Day Three

Day Three

June 6, 2017

Day Three: hiking

Today’s Count:
13 miles
30,300+ steps
75 floors
OUCH

Knock knock knock! 8:30AM wake up call for dad’s room delivered breakfast has arrived! Happy birthday part two!



When we arrived yesterday, our room was given a warm welcome for dad: a sweet note, a fruit basket, and special dark chocolates! The mini fridge also was decorated with some yummy items: waters, sodas, and a bottle of champagne! And the best part of it all? It’s all free! Woohoo! Happy birthday!

Breakfast consisted of bread, cheese, meat, fresh squeezed juices and tea, along with some sweeter varieties. It was much needed for what we were about to do.

By 9:30AM, we were out the door and headed to the bank. We continued our journey towards Orongo and the massive crater of Rano Kau. What we originally thought would be an easy, follow the island border type hike, turned into a we took the wrong route and ended up at a supermarket, turned around, went uphill and began to hike again, on the correct path.



There were a few Moai on the way, one of which was our first Moai to see that had fallen on its back. It was actually really sad to see because it was right by the water and just almost to its dedicated spot.



We continued, at a faster than we should have pace, uphill towards the crater. When we finally figured out where to go, with minimal Spanish speaking skills and lots of hand gestures, we made it to the proper path. The proper path being a straight uphill journey to never never land.

Now, we knew we were a little out of shape, but good lord, that was tough. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, for me, but dad struggled a bit. Either way, with the addition of three or four stops at five minutes each, we made it to the top in well under an hour. The sign at the front of the trail said it would be 60-90 minutes on average, and we totally kicked that time frame’s butt!

The map below shows a bit of what we did and where we walked. We went from the “you are here” (with an additional mile above that) and all the way down to Orongo and the Rano Kau area. The majority of the area was straight uphill or slightly angled. There was little to no easy climb to it, besides the very beginning.

The very beginning had a sign to show that we had made it, and was lined with white rocks to get us to the area where we could grab a tour guide if wanted. The trail was called “Sendero Trail Te Ara o te Ao” in Rap Nui. In English it was called Uphill Heated Hell.

The white rocks followed us for only a short period of time before we were sent into the uphill oblivion. The flora on the island was random: trees here, flowers there, all of which seemed to be imported from mainland Chile, or even from a whole other area. Nothing looked truly native. Well, that is until we got to the crater, the Humedal Ranu Kau Wetland. The sign’s subheading, in English, was as follows: The Lost Haven For Biodiversity In Rapa Nui.

Words can not begin to describe the natural beauty of the crater itself. Beauty set aside, it was incredibly interesting! The crater itself housed its own biodiverse ecosystem that encompassed a small lake, which can assume was freshwater, and marshlands. We were unsure how deep the lake itself went, and if it was truly marshlands with no walkable areas, but we were sure that it went down, straight down, at at least half a mile. The plants inside the crater, that was once an active volcano, cannot be found anywhere else on the island. The story says that the once active volcano created the island itself.

The winds were uncontrollable out there, and you were swept away on one portion of the crater.
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Dad and I were walking around and saw a rock that was surrounded by posts. Posts are their way of saying DO NOT CROSS, even though you can totally cross. We were watching a Spanish tour guide and his group, and motioned to him that we had no clue why they were taking photos of this random rock. He brought me to the side, and with a concentrated glance, we saw our first petroglyph on the side of the rock. In the picture, shown above, it was much more distinct and easily viewed than by the naked eye… so, yeah, don’t think we just missed it.



We continued our walk around the crater towards the village. We were informed it was another good ten minutes before arriving. We even saw unicorn crossing signs. Or, you know, some animal thing.

This walk was much easier because we were on a paved road. We were still going uphill, but it was no where near the extreme of a dirt path.



After the ten or so minutes, we reached the village. Initially, it looked like a visitor’s center, but upon further inspection, we found the actual village of what used to be.

The village, known as the bird man village, was used once a year, during the beginning of spring, for the first couple weeks to pray for fertility and religious purposes. The construction of the village was the most important aspect across the whole village.

When we flew in, I saw two smaller islands/rocks that jutted out of the water. Turns out, upon eavesdropping on the private tour, the larger island towards the back had the birds on it that the natives used as food, and later were the reason for their extinction.



From the documentary we watched, the island itself is not the best for farming, or sustainability in general. Dad and I assumed that the original natives climbed to this crater, the high point of the island, to scout for food sources, and saw the island off the island, and realized the birds only landed there. Then, what we can assume, they took a small raft like boat out there to hunt and bring back to the main island. Then again, that’s my theory.

