All photos at: https://flic.kr/s/aHskD5jrkZ
Having seen the giant Moai heads on National Geographic growing up, it was always a fantasy to see this mystic structure! When I planned my trip to Patagonia, I knew I had to make a detour to Easter Island and fulfill that fantasy!
I booked a flight from Santiago to Hanga Roa for $550. I'm not sure if I made a mistake while booking, but my seats was business class seats. Man, business class is really nice!
My friend and I flew to Easter Island on monday morning. We reached the airport around noon. The view of the Island as we get close is amazing! Our Cabana host, Kari from Cabanas Honu Nui picked us up. As is the island tradition, he had a flower garlands for us both. Pretty cool. At the aiport, We bought the park pass which cost $60 per head (this is needed to see most of the Moais).
I stopped by Insular Car rental (http://www.rentainsular.cl/) to rent a automatic car as I wanted to road around the island. I got a beaten up old car. We started off by getting lunch at a restaurant called La Kaleta. They had really good Ceviche and fresh fruit juice. We then head to Ahu Akivi to see our first Moais. Very impressive set of Moais which face the ocean. Most of the Moais face inland.
After Ahu Tahai, we drove towards the Rano Kao Crater. This is a huge volcanic crater filled with water. In the 1800s the hunters would have a race by foot to get eggs from the north of the island, up the crater edge. Many have died in that race. Pretty fascinating history!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rano_Kau
That evening we spent time at Ahu Tahai watching the sunset! Island sunsets are the best! At this site, there are 2 sets of Moais. One single one and then a group of 5 moais (all were pretty borken up). One fun thing about this area is the dogs! The love to hangout by the people, waiting for belly rubs! One of the dogs even trained a bunch of tourists into playing fetch with it!
For dinner, we went to a place where they had a local polynesian dance ( I know I know, it's a very tourist thing to do). I enjoyed their dance a lot, it was super intense with crazy tribal beats. It reminded me of my ayahuasca trip! I highly recommend it even though it's a stereotypical tourist thing to do, but you get to see a part of their old culture and also contribute to their economy!
It rained that night, so I couldn't get out to take any photos. Next morning, before sunrise I drove towards Tonga Riki. The roads in Easter Island are a little bumpy with a lot of speed bumps to slow down. The drive along the east coast of the island was a beautiful one seeing the sky lighting up. I stopped by Ahu Akahanga first, took some photos. Then I reached Tonga Riki which was amazing. You are greeted by a single Moai at the entrance of the area. Then you see 15 of the Moais facing west. Huge Moais of different shapes and sizes. After this, we went back to the downtown area to shop. I bought a bunch of local stuff as I love shopping for souveniers :P. We got lunch, then went to Anakena Beach. Beautiful beach right by Ahu Nau Nau. The water was nice and pleasent. the view from the water towards the island was brilliant. but unfortunately I didn't have a waterproof camera, so had to do with my memory. We hung out by the beach till sunset. I took a bunch of photos and then we head back to a really nice restaurant which had an amazing bar! The Pina Colada was really good! I had some fish over there which was pretty good too! And then it started to rain, so that was the end of the night for us!
The next morning, I reached Rano Raraku (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rano_Raraku) by 9am (they open at 9am). Sunrise was around the same time. So I went running up the hill and got some good shots of the Moais laying against the hill with sunrise in the background. I was so happy! Rano Raraku is the place where they got all the stones to make the Moais. The whole hike was extremely beautiful. The scene kinda looked like all the Moais were drunk and passed our along the way! A part of the hike leads to the Rano Raraku crater lake. This is a very easy 1.5 mile hike. A must do! And that was it. We drove back to city center. Got lunch and did a little more shopping and took our flight back to Santiago.
Notes: I think 3 full days and nights is good enough for Easter Island, I wish I had a day more. The radio station in Easter Island is amazing! They play the biggest hits of all times! Beatles, Led Zep and a lot more classic music! Seafood is amazing. I looked into snorkelling there and the reviews weren't good, so I didn't do it. Rent a car there and drive around the island. Or if you have a lot of time, you can even walk around the island!