Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 5 (and 6)

FIRST DAY ON EASTER ISLAND

We arrived around 10 AM on Thursday morning, slightly ahead of schedule. It was a warm and sunny morning and after passing through customs and screening, we were greeted by the driver sent by our host. As we drove back to our accommodations we had an introductory tour of Hanga Roa, the only town on the island.

We arrived at Te'ora, our home for the next week. Due to our late booking, we had to change rooms while we were there, so eventually we stayed in all three official rooms. The first was Te'ora Ra'a an upper floor room with a balcony.





Te'ora is the number one rated specialty lodging on Easter Island according to Travelocity. We both loved it. Sharon, the owner, is exceptional, very informative with her arrival briefing and any other special arrangements that you want to make (car rentals, laundry (with charge), tours etc.) With the included kitchenettes, we were able to save considerable money by having all but one of our breakfasts there, as well as a couple of lunches. This is not a hotel, but a more like staying at someone’s house. It is next to the ocean and a few blocks from the main street, so you get to hear the ocean lull you to sleep. I would definitely recommend it for anyone going to Easter Island and looking for a comfortable and clean place to stay.

The picture below is the "house" dog, Michigan. He is very friendly, as are all the dogs on Easter Island. He accompanied us on our first big hike of 14 km to the top of Rano Kau (later) and around town several times. If you are thinking about going to Easter Island, you should be aware that there are dogs everywhere. They are all very friendly to humans, but once in a while territories are fiercely defended against other dogs. Michigan had to detour around one such territory on our hike to Rano Kau.


So, after our briefing and some lunch , we relaxed a bit, took a shower and then went exploring. This was the first mohai we saw. It is 5 minutes down the road from Te'ora, beside the small fishing harbour.



We were also treated to two large sea turtles at the harbour, one of which is shown below. They were pointed out by one of the locals, who knew we would be happy to see them. We saw them again later that evening and then not again until our last day. For scale, this guy is about 4-5 feet across. Pretty impressive.



That evening, around 5:30, we walked to Tahai, a fully restored site just north of town. It is a very large site, probably the most impressive from a building point of view. Not shown in these photos is a very large ramp leading down in to the ocean, between the two ahu.



This photo shows the most northly ahu with a single large mohai on it. You can see the scale by looking at the person in front of the mohai. This is also the only mohai with eyes placed in it. Apparently several other mohai had new coral eyes created for them in the recent past, but the residents asked for them to be removed, as they were uncomfortable(?) with them. The result is that this is the only one with eyes. The eye sockets were only carved once the mohai was stood on the ahu, which has helped them in identifying toppled mohai.



This is a picture of the entire site, and again, for scale, look carefully at the people on the right side.



This is our first sunset on Easter Island, Thursday, June 18, 2009.

So, I am throwing in day 6 here because there are only three pictures, and the second one below shows why. It rained all afternoon, quite hard at times, but fortunately, after we made it back to the room. We were supposed to do a several hour tour, but the four other people agreed with the guide that waiting for better weather made sense (and it did.) So we ended up walking up to the museum, a good half hour walk out of town, in the rain. It is an interesting place and probably useful to go there prior to touring the island in order to get a sense of what you are seeing. The small admission charge is well worth it. Oh yea, we were accompanied on the entire walk, by a local dog that adopted us for the day. He even waited out in the rain while we visited the museum. I thought we had a picture of him, but I was wrong.

View from Te'ora without rain.


View from Te'ora with rain.