Past the visitor center, past the islands, we came upon Orongo, the sacred area of the island. From what archeologists understand, they began building the houses on the sacred land of Rano Kau since the 15th or 16th century. The land itself has always been sacred. And here is where they had a perfect view of the islets, small outer islands, with the birds on it.

The houses were amazing! The intricacy of the rocks, that they built up with, along with the placement of the houses, made it almost look like The Shire in Lord of the Rings. You weren’t allowed to get super close to them, but you could see them from the short distance away. Nothing was roped off per say, but it did have nice rocks with arrows going up and a line through them. Real intimidating, I know.



The above photo shows the houses as a whole.



The above photo shows an entrance, or what we assumed was, to a house. The small entrances had even smaller stairs in them.

The area, though very ceremonial and used yearly, was all in all pretty small. It had a one way path that you followed around, and you were able to get a 360 view of the area.
The sun up top wasn’t nearly as strong, but the wind was killer. Upon finishing our circle trail, we decided to head back to the crater for a quick snack before heading back down the “mountain” (it was only 1,000 or so feet up/ 300 meters).

We stopped back at the crater itself for once last look before heading down the road to town.
We followed the road this time, A. Because it was a slightly easier hike and B. Because we thought we wouldn’t get as lost and be able to make it into town easier, and began our hike down. We were right about the easier part, not so much the length part. We knew it would be longer, but we never fully agreed if it was shorter than the tree surrounded, rocky trail down.

I am writing this, so I am alive, but wow do my feet hurt! Haka Honu, a local restaurant, called our name as we walked back towards the hotel. Get the ceviche. That’s all I can say. The ceviche was the best I’ve ever had! Dad got a crab cake, that was less crab, and well cake, but turned out to be this cheesy, creamy crab delicacy. We each has pisco Sours, and relaxed as we looked upon the marina. The food mixed with the service, and just the right amount of English/communication, was perfect for a late lunch! And we sure needed it. There was a ton of food, but we devoured it all.

There has not been a single dish out here that I have disliked, let alone been slightly disappointed with. The food and drinks are amazing! We still haven’t decided if we will lose ten pounds or gain it. If we do two or three more hikes like that, we will lose it. We clocked 20,000 steps by lunch time, 3:00PM.



After sitting for so long, we both almost collapsed as we got up. Sore feet. Sore muscles. Sore shins. Tomorrow was going to suck. Back at the hotel, after a much needed shower (check those feet below), we took a much needed belly full nap. Oh, and I was really excited to take off my Columbia boots.



We set an alarm to be able to take picture of the nearby Moai with the sunset in the back, but by the time we woke up and got to the area, it was too dark to grab anything good. That, mixed with the cloud coverage, made for less than amazing photos. Without just the right amount of light, and light that doesn’t take away the surroundings, it’s very hard to get a solid candid of the Moai’s faces and sunset background. We wanted only the best, and decided to try tomorrow.



While wandering around, we came upon the actual downtown area that housed all the bigger shops and car rentals. We stopped in at one area, resembling a large souvenir flea market, and I saw an older woman sitting down, trying to move the table cloth with her cane. I moved the cloth to the edge for her, and she began to talk to me in Spanish, while reaching down into her supply box. She pulled out a small, stone Moai head and handed it to me. Dad immediately asked how much? And she shook her head then gestured towards the tablecloth. I finally figured out that she was gifting it to me for my small act of kindness. Wow!

We continued our walk back to the local restaurant, Neptune’s Island Restaurant, we saw that was right by our hotel. Reasons we chose this restaurant: was voted nightly on Trip Advisor, took American Express, close to the hotel so we could have as many Pisco Sours as we wanted. Mainly the last one. Either way, it was well worth it. We got a carpaccio meal and mango Pisco Sours. Hands down, the best Sours yet. We even tried the Pisco plain, and well, if you want tequila on steroids, go for it. The shot burned my lips!



We finally concluded that this restaurant had the BEST Pisco Sours we’ve tried yet. Get the mango ones!
We had a few drinks and beef carpaccio, even though neither of us were hungry or wanted to eat in the first place. We both kind of agreed that it was our civic duty to eat everything we could!

So, funny thing. There are stray dogs everywhere. And I mean everywhere. On every corner. At every street sign. It’s ridiculous. But what’s even crazier, they all look nice, are gentle and no where near feral, and they all look well taken care of. We thought that they all had owners, but they just wander when they please. The island is so small anyways, you can’t lose them. Some of the dogs will follow you for parts of the way, and some will follow you on your entire journey. Dad has taken it upon himself to say, “hola amigo” to every dog we see… or cow. Or cat. It’s funny though. In a dad way.

After our walk back, with a few stray dogs around, we made it around the corner to the hotel, and immediately crashed into bed.