Dinner in Hanga Roa: Ceviche

Ominous. A cruise ship looms beyond the harbor of Hanga Roa

There are two reasons why I lose weight when I travel. First, I walk around A LOT. Second, because I walk around so much during the day, I don't have much of an appetite at night. So I wanted a light supper. That meant: ceviche.

It's a short walk from my hotel to Hanga Roa's restaurant row. In fact: it's a short to everywhere in Hanga Roa. The town is not that big. The first two restaurants I tried: cerrado. Closed. Twice daily flights may have returned to Easter Island, but the tourist numbers apparently are not enough to sustain all of the restaurants being open each night.

My third choice -- third because it was farthest walk -- was actually the top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor: Neptune's Island.

"Top rated" on TripAdvisor doesn't always mean "excellent," or even "great," but it is a guaranteed "not sucky."

 

Decent crowd. Friendly staff.

I ordered the "mixto" ceviche, which was a local fin fish, octopus, shrimp, and -- this is the Easter Island variant of ceviche -- sweet potato.

Side order of rice. Good. Not great. Not sour enough. I like ceviche best when the flavor of lime absolutely overpowers the mild fish. There definitely was an insufficient level of acidity for my acid tongue. I did, however, like the fish and seashell shaped dinner plates.

This little girl came up to me to say "hola" when I was leaving the restaurant.

I wasn't sure how far she would follow me home, but she stayed at the beachfront.