Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 11

So today is Wednesday, June 24, our last day on Easter Island. We had rented a car again with the plan to drive around and see a few things we had not yet got to and revisit some of our favourite places.

This was the sunrise as seen from the patio outside our room.


With Michigan along for the car ride, our first stop was Puna Pau, otherwise known as the top knot quarry. This is the spot where the round "hats" that some (all?) of the moai had on their heads. It was carved at a totally different spot than the moai themselves and transported to the ahu at some point. Again, exactly how this was done is not known, although relatively speaking, these would have been pretty easy. Now getting them on top of the moai is another story. Some propose that the topknot was raised along with the moai, others after the raising of the moai with an inclined pile of rocks as was shown to Thor Heyerdahl.

The red stone of a topknot.


We made our next stop on the north shore, at Anakena beach. I brought my swimsuit along because I wanted to say I had swam; 1. In the Pacific, and 2. At this beautiful beach on Easter Island. It was very cold, like cold bath cold. I didn't stay in long.

Yes, this is me in the water.


Others only got there feet wet.


Probably our clearest shot of the moai at Anakena.


This shows a good shot of the large expanse of sand at Anakena. No wonder this was the first landing spot on the island, who wouldn't want to explore this beautiful spot.


We happened to arrive just as a very large tour from Australia was arriving as well. We saw them arrive on their own 747 the day before. The tour operator had arranged for native dancers to put on a show on the beach, and we were able to watch as well.

Dancers similar to what we had watched a few nights previously.


We continued our clockwise route around the island and made another stop at Tongariki. This is Michigan and I in front of the ahu.


The southeast wall of the quarry volcano, Rano Raraku.


We happened to notice this lone moai a few hundred meters inland from the ahu. This was likely swept here by the tsunami that had previously destroyed this site. We were amazed that we had not noticed this on our three previous trips to Tongariki.


The coast along the road to our accomodations.


The rest of the day was spent buying some souvenirs and sending post cards. We also got our passports stamped with four different stamps special to Easter Island. There was a charge for this at the Post Office, but it's cool to see them in your passport.

Unfortunately, we seem to have no pictures of "downtown" Hanga Roa, but it is essentially one main street, a km or so long, with several side streets off of it. It was paved a decade of so ago and the sidewalks are done in locally produced paving stones.

Our flight left late that evening, so our host took us to the airport for check-in and then we left and went to dinner with her. An hour or so later, she dropped us off at the airport, and our plane boarded within the hour. That was a nice end to our trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed Easter Island, but in different ways I think. My wife found the moai and the spiritual sense around them the most intriguing, while I fell in love with the geography and sense of grandeur at the sites, especially Tongariki. Her highpoint was the quarry, while mine was the north coast trail.

If you are at all interested in going, I would recommend it. If you are outdoor people like us and want to do some hiking, then several days would not be too much. The people that left shortly after we arrived had been there for something like 17 days. Revisiting sites is not uncommon, to see them in different light, different attitude, alone or with a group, you always seem to discover something new.