So, we went to see the triathlon up in the crater of extinct volcano Rano Raraku (it´s all volcanoes here you know). Very picturesque up there. Inside the crater is a rainwater lake with thickets of reeds lining the outside, which are used to build the reed boats for the triathlon. Herds of wild horses stampede around the rim sending up clouds of red dust and a few unfinished Moai statues peer over the lake from the opposite side. A lot of local people as well as tourists gathered to watch the events.
The triathlon begins with the contestants rowing their reed boats across the lake. here the pick up 20 kilos of bananas each and run with them half way round the lake again, back to their starting point where they enter the water and swim back across the lake. All pretty impressive. I was glad I was sat under a tree watching and not running around with bananas.
The next day we rented ourselves a shakey little 4 by 4 and rattled our way over to the base of Maunga Terevaka, the highest point on the island (507m). We had a look around some lava caves at foot of the volcano and then set off up the slopes. It took us about an hour and a half of sweaty hiking to get to the top, but once there the views were well worth it. It´s very quiet and windswept at the top with only the hunting hawks for company. You get an almost unbroken 360 degree view of the pacific horizon, which feels quite surreal and made it feel really like we are very far away from anything in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Reminded me of those old maps where "Here Be Monsters" is written in all the corners.
Having made shorter work of the way down (despite getting a little lost), we bumped our way over the largely unpaved roads to Anakena beach on the north coast of the island. It´s a gorgeous white sand beach with clear turquoise waters and wild horses roaming around it, though not enough palm trees under the midday glare. Very lovely. The water was wonderful and warm, but then the rain came in all tropical downpour, so we escaped back to base camp.
Later in the day we returned to Rano Raraku to see the sight known, eerily, as "The Nursery". This is where the Moai statues where carved straight out of the dark volcanic rock from the volcano´s flanks. There are dozens of them, some toppled in various directions looking as if they´re whispering to one another, some in varying stages of completion, some of them just barely discernible in the rock. One of them is 21 metres long, but is still very much attached to the rocks. I guess that would have been quite a feat to get that one all carved out and across the island. It would have been much larger than most of the others.
Today we got up early and went rattling across the island in our tinny car, chasing the sunrise at Ahu Tongariki. The sun comes up directly behind a row of 15 Moai statues, and as the site is close to the Nursery, we also got a good view back at the volcano in the morning light. Later, we walked down to a sea cave and I read my Hemingway for a while. And so the days go on Easter Island.
With only one last day to go here, I have to say I will miss it (though I´m gonna be happy to be back in a normal bed and not living in a tent!). The scenery is spectacular, black rocks, white crashing waves, huge skies, extinct volcanoes, sea caves, rock carvings and Moai statues on almost every stretch of coastline, and, at sunset, the sun sinking slowly beneath the horizon and the clouds sailing on out to sea, great galleons into the night.
I´ll try and get the pictures uploaded soon as I´m back at Alex´s flat. 200 photos of Easter Island heads. Yeah!
xo
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