretty much inexistant). It was a good laugh when we realized we were taking congratulating selfies from the wrong volcano !
Come on Eva ! :-)
Not sure if this was the first or the second peak !
But still we were happy to reach it !
After this refreshing hike, we decided to have lunch next to Arakena beach and it was delicious !
Lunch with a view !
I wanted to check us in online on the LATAM website for our next day flight to Santiago during this lunch as we were in the T-24 hours check-in window, but there was some sort of error on our booking so we decided to head towards to airport and "fix" our booking with an agent. The weather started to anyway turn bad towards the end of our lunch so it was a good opportunity to do this at that moment...
Driving to Hanga Roa airport, with rain and horses !
Looks like we'll have to talk to an agent to fix our booking !
IPC airport terminal
It just took a couple minutes to check us in for the next day flight to SCL, so we decided to go back to the Arakena beach on the other side of the island, with cows this time :-)
Back to Arakena !
Then we chilled on the beach for a couple hours, which finally gave me an opportunity to read a book my manager gave me before starting my trip 5 months before !
Finally getting some time to read that one !
Arakena beach
Ahu Nau Nau
Pretty... graphic !
Then we drove along the north cost to Tongariki to take pictures before sunset... We were just alone at this time of the day, which is a real difference compared to sunrise hours...
Tongariki Ahu before sunset. No one was there, in comparison to sunrise hours !
Busy traffic on the island roads !
We then spent our last evening in Hango Roa for a nice dinner next to the ocean. This was by far the windiest and coldest evening since we arrived (maybe 15c so nothing to complain about !).
Hanga Roa sea front
Dinner at Te Moana restaurant
DAY 5 : Another sunrise in Tongariki, then last minute market shopping in Hanga Roa before leaving the island...
As I wanted to capture a time lapse of sunrise in Tongariki, we had another early wake-up and stayed at the end of the field, right behind the border stone walls.
Tongariki wakes up...
This time, we watched the sunrise from the deep-end of the field...
I find this location just fascinating, if I ever go back on Easter Island, I will certainly do this again !
We then drove back to the hotel to pack our stuff and headed downtown to do some last minute market shopping, visit the local post office to send the postcards, and have a last walk in the city and along the ocean... (this is when I realized that the 5-star ecolodge hotel Hanga Roa was still having demonstrations organized by locals in front of it)
Hanga Roa market (no I did not bring fish as a souvenir :-D)
Ocean front...
... and across the street, a warm welcome to the fanciest hotel of the island !
We then brought the car back to the B&B, and the owners brought us back to the airport for our flight to Santiago, after having gave us a seashell necklace, a tradition to say that you will come back here... (so i've heard)
I loved this second visit to Easter Island, and was very happy to visit things I haven't seen the first time. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this type of remote destinations must be capacity-controlled if we want to keep it authentic. I felt that a lot changed in just a few years time, and this is certainly not the type of location which can accomodate big cruise ships or multiple long haul flights a day! The island resources simply cannot cope for more tourists (I feel a bit selfish saying that though since it was my second time there :-/).
Next post : LATAM business class on 787 dreamliner IPC-SCL.