Rapa Nui: day 3

Our guide yesterday told us about some caves on the island. I'm a sucker for a dark, enclosed, rocky space, so three of us rented bikes to go exploring.

 

As I've said before, mountain biking is not my forte. And I had conveniently forgotten that most of the island's hilly roads are dirt. Oy vay. (Fun fact: NASA came to the island several years ago and beautifully paved a few of the roads as the island's airport, which had a surprisingly long runway, was an emergency landing spot for past space shuttles. Some people think aliens created the moai. Perhaps paving roads and runways was just a cover for NASA? You be the judge.)

 

Our first stop was Two Windows Cave. The cave entrance was deceptively tight as it was a spacious cave. The Rapa Nui people often lived in caves so it wasn't long before the three of us started to joke about where we'd put the kitchen and the bed rooms, as if it were the latest house hunting show.

 

The next cave was the one that had us really excited. Yesterday's guide had told us about a cave that is so small, you crawl on your belly to get through and then have to rock climb up the cliff to get back. It took some time but we eventually found it. Ironically, the tiny cave was an offshoot of one of the tallest caves I've been in yet. Going through the cave was like evolution in reverse: first walking, then crouching, squatting, and finally crawling on your belly. Actually crawling is misleading: at the cave's lowest point, I did tiny push ups to inch my way forward. It was slow going to say the least and we had no idea how long it would take. After several minutes of mini push ups with just my head lamp and occasional giggles from my companions following behind to keep me company, I shouted, "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!" Who doesn't love a good cliche?

 

As we emerged from the tunnel, there was a small ledge that was just big enough to support us but not big enough to inspire much confidence. We started to climb around a little to see how we get back without having to return through the cave and quickly concluded that our mothers would all be angry with us if we proceeded to climb the unstable rock face, so we turned around and went back through the cave.

 

After we emerged, we surveyed ourselves for damage. We each had countless scrapes and bruises and little cuts and were covered in rocky dust. We used my hand sanitizer to disinfect our wounds, laughing as the alcohol burned.

 

Back on the bikes, our trio grew by one. A dog started to follow us and happily stuck with us, patiently waiting as we stopped, for the rest of the day.

 

The banana cave was next up. Banana trees grew just inside the cave and proved to be good for climbing. Further inside the cave, a crew was filming a documentary and we all agreed that if we ever formed a band, we'd return here to film our first video.

 

Not much further up the road, we reached a group of seven moai. We took photos, had some lunch, and gave the dog some water. One of the great things about Rapa Nui is that you'd often find yourself visiting moai or caves or hiking all alone, free of massive tourist groups.

 

We locked up our bikes and started to hike up to the island's highest point. By now it was around two in the afternoon, but because the island is in an artificially eastern time zone, the sun was right on top of us as we walked through the shadeless fields. In the end, we decided not to go all the way to the top as it was so hot and we didn't want our adopted dog to get too tired. The views were gorgeous every step of the way.

 

We made one last stop to see what I called the hat factory. Some of the moai wore large, Russian looking red hats. This is where the red rocks were extracted and carved.

 

By this time, we were happily exhausted and headed back to town. We were thrilled to reach the paved road for the first time in hours!

 

I took a quick dip at the nearest beach, where the local kids made me repeatedly demonstrate the waterproof capabilities of my camera.

 

This in itself would have been an outstanding day, but we weren't done yet. In the evening, we attended Kari Kari, a traditional dance show. The women shook their hips, the men stomped around, and we were all thoroughly impressed.