Farewell to Isla de Pascua

Ahu Ko Te Riku and the Pacific Ocean

I had a little time on my final morning on Easter Island, before I had to be to the airport to fly back to the mainland. I decided to take one final visit to Ahu Ko Te Riku, the moai who's got his eyes.

But first I paid my visit to Ahu Tahai:

Then to the star attraction and his bodyguard in the foreground.

Good-bye Ahu Ko Te Riku, with your Sammy Davis Jr. eyes and stylish topknot.

Side view:

Some wedding photography was happening at the scene.

One last look at Ahu Tahai.

And we will conclude the Easter Island travelogue with this:

Ahu Ko Te Riku, the guest that everyone wants at their wedding. Off to the mainland.

A Walk Along The Shore Is All I Do On My Last Day

Real or replicant? Don't know. Can't tell.

It's my final full day on Easter Island. The flight back to the mainland leaves tomorrow afternoon. I've seen all the main sights I wanted to see. I not going to make it to the volcano, but that's OK. That was more on my "I'll go if I'm completely bored and have nothing else to do" list than it was on my "must-see" list.

So I went for a walk along the shore.

If I had taken the horse, I might have had the energy to make it to the volcano. But the horse was tied up. I'm not a rustler. And I have only been on the back of a horse once and my legs were more sore and tired from the experience than if I walked.

I could take a boat.

But as we will see, the surf is kind of rough today.

I do make it to Ahu Mata Ote Vaikava. Real or replicant?

My first thought was replicant. He's not near any other moai. The detail looks too good, like he's had a lot of work to smoothen out his face by Beverly Hills' top plastic surgeon (or, in this case, top stone surgeon). The arms are distinct. And, tell-tale giveaway, he's staring at the sea and not looking back to his people on the island.

And he's not surrounded by a stone border with signs saying "no pasar" or "don't step on the head." Since we are effectively being invited to step on this moai's head, I vote: replicant.

Here's one of those signs that give the distance to very distant cities.

Valparaiso, I understand. It's not only the port -- Santiago is inland -- but Isla de Pascua is in the Chilean state of Valparaiso. Even Honolulu makes some sense. But San Francisco? Istanbul? Portland? Oregon, I presume. Not Maine. But one would make as much sense as the other.

This part of the coast took on a distinctively southwest flavor.

Are these some sort of yucca?

They look more Mojave Desert than South Pacific.

But these coastal scenes are decidedly South Pacific:

The volcano that I could've should've hiked is visible on the left. But I'm not hiking a volcano today, so let's look at more rocks and more waves.

Waves crashing onto black volcanic rocks. You don't get that in the Mojave. This stone head one definitely fits the bill for replicant and not a real-deal moai:

He got eyes. Only one real moai has his eyes and it's not him. So, verdict: replicant. You could buy him at the local souvenir store, if he would fit into the overhead compartment for the flight back to the mainland.

Time for an early supper. I decide to shake things up and try something different: teh Aloha Food Trucks. It is a group of three independently-owned food trucks, each with a different and distinct menu, permanently parked next to a bar, where they all share tables. Very civilized. Very trendy,

I order from "Le Frits," the empanada truck.

I order a "jamon y queso" empanada -- ham and cheese -- and a "pollo, BBQ y queso" frit -- chicken and cheese with BBQ sauce. Each comes with a side of a massive dollop of mayonnaise. This may be the eastern edge of Polynesia, but it's still Chile so everything comes with a giant dollop of mayo. This mayo was nicely spiced into something that tasted more like a tarter sauce, but not quite. And to wash it down? A Cerveza Austral Yagan, their dark ale.

My dinner date was a real dog. 

And by that I mean she was an actual dog. She was a good companion. She only wanted a few scratches between her ears. She didn't beg for any food once the food arrived.

My trip to Easter Island is just about over. Definitely glad this was on my list and definitely glad I came. I booked four nights here, which meant three days. Was that enough? Or was it too much? I now know that two days is enough to see everything there is to see. I did not know that until I got here and saw what I wanted to see. So if you know the weather will be fine, three nights / two days is enough. But it was nice to have the safety cushion of the third day just in case. It's not easy to get here.

Change of Pace: Sea Caves

Sea caves! With cave art!

Next on the agenda was Ana Kai Tanata. This is a park near the southwestern tip of the Easter Island triangle.

I chose not to take the canoe.

Instead, I walked it.

I got to see a lot of the island up close. Although daily flights to Easter Island have restarted, the tourism industry is not. I walked past a lot of restaurants, and even entire hotels, that were still shuttered.

Not even the way-cool entrance is enough for that hotel to be able to re-open yet. A lot of restaurants closed. A lot of restaurants that are open keeping irregular hours. It's like a beach town in the off-season, except this should be high season.

My plan was to hike up the volcano Ranu Kao and stare into the caldera.

I abandoned that plan. First, I couldn't find what I would know for certain was the trail head -- I'm guessing it's the break in the fence here -- but that's not really a good assumption to make when you're a stranger in a strange land and you don't know the boundaries between public and private property or where you could get lost with no one around. Second, by this point, my legs were gelatinous.

To the sea caves it is!

This is the view from the cliffs at Ana Kai Tangata.

Apparently you used to be able to walk all the way down to the water, but the "no pasar" sign was up about halfway down. Good enough to keep me out.

