Easter Island/ Rapa Nui: Anakena Beach
Pristine white sand, palm trees (imported from Tahiti in the 60s), turquoise Polynesian waters and stands where you can buy food, water and the most overpriced of the trinkets. This is Anakena, the part of the island that made me feel suddenly transported to pretty much any beach destination anywhere. For being the furthest location you can drive to from Hanga Roa on the island, it was probably the most populated place, and with reason – it’s the island’s only sandy beach – and people sure love sandy beaches. A beach doesn’t really excite me, so you will have to...
Read MoreEaster Island / Rapa Nui: Tongariki
At the base of the extinct volcano Poike, looking away from the distant shores of Chile is the largest ceremonial platform, and an example of the pinnacle of moai construction; Tongariki. Fifteen moai each about 8 m tall stand on a platform 220 m long, or about the length of 15 city buses. (About one city bus length for each statue.) After much driving and stopping at every smaller and toppled moai on our first day on the island, Tongariki was not only significantly larger, but also restored and fully upright. “Now that’s what I’m fucking talking about!” my travel...
Read MoreEaster Island / Rapa Nui: The Forbidden Quest to Rano Raraku
The second day was our time to see Rano Raraku; the place of postcards and virtually every book cover and magazine image associated with Rapa Nui. We resolved to watch our first Rapa Nui sunrise there to make it extra amazing, which was not as straightforward as we thought. Such an expedition happens to be impossible if you follow the rules. Fortunately, punk roots run deep, and I find the challenge of a closed gate unbearably seductive. We rose well before the sun, as the rooster at the hostel had just begun to murmur a prelude to his ode, and we threw ourselves into the jeep. Upon arrival...
Read MoreEaster Island / Rapa Nui: The Southeast Coast
The farthest road and the only road that runs along the coast begins in Hanga Roa and shoots east around to the opposite side of the island before it turns inland at the white sand beach of Anakena. We packed a rented jeep with water, wine, beer, and maps and set out toward the sunrise as the temperature began to climb and the first hints of orange dust began to settle our hair. Dave drove, and I sat alert with my nose out the window and my hair flying, scouring the landscape for our first glimpse of the figures we came here to see. Just barely out of town, and I was pointing and shouting,...
Read MoreEaster Island / Rapa Nui: Hanga Roa
“Easter Island” is how the tiny volcanic thumbprint of Earth’s mantle in the middle of the south Pacific is known to most of the world. It is a name given to the island by Dutch explorers to commemorate the day they found the land of stoic stone statues. The name used by the island’s inhabitants and each visitor who knows better however, is Rapa Nui. Oral history of the of the island hints to the original name even before “Rapa Nui” as being “Te Pito Te Henua” or “The Navel of the World.” Looking out into the ocean from the top of...
Read MoreEaster Island: Arriving in Rapa Nui
The day I awoke and patted Dave on the head to say “Hey, wake up, we’re going to Easter Island today!” was surreal. If I was irritatingly chipper waking him up every other morning, this was surely the one that took it. We grabbed a cab before the sun came out and got to to airport with time to spare. We were bumped up to first class for out 5.5 hour flight from Santiago, which never fails to thrill me. I could extend my legs fully and kick my feet around in the air, which I did. With glee. We arrived in the tiny IPC airport on the island’s only city; Hanga Roa. I...
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