Isla de Pascua

Day 4 Part 2, Monday, Jun 11: Easter Island (Rapa Nui) After my 6 hour flight from Santiago to Rapa Nui, I met Jose at front desk of my great hotel with perfect English (he had lived for several years in Florida but was really Chilean). The hotel is ideally located: about 1 block from the “shopping district” and 1 block from ocean. “Shopping district” meant some actual stores on one side of street and little stalls on the other side. Jose recommended that I try Moana for dinner and then how to get to Ahu Tahai (Ahu=platform) for the sunset behind some Moai. I trekked over to Moana and got seated in the patio with an ocean view. I ordered grilled fish with papaya chutney and purple yams. The waiter asked me how I’d like my fish done (I didn’t know you could do that). He picked medium well and it was delicious except for one raw bite in the middle. While sorta expensive by our standards, this is an island located 2000+ miles from anything. The dish was beautiful, like a Gordon Ramsey plated dinner and food was awesome and plentiful. I do wish I had taken a picture of it – oh, well, next time.
Then I meandered over to the Tahai statues for sunset taking Jose’s shortcut through the cemetery. This was the night to see the sunset b/c the next night was totally overcast and the following night a bit cloudy. The site combines archaeological remains of great historical importance with a landscape of great beauty located in front of the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the oldest settlements on the island whose earliest remains date back to 700 AD. According to tradition, Tahai was the last place of residence of Ngaara, the last ariki mau or high-ranking ruler, who died and was buried here. The 4th pictures shows a restored Moai with eyes as should be.
Pictures: 1-6: Tahai, Moai, sunset at Tahai.Read more