The volcano looms to my left. Not invitingly.

And here is where the sea cave may be found:

And here is the cave.

Apparently you used to be to walk down and look into the sea cave, where cave art from the indigenous people was visible, but both the access is gone and the cave art has faded. So now it's just a cool-looking cave you can look down into.

I had worked up a powerful thirst, so I walked back to the "Aloha Food Trucks" and ordered a beer.

An "Austral." It's a Chilean beer brewed in the far south of Chile. My next destination, coincidentally, Punta Arenas. In this hemisphere, "southern" is associated with "cold," so the name "Austral" denotes cold beer. Yes, I've been in Chilean territory for a week and I've drank Chilean beer but not a drop yet of Chile's famous red wines.

For supper that evening, I returned to Neptune's Island:

Again, many restaurants are closed and some of the open restaurants are keeping irregular hours. And I was not interested in going to a restaurant with a dinner "show" -- not my thing -- it's OK if it's yours -- but I'll save the Polynesian dancing dinner show for when I finally get to Hawaii. So the known quantity it would be. But this time I would order a regular meal:

Risotto con camarones. Shrimp risotto. I ordered yet another Chilean beer with supper, even though wine would have been a good accompaniment. This was another Chilean beer: Kuntsmann, a craft beer from Valdivia in Central Chile.

I even ordered dessert:

Coconut panna cotta. Just like your Italian grandma would make, if she Polynesian blood.

The sun was setting on Hanga Roa.

Here is the sunset over Ahu Hotake in Hanga Roa harbor.

More More Moai

Moai on the beach. This time with a blue sky behind them.

Yesterday, I did the Grand Tour of Easter Island.

By the way, "Rapa Nui," the allegedly indigenous name for the island, is Tahitian. It's not native. It came into use fairly recently. The name is as "authentic" as calling it "Easter Island" or "Isla de Pascua." Locals do call it "Rapa Nui. Chilenos call it "Isla de Pascua." Tourists call it "Easter Island." Which one of those am I? Well, I guess for me it'll be "Easter Island".

Oh. There's a moai on the grounds of my hotel. I didn't ask, but I'm fairly certain this is not "authentic." I don't think it dates back to the time of the moai, before the moai were obliterated after the cult of the bird-man took over the island. I don't even think it dates back to the 20th Century. But who am I? An archaeologist?

Hotel grounds aside, there are a few important moai to be seen in close proximity to the village of Hanga Roa. But first:

The local Catholic church. It doesn't have the majesty of Gothic architecture, but it beats suburban-American ultra-bland.

And, on the way to the neighborhood moai, down the hill from the Catholic Church, is the Catholic cemetery.

There's even a moai doubling as a headstone in here.

Pretty sure that contradicts official Catholic dogma. but, hey, we got Pope Francis now. Anything goes.

But the walk isn't long to my destination du jour: Ahu Tahai.

That one is for those who like a horse in the foreground of their moai shot.

This one is for those who prefer their beachfront horses sans moai:

Or, if you prefer, a dog's life:

Back to today's featured attraction.

It's not them. They're not today's featured attaction. Impressive as a line of moai on a beautiful beach (on a sunny day!) may be.

These are just the opening act: a line of five moai, with the sixth is gone and not to be replaced or re-raised ever again (they don't do re-raising of fallen moai anymore) (it doesn't fit with the ethos of modern times).

Let's meet the star of the show:

Not the one in the front. The one in the back.

That moai!

Notice something different about him from all the other moai everywhere? Those eyes.

At one point, it was thought that moai had no eyes.

Sort of like me in the picture with the moai with eyes in the back.

Then, fairly recently, archaeologically speaking, an archaeologist found a pair of spheres that (a) looked just like eyes and (2) were just the right size to fit into a moai's eye socket. Many other pairs of eyes, in various states of damage, have since been found. But far fewer eye pairs than there are moai. Which has led to two conflicting theories. Everyone now agrees that at least some moai had eyes. And everyone agrees that because the eyes were made of fragile coral, most of the eyes have been lost to time, predominantly due to the moai-tipping wave of destruction that struck a few hundred years ago. But some believe all had eyes at one time and some believe only some had eyes even when moai had eyes.

The original pair of eyes that were found have since been placed in the local museum. The eyes in this moai -- who not only has eyes but a topknot -- indeed this moai really truly has it all -- are recreations, not originals. And the local museum is located just a few steps from this moai is standing. Amazingly convenient!

Unfortunately, the museum is closed. It's not the same strike that closed museums in Santiago. This is a dispute between a prominent local family and the Chilean government, with the family insisting that the museum was built on land improperly confiscated from said prominent family. So said family bolted the museum shut. Several years ago. The dispute has not been resolved.

Museum: cerrado. It's becoming a theme of this trip.

In case I did not mention it before, the red volcanic stone used for the topknots is incredibly, almost weirdly, light. "Light as a feather" is not too far off the mark.

Makes sense that something placed on top of a multi-ton statue, after it has been placed erect, would need to be made of the geological equivalent of balsa wood.

A different horse, this time north of the two-eyed moai:

The two-eyed moai posing dramatically:

This is a sign I've never before seen anywhere:

Don't step on the giant heads! You would think people wouldn't need such a warning, but, then again, that is the world we live in.

One last look before we move on:

I'll do a short post on the rest of my day later.