22/09/2019 – Day off: Rano Kao, Easter Island, Chile

We had a nice scrambled eggs breakfast, and got ourselves sorted for the day. We walked along the coast to the town where we bought a takeaway lunch at ‘Ohi sushi’ and ate it in front of the crashing waves. It was warm but very windy. As we finished eating the black dog with the blue harness (from yesterday) appeared out of nowhere! We said hello and it continued to walk with us for a good hour. We hugged the coast on a worn grassy path. The coastline was dramatic, and Josh said he would put it in his top 3 coastlines (alongside Colombia and Brighton FYI!) We were walking alongside the cliff edge when we spotted big yellow splodges in the sea – really big yellow fish! When we told Tiare (Peters wife) about them she said they are common here and there is a legend about them, she said she would lend us her book about them.

We walked for a good few hours in the heat up to the top of the Rano Kau volcano crater. We reached the viewpoint and it was spectacular! It is 400m above sea level and the crater has a diameter of about 1km. The volcano is extinct and now in the crater there is a swamp, with loads of reeds and plants, and it has it’s own microclimate. From the viewpoint you can see across the crater and into the ocean. We walked around the crater and saw three small islands just off the coastline. It was super windy up there but still shorts and t-shirt weather!

We walked all the way round to the other side of the crater to Orongo. Orongo was a ceremonial place used for various ceremonies and celebrations in the Moai period. It was significant in the annual birdman competition – the way in which the island found a leader each year. The competition involved a nominated man from each tribe, who camped in one of the stone houses next to the volcano crater. When the signal was given the men scaled down the cliff to the ocean, swim 2km over to the small island, camp in the cave of the island and then wait for a tern egg to be laid. The first man to get their hands on an egg won, and then they had to balance it on their head and get it back to the island safely. What a funny way to find a leader! They did this for over a century and a half! Josh and I signed into the little tourist book (they check your passport number, accommodation and your park pass) and got our passports stamped with the park stamp. We started walking around the path to look at the stone houses when we saw the rain coming in from the ocean. It looked like pretty wild weather. We put our jumpers and anoraks on and power walked around the path. By the time we were heading back down the path it was beautiful sunshine again! Somehow we picked up another 4 stray dogs that walked with us for a good few hours. They chased the cows away from the paths, and one never tired of playing fetch with a stick. It really felt like they walked with us to either protect us, or to seek protection for themselves from other wild dogs and the local people. We walked back down to the coastal cliffs, and back home. According to Josh’s phone we walked 28km! We were pretty tired by the time we took our shoes off. A fierce storm had arrived and the wind was howling and the rain thudding on the roof. We showered and had a tuna pasta dinner, and fell asleep reading our books.