The West Coast
Today we set off in a different direction after breakfast. We drove along the west coast of the island. We were on a dirt track rather than a road, which took us to Ahu Tepeu’s small colllection of moais. There were also elliptical and round rock bases of old houses. We didn’t take many pictures, perhaps because we had seen something similar yesterday morning at Orongo.
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- Another small harbour on Easter Island.
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- On the dirt track.
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- At Ahu Tepeu.
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- At Ahu Tepeu; some of the rock bases have very tight fitting gaps.
We back-tracked to Ahu Akivi for some erect moais and Ana Te Pahu to look at a cave. Coming from Borneo, the caves here were insignificant but still pretty with green ferns inside.
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- At Ahu Akivi.
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- At Ahu Akivi.
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- Cave at Ana Te Pahu.
We continued to Puna Pau, another crater. You may have noticed that moais are topped with a reddish “hat” which are known as topknots. These are made from scoria and Puna Pau is one of the sources of this. From here, we returned to Hanga Roa for yet another lunch at Cafe Ra’a.
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- At Puna Pau.
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- Cafe Ra’a.
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- Downtown Hanga Roa.
Back to the East
After lunch we drove to Anakena Beach on the north-east side of the island. It wasn’t just any pretty white beach but it also had moais. Like yesterday, it was windy and the water was cold. A few brave souls were in the water though.
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- At Anakena Beach.
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- At Anakena Beach.
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- At Anakena Beach.
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- At Anakena Beach.
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- At Anakena Beach.
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- At Anakena Beach.
We returned to the eastern highlights at Ahu Tongariki and then Rano Raraku for a second visit to finish off the sightseeing.
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- Back at Ahu Tongariki.
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- Back at Ahu Tongariki.
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- Back at Ahu Tongariki.
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- Back at Rano Raraku.
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- Back at Rano Raraku.
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- Back at Rano Raraku.
Dinner
We had dinner at possibly the best or most expensive restaurant in town called du Pecheur. Rodger said that we should go there because “we” (meaning “he”) had a bad dinner last night. We had a small dryish tuna steak served with different vegetables on the side, plus a curried scallops pasta which was a little dry too. Rodger had a steak. I hope he was happy.