Easter Island and Peru

I’ve always wanted to go to Easter Island growing up because of the mystic and mystery surrounding the moai statues.  My in-laws were originally planning a trip to South Africa but weren’t very excited about it.  After thinking through all of their previous travels, they decided to revisit Easter Island, where they had both been about five years ago.  They invited us along and added Peru where my father-in-law had spent a few months around his college years.

Door-to-door from Chicago to Hanga Roa, Easter Island was a whopping 28 hours.  We connected through Miami where we met up with my in-laws (including my sister-in-law) and then stopped again in Santiago, Chile.  Easter Island is about a five and a half hour flight from Santiago.  The kids took the lengthy travel very well.  Upon arrival, we were greeted by the hotel owner who presented us each with a fresh flower leis.  That first day we just checked into the hotel, picked up our rental car, and went out to dinner.

The next morning we got up and left around 5:00am in order to catch sunrise over one of the most famous collection of moai.  The island is relatively small [see map] so it’s very easy to get around and return back to Hanga Roa for meals or breaks.  It was a 30 minute race against the sun to Tongariki.  We made it there just in time and stayed around until the sun was completely up.  The 15 large moai were incredible to see and it made for a great introduction to our experience on the island.  Our original plan was to work our way back to the city as Tongariki was the farthest place to go east.  We quickly discovered that we had forgotten to bring any water and would need to eat before doing much else so we started back towards the hotel.  On the way back, we made a quick stop at a large moai on the side of the road known as Te Ara O Te Moai, and again at a larger platform of knocked over moai called Akahanga.  I was the only one to get out of the car at Akahanga since we were in a hurry so I snapped a few pictures and convinced everyone else to come back and explore more another day.

After lunch, we decided to drive northeast across the island to see the sights along the north coast.  Our first stop was Anakena which has a great sand beach, tons of palm trees, and two platforms of restored moai.  A couple of us took our shoes off and spent some time playing in the surf.  This was definitely the most relaxing stop on the island and likely would be full of tourists at high season.  Our next stop along the coast was Te Pito Kura.  This is the largest moai ever stood up — it’s over 30 feet tall and weighs 80 tons!  Nearby there is also a large round stone called the Naval of the World.

Our last stop of the day before dinner was Rano Raraku, also known as The Quarry.  This is the iconic place where there are hundreds of moai heads sitting on and around a mountain of volcanic rock.  It was so amazing to see these in person.  For a long time it was assumed that these were intentionally just heads but upon further investigation and excavation it was discovered that there are full moai bodies underground.  This mountain is where all moai statue originated from.  The locals, Rapa Nui, carved the full statues out of the mountain side (length-wise, facing up), dug giant pits, cut out the bottom, slid them down the hill into the pits, and then intricately carved their backs.  The eyes would not be carved until the statue was upright on it’s final place on the designated platform.  All of these hundreds of heads are simply abandoned carving projects where the pits filled up with dirt over time.  It’s crazy to think of the amount of people working on this many statues and what must have happened to stop all development and leave them as-is.

Our second full day started off by seeing the sights on the interior of the island.  Nearly all of the moai are lining the coasts, facing inwards so there isn’t much to see besides farms and unused land in the middle of the island.  Our first step was at the underwhelming NASA Facility that was built to help detect earthquakes and tsunamis.  It’s been abandoned for a couple decades now and while the guidebook we were using said you can go inside, it was fenced off and locked.  Our first real stop was at Puna Pau, a smaller volcanic mountain where the rock is red.  This is where all of the large hats, called topknots, were carved for the moai.  It was seemingly a later additional to the statues as only a couple hundred out of 1,200 total, had these hats.  Similar to The Quarry, you could see some being carved from the mountainside and several mostly done on the side of the mountain awaiting the trip to their final destination.  These hats were enormous and no one is sure how it was possible to lift these on top of the large moai, especially since they were balanced on a small groove only a couple centimeters deep!

Our next step farther into the interior was a restored platform of seven moai called Akivi.  There are some who say that these moai are unique in that they are looking towards the ocean but it’s hard to know if they are intended to be any different from others since they are so far into the interior.  They could have been overlooking a tribe between them and the coast.  Past Akivi is a very rough dirt road that our car rental place said we were not allow to go down.  On maps of the island the road either isn’t shown at all or it’s a dashed line.  Hopefully it gets paved before our next visit as there are many more moai and several caves in that direction that we weren’t able to see.  On our way back towards Hanga Roa, we stopped at a single restored moai called Huri A Urenga.  We intended to stop there first but couldn’t find it — it’s hidden behind a treeline and there is only a small entrance in the stone wall lining the street to get into there.  It’s on a large platform that you can walk all the way around.

