It wasn’t my original intention to separate this day into two blog posts, but the very involved process of simply checking in for a flight to Rapa Nui at these times seemed worthy of its own post. Furthermore, that was full of negativity, but our experience after landing in Rapa Nui was far better.
It appears that only one other party is staying at our hotel — a building with about 20 rooms or so. I suppose that makes sense given the “soft opening” we are part of right now. It seemed that most passengers on our plane were actually locals returning to work or other residents, and not as many tourists as I would have expected. After getting settled, we walked a short distance into town to buy our national park passes that will allow us to see all the various moai (big stone head) sites tomorrow. Then we had a late lunch/snack at a place called Mikafé, which sounds like a McDonald’s knockoff, but is actually a very nice little bakery. I had some torta plantain (banana cake) and Nicole had a crumble.
It gave us just enough energy to continue our afternoon. We went back to pick up the ol’ Suzuki Jimny, and Nicole drove us across town to park close to some moai just outside of town. This was our first glimpse of some real statues. There are numerous fake ones kicking around the town of Hanga Roa at bars, post offices, shopping plazas etc. Our first stop was Ahu Tahai, but we did continue walking a little bit further to one bonus moai wearing a “hat” (actually meant to represent a hairstyle) at Hanga Kioe.
We were informed when buying our pass that it is now required to have a guide at all of the sites. We found this to be a bit annoying. We envisioned driving some stranger around all day, but it seems like you can hire a guide when you park somewhere. That being said, that didn’t seem to apply to the moai just outside town. We were able to walk around freely on this nice warm sunny afternoon without being harassed. In a continued effort to go at our own pace and avoid hiring guides everywhere we went, we drove to Ahu Akivi up the road about 15 minutes.
This was the first time anyone actually checked our tickets, but that was about it. He didn’t force us to get a guide. We walked around these larger moai, which found themselves in fantastic lighting at this time in the late afternoon. The fact that it was “closing” in about twenty minutes may have helped our cause. We will have a guide at some point tomorrow, but sometimes you don’t want a guide ALL the time, and I don’t think that should be forced on people. Because everything was going so well, and the lighting quite good, I suggested we drive on the southern coast of the island to see if we could see Tongariki, a grouping of large moai dramatically positioned in front of the ocean.
Our tickets were checked here too. The lady, who was extremely nice, said that they just “closed,” but we could stay and take pictures for a few minutes if we wanted. That was perfect and we didn’t linger too long. The funny thing is, you can also be just outside the entrance to this area and still be able to take pictures, so we did that for a spell as well.
The sun was now beginning to set and we didn’t want to be driving when it got too dark as there are numerous potholes in the road. Nicole and the Jimny negotiated them quite well, however, and we were back at the hotel in under thirty minutes. Not too shabby. I felt very good about our accomplishments today. I didn’t think we would actually do as much as we did. I figured we might walk to the ones nearby if we had time, and that would be about it. It was nice to see many of the moai in the waning light — an opportunity and freedom I was not afforded on my last visit.
We got dinner just across the street from our hotel at a place called the Taina Beer Garden. The name “Beer Garden” is a bit generous since they only had a few tables on a deck, and no beer on tap. They said they are expecting more tomorrow. But how? We each got a Chilean bottled beer instead. Nicole got a stout and I had a red ale. They were quite respectable and helped to wash down our pizza. All in all a very successful day despite all the airport woes and stress of flying to a place that is barely open. But because it is barely open, we were able to have a pretty fantastic afternoon where we encountered more moai than people. That made it all worth it.
passports & pepto bismol 