January 27 – Hanga Roa, Easter Island, Chile

We arrived in Easter Island just after lunch.  Our first view of the island...

and the small town of Hanga Roa. 

We could see some of the moai, the massive Polynesian statues for which Easter Island is known, from the ship.

The weather was windy, the skies were cloudy and the seas were rough but we were able to tender into the very small harbor at Hanga Roa, the main town on Easter Island.  The entrance to the harbor is quite small and the waters leading up to it have lots of rocks, but our tender pilot did a very good job getting us into the harbor.  Once in the tiny harbor there were no waves or swells and it was pretty easy getting off the tender. 

We boarded our bus for our tour of Easter Island and were off under leaden skies. The island is only about 15 miles long and 7 miles wide, so it didn’t take long to get to the other side of the island.  

The road followed the coastline….  

and we saw lots of cattle and horses grazing along the roads.

Our first stop was Rano Raraku, the mountain quarry where the great moai statues of Easter Island were carved.  The site still had many moai scattered around the hillside.  Work on the statues stopped abruptly so some are unfinished.  

It started raining during our walk so we were pretty wet by the time we got back to the bus. 

In the distance, near the coast, we could see the 15 statues of Ahu Tonariki. 

Ahu Tonariki was our next stop.  By the time we got there the rain had stopped and we had sunny weather (typical rain squalls in the tropics).  We spent time wandering the grounds and gazing in amazement at the moai. 

Facing the line of moai was the remains of a small village.  All we could see were some stone outlines of a few buildings.  The mountain of Rano Raraku was in the background. 

More countryside driving to the next stop at Ahu Nau Nau…and it was raining very hard when we arrived.  Paul had his raincoat, so he went out for the walk.  Mary stayed in the bus.  This was a small set of moai, most with caps on their heads.  The caps were made of stone from a different quarry and were reddish in color.

The hands on the moai.

Last stop was Tahai, with no rain and a small set of moai.  These were the moai that we had seen from the ship earlier.  All of the statues on the island had originally had the eyes made of coral but this is the only statue with the restored coral eyes. 

Then we headed back to the harbor.  Along the way we drove through town and past some beaches and natural pools (rings of stones that minimized the wave actions for the bathers). 

The little harbor.  

The tender ride back to the ship was even rougher.  This is a shot of the heavy surf at the narrow entrance to the harbor.

The local authorities eventually closed the harbor.  The ship was able to get all of the crew and guests back on the ship but the evening's AzAmazing entertainment was cancelled because the local performers were not allowed to board the ship.

We were supposed to have a second day at Easter Island but ship was informed that the harbor would remained closed the next day, so it was announced that the ship would sail overnight to another island, in the off chance we could dock there.  We feel fortunate that we at least had the one very good, if rainy, day to see the main sights. 

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More Easter Island
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