Isla de Pascua: Rano Raraku & Tongariki

We’re back on the bikes! Off we pedalled up the hill and out of Easter Island’s capital, Hanga Roa, with the punishing sun shining down on us. We felt very refreshed, though, by the strong, cooling breeze and the sound of huge, turquoise barrel waves crashing down on the coastline. Wild horses roamed freely in groups; stallions, mares and foals all together. The placid few horses didn’t give us a second look but continued grazing as we passed whereas the warier adults looked at us curiously, whilst their jumpy foals sprung quickly to retreat a pace towards their parents.
The first stop was at Vaihu, where the Moai had been completely untouched since the rediscovery of the Island. The bubbly, slightly decayed, stone heads appeared to have fallen over, but the truth is that they had been pushed over by rival villages many years ago.
The second stop was at Rano Raraku, where there was a crater lake, which served as a water hole for happy herds of horses, and many more Moai statues submerged to varying degrees by the sharply, raised earth on the mountainside. The expressions on their long faces were all quite serious, and where visible, their ears seemed to stretch down forever but were actually proportionately accurate by human standards.

The Moai are considered the ancestors of the Rapa Nui people who live on the island and the finished ones had been constructed so that they look away from the sea and inland in order to protect today’s villagers. However, at this place, we noticed they were gazing out towards the ocean due to the fact that this was once the quarry where the first steps of Moai production took place, but this particular set was never completed and, in effect, the mission was aborted.

Our third and final stop for the day was Tongariki, a magnificent line of no fewer than fifteen Moai statues standing high, right in front of the sea shore. As we were tearing along the muddy path on our bikes, this then distant site appeared like a fine comb as the heads protruded from the flat ahu on which they stand. One of these Moai, unusually, still remained with his hat on. Can you see him?


During the warring period, each village was attacked and all the Moais were toppled. Archaeologists then replaced them upright upon their Ahu, but here they were disastrously toppled again during the 1960s by a tsunami. The Japanese have since worked painstakingly to restore this Ahu to its full ceremonial glory.
The cycle back was just as amazing as the outward journey, apart from two wannabe-fierce hounds annoying us with their empty threat barks. They had us going for a split second though!
We’ve been exceptionally lucky again by being scooped up by Sandra as we transited the Arrivals Hall, and not only have we found some of the cheapest beds on the island (we know, we know, we said we would be camping…) but we’re staying with a lovely family. She’s thrilled we chose to stay with her, and we replied in return that being with a family is always so much better than languishing in an impersonal (and often dirty) set up, shoddily run by underpaid menials. There.
Everything, virtually, is imported, and the prices are sky-high! But that doesn’t stop us from rustling up some tasty feasts! Try this at home to recreate our Easter Island three-courser:
Gently fry plenty of chopped garlic in lots of butter, then quickly add slices of robust bread to soak up the liquid and begin to crisp. Whilst this is sizzling, create a zingy onion salad by finely chopping onion, tomato and fresh chilli (seeds in, don‘t be a wimp!) and adding plenty of lime juice, salt, pepper and sugar together with some oil from a tin of pickled red bell-peppers. This is fresh and invigorating! The capsicums themselves go into a pasta sauce of onion and tomato, livened up by sausages and another chopped chilli. This works ideally with fusilli, but penne would be equally fine. Keep on watching, because tomorrow night is curry night!