Today is our third and final day in Rapa Nui, and we fly back to Santiago this afternoon.
After arriving back in Hanga Roa last night, we rested for a bit at the hotel before going out and doing some souvenir shopping and walking a big loop in town. We headed back to Ahu Tahai for another beautiful sunset.
You can do another, shorter, tour of roughly the western third of the island, which goes to Ahu Tahai and other spots. Obviously we had visited Ahu Tahai twice already, but one place this tour goes that I still wanted to see is Rano Kau, an extinct volcano with a major water-filled crater. We did not want to do the whole tour, however, so as we enjoyed coffee this morning by the water I was trying to find a cab or tour operator who would take us up to the crater for a reasonable price. This proved more difficult than I expected, but eventually I managed to arrange a driver to take us up to Rano Kau, and then drop us at the airport on the way back in time for our flight (the airport is at the foot of Rano Kau). The price he quoted was basically equivalent to what it would cost just to get the airport, so it seemed a good deal.
After lunch, the driver picked us up from the hotel and we loaded in our bags and headed through town (past the Rapa Nui Parliament!) . . .
. . . and stopping to pick up the driver's partner, who apparently wanted to see Rano Kau too, and up the hill to the crater's edge. If we had realized how beautiful it was up here we would have tried to come for longer! As it was we had about 20 minutes to hike along the lip of the crater. The trail does not quite loop the crater because you cannot walk where it dips down across the way by the ocean. Eventually, that wall will give way and all of the water will flow into the sea. Anyway, in twenty minutes we did not have nearly enough time to go out that far, and so we only went along the northern edge until we had to turn back.
Rano Kau is on the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui, and you can look back over Hanga Roa and really most of the island.
As we descended, our LATAM Boeing 787 was coming in to land.
A little over an hour later, we were boarding and leaving Rapa Nui.
Rapa Nui was every bit as epic as I had imagined it would be. It had been on my bucket list for some time, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to visit!
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