Anakena Beach
Today is a free day on the schedule. We have tours booked for Monday and Tuesday that will take us around the island and teach us more about the history, so we don’t want to ruin those by seeing too many things on our own. Instead, we rent a car for the day and decide to head to the only sandy beach on the island (there are actually two, but one is off limits because of falling rocks).
On the way out of town, we see the museum is open, and decide it would make a worthy detour. It’s small, encompassing just two rooms, but the exhibits all have English translations and help fill in some of the many blanks we have when it comes to understanding what we are seeing. We learn when people first settled these islands, where they came from, when they started building the statues and what they represent. We also learn that the very people that carved, moved, and mounted over 300 of them on platforms around the island, pushed every single one over, and that what we can see nowadays are restorations. It is really quite fascinating, and definitely a great overview.
We continue on to Anakena Beach, which according to legend is where the first Rapa Nui people landed. It is also home to another restored platform, which looks spectacular against the bright blue sky.
Most things are pretty well fenced off to keep tourists a safe distance from the statues, but clearly they still have issues that warrant signs like this one. Should it really be necessary to tell people not to walk across the face of an 800 year old statue?
The midday heat is starting to take a toll on us sensitive Seattleites, and the shade of a nearby palm tree seems like just the spot to have lunch and relax for a bit. We’re not the only ones with the same idea, and with not a lot of shade to go around, sometimes you have to share.
With a good burn suitably in place, we take the long way back to town along the coast, stopping every so often to look out over the cliffs and the cobalt blue water.
We also cheat a little bit and stop at some of the locations we know were are part of our tour. We had the best of intentions, but who could come across places like these and just keep driving?