After lunch, we went back to the east end of the island to see Tongariki again while the sun was on the other side of the moai.  It was definitely a different experience that I would recommend.  At this time of day you can see a lot more detail on the moai themselves, both carvings and color differences.  Heading back west we all stopped at Anakena this time.  It was one of my favorite spots because you can get extremely close to the moai.  We also walked along the coast a little farther to see a single knocked over moai that fell in such a way that it’s protected from the elements and you can make out much more detail than other statues.  A little bit further down the coast is a small cave we explored before heading back to the car.  There is actually another platform with additional moai if you walk another 10-15 minutes down the coast but we decided to save that for next time as it was very hot and sunny.  We ended the day with dinner and watching the sunset over a few platforms of moai near our hotel called Tahai.  We definitely weren’t the only people with this idea but it wasn’t overly crowded and ended up being a highlight of the trip.

Our last day on Easter Island was spent exploring the south western corner of the island.  We started off with a brief stop at the edge of an old volcano, called Rano Kao, looking down at the crater lake that has formed within.  Farther down the same road we arrived at Orongo, a stone village consisting of over 50 restored oval houses.  Based on the lack of resources on the edge of a volcano, it’s not believed to have been a residential area.  There are many carvings around the village that point to it being central to a ‘birdman’ cult that had rituals and annual contests there.  The views all around are great and you can really feel how isolated you are on the island from up there.

The next stop was a bit hard to find, both from the road and even from the parking lot.  There was a small shop selling souvenirs that led us in the right direction.  After walking a couple blocks through an empty field with benches that looks like it’s ready for large groups, we get to the coast and down a winding staircase to Ana Kai Tangata, a series of cave paintings, nearly all of the birdman figure.  The ceiling of the cave has been starting to collapse in recent years so you can’t get too far into the cave and there are only about a half dozen visible paintings remaining.  The ocean views from the cave and staircase are a bonus.

Next, we drove east down the main road to find a platform of knocked down moai that we had driven past a couple times but couldn’t find the entrance.  Turns out the entrance is a little ways down the road so it wasn’t obvious.  Turning in at the sign that says Viahu and driving over rough road and grass you come to a pseudo parking lot next to a farmhouse.  It felt like someone’s backyard, and it probably was, but it was the only way to the moai so it had to be the right place.  Here there are eight moai and a half dozen topknots, some of which had rolled pretty far from the platform.  There is also a large circle of stones in front, thought to be used for ceremonies that kids threw to honor their parents.  A nice surprise at this stop is an expansive black volcanic coast on the back-side of the platform.  We had a lot of fun exploring the area, watching the waves crash along the coast, and jumping over tiny streams running throughout the rocks.

Our last stop was at one of the more well known places called Vinapu.  It consists of two platforms that each have a few knocked over moai and topknots nearby.  While it sounds repetitive and may get old, we actually loved finding new moai to explore.  They were each unique and conjured up feelings of mystery and made you imagine being in the shoes of the rapa nui people.  What made this location special was that the platforms were the best preserved on the island and the stones were aligned nearly perfectly, similar to other ruins in South America.  There were also several moai heads lying in the grass face up so you can get extremely close.  There is also a unique statue here which was thought to be two-headed and completely different from the moai.  Nowadays it looks like a short pole with barely visible hands carved into the sides.

That was it for Easter Island.  We had an amazing time and it ranks as one of our favorite trips ever.  The isolation, lack of tourists, accessibility of the moai, mystic of its past all made for a one-of-a-kind experience.  You really feel as if you can ignore/avoid the world’s problems out there.  One thing I didn’t mention, mostly because I didn’t keep track of the specific places, is the food.  We were spoiled with delicious food at every meal and didn’t really have to wait anywhere even with our large group.  Lastly, I can’t recommend the book we used highly enough.  If you plan on visiting the island, it’s a must-have.

Our flight from Easter Island left after midnight, bounced through Santiago, and finally landed in Lima, Peru.  We stayed at a hotel in the Miraflores area of the city.  It was Christmas day so most things were closed.  We did lunch at the hotel, went for a swim, relaxed, and had dinner at a Swiss/Peruvian restaurant a few blocks away.

The next morning my father-in-law went to visit the neighborhood he stayed in 30 years ago while Lydia and I went to ruins in the middle of Miraflores called Huaca Pucllana.  Most of the ruins were just unrecognizable piles of bricks but the restored section is very impressive.  It feels very out of place because it’s surrounded by the hustling and bustling city.  We didn’t get to tour the restored area since you have to wait for a guided tour which was 20 minutes away and we had to head to the airport.

The flight to Cuzco/Cusco was uneventful but upon arrival our driver was not waiting for us as expected.  After about 15 minutes he showed up while I was calling the hotel from a military officer’s cell phone.  Most people that visit Machu Picchu stay in Cusco but we decided against it because we didn’t know how the altitude would affect us and the kids.  Cusco is at a much higher elevation than Machu Picchu and you can’t drive directly to the closest city, so we stayed at a city in between the two, both in distance and elevation, called Ollantaytambo for three nights.

