Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 8

So, today is day 8 of our trip and our third full day on Easter Island. It is also Sunday, and on Sunday you go to church, whether you normally do or not. At least on Easter Island. The church is packed and the locals bring their accordion, guitars, drums and other instruments to play at mass. The 9AM service is a Rap Nui version of mass, with a lot of singing and music. It is a very enjoyable event to attend. The later mass is a more traditional, as I understand it.

When you talk about the church on Easter Island, you have to think of Father Sebastian. He was a key figure in the Thor Heyerdahl book my wife read.

Outside the church after mass.


After mass, we proceeded home and packed up for a hike. Now remember, this was the first day of winter, so we had to bring our toques and gloves along. Just kidding, but it was the first day of winter. The map below shows our route along the coast and then up the side of the volcano, Rano Kao.



This was the taken along the coastal road at the beginning of our hike.

As I think I have pointed out previously, you can't go anywhere on Easter Island without running in to a dog or two or three. In this case, Michigan, the house dog, came along with us, for all 14 km. A few km in, we picked up two more dogs who accompanied us all the way to the crater rim.

Michigan is right beside my wife, another dog is farther back on the left and the third can just be seen under her right elbow. Our two guests hooked up with another couple headed down the volcano, which left us only with Michigan for the rest of the trip after lunch.


This little guy was very friendly, but as usual, didn't really beg when we stopped for lunch. He would have happily cleaned up any spills though.


Me at the edge of the Rano Kao crater. Don't worry, the volcano is dormant. This was our lunch stop.


This is the view from our lunch stop.

This is the view from our lunch stop a few seconds later. The clouds rolled in and the visibility was very limited for a few minutes. The rain came a little later.


After attaining the top of the volcano, we continued on to the ancient village of Orongo. This is believed to be a ceremonial place related to the Birdman culture that grew in to prominence after the downfall of the earlier cultures that created the moai. It dwindled down in the mid 1800's, likely due to reduced population and missionary work on the island.

This picture shows the islands that one man from each clan would swim to. The goal was to be the first to return to Orongo, on the top of the cliff, with a bird's egg from the island. The chief of the winners clan would in a sense rule for the following year. It was a great honour to claim. They had to climb down to and back up from the ocean below. Yes, it is quite high up.


This is a picture of the crater rim that was seen from our lunch spot. Weather has eroded this wall immediately beside the ocean. Eventually, thousands of years from now, the wall will crumble and allow the water in the crater in to flow to the ocean. Now that I am talking about the crater, look carefully at the previous pictures and the following one and you can see vegetation in the floor of the crater. The floor is a few hundred feet down. The crater is filled with fresh water and also allows the growth of many special plants within the crater. Thor Heyerdahl stated that they found ruins in the crater, but I heard and saw nothing about those. I believe in dry times, this may have also been a source of water for the residents.


This is my wife and Michigan on the return trip.


This picture tries to capture the numerous hawks that are on the island. This was takend from the crater rim at Orongo, looking down in to the crater.


This is a view of the village from the slopes of Rano Kao.

After 14 km and 5 hours, that is the end of our Sunday on Easter Island. We decided to rent a car that evening, to drive around the next day.