Having spent several days in Santiago it was time to head to Easter Island. Though I kind of broke my promise to not fly during my trip (except for the flights of getting there and back home), I just could not let the opportunity to visit Easter Island slip.
Directly after arriving on the island the chill vibe was present. I’ve been to several other islands during my travels and with no exception their time flows differently, and I truly love island time.
Having relaxed a bit at the hostel I went so see the first Moai of the island with some other travellers that arrived with me. It was actually a weird experience as the Moai did not seem to be processed properly in my head and I found the first sight next to the city a bit underwhelming at first, but that seemed to change very quickly.
The next day I decided to do a hike along the beach and see the several Moai sites. It was a sunny day and everything seemed to hit me harder than yesterday. The sites were beautiful and quite impressive seeing these massive statues being placed on these altars. Along the way I met to Frenchies, Jerome and Olivia, and we visited several sites together. Especially the lava tunnel was nice. However since there were by bike and I walking we separated halfway and I continued to walk the long way to my hostel. At some point I got tired though and before I could even try to hitchhike some old man in a car threw the door open en said to “get in the car”. I heard it was easy to hitchhike here, but to hitchhike without even asking was unheard of for me.
The ever peaceful Moai looking inland. 
Getting into tiny crevasses is a big feat. 
View from the lava tunnel.
On my third day I decided to walk again and climb the highest point of the island. I had to take the same road up that I took back the day before and this time also a guy on a motorcycle stopped, handed me his chainsaw and said “get on the back!”
He wanted to practice English and taught me some basic Rapa Nui. Funnily, when he brought me to the start of the hike two people were laughing at me! Apparently Jerome and Olivia had the same plan to hike up and took some company with them as well (Conrad and Henri were on an exchange program and were studying in Valparaiso and Dulcie was traveling like me). We had a great hike together and I found my gang here.
The gang posing at the island’s highest point. 
The next day I wanted some time alone and decided to go for a hike up the big crater and to the Orongo village, a religious place where the birdman challenge took place (a race where different tribal leaders had to climb down the cliff, swim across a very wild sea to reach a rock to grab the first stern egg, swim back, climb up the cliff again and deliver the egg to the priest to be named king for a year). We already agreed to do a hike tomorrow as most needed a rest day and was therefore surprised to meet Jerome at the start of the hike. We visited Orongo together and separated afterwards as I wanted to see more, however too lazy to hike I hitchhiked there. The place, Vinapu, was not as impressive as Orongo or the Moai, but the Ahu (religious platform) there reminded me of the Cuzco area as the stones truly blended in with each other.
Ceremonial houses at Orongo. 
Looks a bit as a star wars scene.
Most people say that you can see Easter island within 4 days, but nothing is less true. The island has many places where tourists don’t go as it is not particularly allowed to go there without a proper guide, but together with the gang we decided to do just that.
Early in the morning we left for a hike that covers the western part of the island, but to start the hike we had to climb some fences (yes, it was really forbidden). We walked along the coastal cliffs and saw quite a couple of fallen Moai, but compared to the tourist places there were no fences so we could see them up close. Halfway around the hike though we met some people and though we were in big trouble. However, we appeared to be in even better luck as it was s local guide that did not mind us joining. He really showed us some awesome sites including caves, petroglyphs and even an abandoned coconut farm where we ended up (with great effort) harvesting some coconuts. It was a truly amazing day and at the end we all managed to hitchhike back into town.
When nature provides additional food for the lunch 
Even in ancient Rapa Nui did the people believe in recycling using a first generation Moai (made of granite instead of vulcanic rock) to make an Ahu for more fashionable Moai 
Falling Moai scattered around the trail 
The gang having their well-deserved luch 
I do seem to get myself in to tight spots often lately 
… and getting out of tight spots is often harder than getting in them 
Petroglyph of a fish 
Petroglyph of a turtle 
Make Make looks more like the Keltic faeries 
The Make Make (god of creation) cave is filled with beautiful rock carvings 
Nature provided us with even more food 
Halfway done peeling the coconut 
Proud of my coconut 
Almost there!
But we weren’t done, though Henri and Conrad already left, the remaining gang members (Jerome, Olivia, Dulcie and I) knew of some other ‘forbidden’ places to explore. So the next day we crossed some fences again to head to the Poike area of the Island. Though not as impressive as the day before we got to see things not many people witness here and it was a great hike.
Moai with pukao (hair styles) at Anakena beach 
Face carved in the mountain 
This face is likely used as a water reservoir as well 
Remaining part of the gang climbing Poike 
White Moai close to Poike made of different material 
Detailed carvings of the hands of a broken Moai 
Sunset at Tongariki
One of my last days on the island I still needed to see the main touristic sites. So very early in the morning we went to see the sunrise over the Moai at Tongariki, a place where 15 Moai are placed on the biggest Ahu I’ve seen so far. It was an impressive sight, but the sheer amount of tourists removed some of its impressiveness. This however was not the case for Rano Raraku, also known as the quarry. This was the place where all the Moai were made and it still contains a vast amount of Moai here and for me this was the most impressive place of the entire island. In my opinion it truly belongs to the wonders of the world.
Sunrise above Poike at the Tongariki site 
Fallen Moai everywhere 
Truly everywhere 
Lots of Moai at Rano Raraku never got to see their final resting place of their Ahu 
Moai carved straight out of the vulcanic rock
The last one and a half day consisted mostly of meditating. The island is supposed to be a place of power (such as Lourdes or the pyramids of Giza for instance). I already spotted some nice places to meditate at and had some lovely quiet times to myself to contemplate about life.
The day before I left I met up with the gang one last time to have a good dinner at a restaurant here and with that it was time to say goodbye to the people I had been exploring the island with for the past 7 days.