Ana Kai Tanata, Rano Kau, Orongo, Ahu Vinapú and Puna Pau

First day exploring the Easter island we woke up in time for the still kind of late breakfast (starting 8:30), had our food and went back to the car firm from yesterday. We both looked at the contract nervously but then decided to go through with the rent. After conversing in Spanish for most of the deal we later found out the guy spoke English (kinda) which facilitated things. Still anxiety renting though 'cause this island offers no insurance. And the cars are not in excellent shape to say the least. We already knew this from Google research but it's still nerve wracking once there. How much would it cost if the whole car broke? Or if we were in an accident not caused by us? Seemed like we were responsible for more than you would expect. Anyhows we figured most people make it fine and that they want good reviews so we went through with it. Don't be fooled though, I had a co-driver jumping high if exceeding 40 km/h so anxiety was present wherever we went with the car afterwards. However not many streets are suitable even getting close to 40 km/h and the island is small so you're usually in no risk of anything.

Our first stop would be Ana Kai Tanata where we read some history of signs, got close to a cave but never entered because of the risk of falling stones (you could enter at your own risk though) and then started a trail up to Rano Kau. It was upwards and quite sunny so we were hot but it was an easy walk still. J wasn't too thrilled about our shorts though, he researched all dangerously animals and a black widow could be lurking in the grass next to us. What startled us first was no black widow but cows seeking shelter from the blazing sun in the shadows from the trees. They were huge and I must say I don't like getting too close to these animals. Too big.

Our car

The cave

See them lurking in the shadow?

We passed by the rest of the "sendero" without any animal encounters and reached the top of the volcano. Beautiful. The crater was filled with water and inside was an impressive flora and fauna with some species only found here. Not to be entered. Besides this we have a lot of history here. This is an important place for a ritual from the birdman cult. When rapa nui abandoned their old beliefs the birdman cult took over. This is therefore not that old. The ritual taking place here is one where young men prove their strength and try to win a competition to become the leader for the following year. It involves snatching an egg hence the name and the time it took place - when the birds came here to nest. Unfortunately these birds don't come here anymore but efforts are being made to make them return. There's much more to be said about these people but I leave you to Google now and we're continuing with some pictures:

Up here we also visited Orongo, important place for the birdmans and part of the competitions. In pictures here you can also see the small caves where they slept and stayed for a long time waiting for the arrival of the birds. Many people lost their life in this competition, falling out the rocks, being eaten by sharks (according to a sign however there's no evidence of sharks being present today around the island) etc.

One of the caves, good protection from rain and wind

Caves

I really liked the part in Orongo since there was much to read over there. The volcano itself was also very nice to rest your eyes on. But we had more to accomplish this day.

So we headed back down the trail, grabbed our car and went back to city for lunch. We then headed out to Ahu Vinapú to make sure we hadn't spent a day of car hire on something we could have accomplished by foot. Unfortunately the weather wasn't agreeing with us so we got heavy showers on our way there. We managed to see it between showers though but when reaching Puna Pau we were less lucky. We decided this to be our last stop because of this. More exploring next day. In vinapu there's a big archaeological complex. You can see moais torned down which happened in the 18-19th century due to wars between clans. They also have very special carvings of the stone that can't be found anywhere else in Polynesia giving rise to many speculations of the origin of the island people. Some say they may be of Inca-origin. Puna Pau is where many of the moais hats were done, a quarry for pukaoa.

Ahu Vinapú

Moai face

So we returned to the village of Hanga Roa and abandoned our trekking shoes and clothes before chilling a while at our room. Later when the rain succumbed we went out for dinner. A bit worried about finding something open and relatively affordable at Christmas day. And surely many had set menus like I told you about before but we found a sweet little place with reasonable pricing. You could tell it was vacation times since one woman alone catered to all tables. She was very sweet. We had thought about making our own dinner but we only found small supermarkets with limited supplies and not exactly cheap stuff either. Otherwise it could have been quite cozy to cook together in our little hostal.

Anyhows enough for one day. One thing though. Do you know why the island is named Easter island (or most commonly known as)? It was Easter Sunday 1722 when the first europeans set foot on the island. Not that people didn't live there already...

Buenas noches,
S