Friday, November 12, 2010

Isla de Pascua







Wednesday November 10.

Today the three of us rented a couple of scooters and explored the island. We rode the mostly paved road along the coast, east, for as far as it went. On the way we stopped at several moai sites. We paid the entrance of $60US! for the archeological site of Rano Raraku. There are two parts to this. One is the quarry on the outside of the volcano´s caldera, where the Rapa Nui people carved the moai out of the lava rock, and the other part is inside the caldera, where there were lots of wild horses roaming around, and more heads, standing, laying down or partly buried in lava. Beautiful spot and a great view of the island from the rim of the crater.

Then we rode to Tongariki and saw the fifteen moai all in a row. There is something definitely mysterious, magical and even spiritual about this place. The heads are absolutely amazing. And you have to love an island where there are more wild horses than people (4000)! You have to be careful of roaming horses and cows as you ride the roads.

After that we rode to the beautiful, white sand beach at Anakena, where there is another set of seven moai. Eric and I had a swim. The water was warm and beautiful. Then they headed off to the other end of the island (because they are leaving tomorrow and have to try to see everthing in one day). I stayed at the beach and climbed a hill that gave me a spectacular view of the beach and the moai. Then I rode back to town via the inland route. More beautiful scenery, very different from the coast. Great riding a scooter - reminds me of my bike and the amazing American leg of this year!

That night the three of us shared a bottle of red wine before heading to a local restaurant for a traditional dinner. It was served on a small table top bbq. We had steak, pork, chicken, mussels, shrimp, potato and a couple of beer. Great dinner and lots of fun.

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