Ollantaytambo ended up being another highlight of the trip.  We had no idea what to expect and had no idea it’s the last living Incan city.  It is all cobblestone streets and walled pedestian alleys off of the main road through town.  It’s a relatively small city in a valley surrounded by ruins.  The city is named after the main ruins on one side and there are less preserved and more sporadic Pinkuylluna ruins on the other.  The later are accessible for free off of an alley next to the guesthouse we stayed at.  The stairs are quite steep and rickety so Lydia wanted to turn back before we reached the first ruin.  My sister-in-law continued on and Jaime and her revisited them on a different day too.

Most of us had wanted to visit the Ollantaytambo ruins the next day but everyone backed out when we were told the price is $36 per person (a couple days later I found out that it was a weeklong pass for over a dozen locations and there was a one-day pass we could have all gotten for half the price).  I was the only one that continued and had a great time spending about two hours wandering around the site.  The altitude was definitely affecting me a bit and I almost gave up about half way up the main staircase.  I am very glad that I didn’t though.  The ruins were an expansive maze and the stonework was incredible to see, not to mention the views of the city and valleys.

Our third day there was our day trip to Machu Picchu.  We got up early and walked down to the train station.  It’s a much longer walk than it appears and I would recommend taking a motorized taxi for a few dollars instead.  The train ride was very scenic with beautiful views all around us.  It was about an hour and a half until we arrived in Aguas Calientes, the city closest to the ruins.  We met our guide there and he walked us through the large flea market of shops that crowd the area, crossed a foot bridge, and got in line for the final bus to Machu Picchu.  After a lot of switchbacks up the side of the mountain we caught a quick glimpse of the ruins before they disappeared from view until we walked in a few minutes later.

The guide spoke with a fairly thick accent and I often stayed a few steps behind to snap pictures so I missed a lot of the stories.  The ruins spoke for themselves though.  As many pictures that I’ve seen of the place, none of them prepared me for how massive and impressive the site is.  We spent a full two hours hiking around and didn’t even cover it all.  Every few feet I’d look around for a different stunning view.  We read and were told that you need parkas/umbrellas because the fog rolls in quickly and it rains a lot.  For us, it stayed perfectly clear the entire time.  It was an amazing thing to see.  We stopped at a restaurant just outside the entrance to cool down and have a quick lunch before waiting in a very long line for the bus back into town.  Once in town, we stopped for a drink and did some shopping before catching the train back to Ollantaytambo.  The train ride back was…interesting…  The attendants in each car turned into fashion models changing outfits and trying to sell anything they could.  The icing on the cake was a story about a local ritual and someone coming out in a clown costume with a dog face and danced around for 20 minutes.

On our final day in Peru I had asked the driver to make a few stops on the way back to Cusco.  It turns out that my overpriced ticket to the Ollantaytambo ruins got me in to all of the available stops which was a nice surprise.  The first place was Pisac which I hadn’t heard of previously but it was very popular.  So popular in fact that it took us nearly 45 minutes to drive up the mountain to the entrance and I ended up walking the last few blocks because the traffic was so bad.  The ruins were along the far side of the mountain and there were dozens of well-maintained terraces leading down from them.  I actually saw everything I needed to without reaching the entrance.  I started back towards the car when I ran into Jaime and everyone else.  They had finally found a parking spot so we stayed another few minutes looking around.

Next we went off in search of the famous Cusco walls.  The driver mistook my pointing on a map and instead took us to Qinqu.  Luckily my pass covered this site so I strolled through with Lydia quickly.  It was just the remnants of a quarry with one ruined building with a gorgeous view of Cusco down below.  Afterward, we headed towards the walls located at Saksaywaman.  Unfortunately it started raining so again only Lydia and I ventured inside for a few minutes.  We didn’t make it as far as the most famous part of the old city walls but we still got to see quite a lot of incredible stonework with seemingly impossible alignment.  We spent a little bit of time driving around Cusco itself.  It was a busy time of day so we didn’t actually stop anywhere.  We arrived at the airport early which ended up being a good thing because they couldn’t find half of our connecting flights.

The journey home was a little rough.  The flight from Lima had very bad turbulence and upon arrival in Miami we discovered that we lost Lydia’s passport.  We had shown it to the gate agent right before entering the gangway in Lima and we had the plane searched without luck.  After waiting for an hour for the plane search we were handed off to an immigration officer that admitted the rest of us then directed us to wait against a wall some more.  A few minutes later we were brought into a room with about 40 others that had no windows.  We thought we’d be stuck there a while and just when we started to settle in they called us up.  A few questions later and we were released into Miami!

We had a great year of traveling in 2015.  Every other year we attend both Jaime’s extended family reunion and visit my aunt and uncle in Maine so this year will be a little more low-key.  We do have one new country coming up next month though — Northern Ireland!