Easter Island Part 4
My fourth full day on Easter Island and things took a slight turn for the worse with the weather, after a disappointing sunrise at Ahu Tongariki I headed back over to Rano Kau in an attempt a hike around to the other side of the crater. The crater is almost a mile across and has its own micro climate. Sheltered from the winds that wet most of the rest of the island, figs and vines flourish at Rano Kau. The inner slope was the site of the last Toromiro tree in the wild until the specimen was rather surprisingly chopped down for firewood in 1960.
Upon arriving and parking my car the cloud cover was becoming increasingly concerning but it looked like it would hold out. It is roughly a mile and a half hike to get from the parking spot on the road around to the edge where the crater is collapsing, and it took about 45 minutes to stroll around there stopping to take photos on the way. On my way round I noticed what looked like black broken glass from a bottle, aside from thinking someone was careless I didn't give it any more concern until 10 minutes on I was still seeing this broken glass on the trail, I realized it was the volcanic glass Obsidian, there is large amounts of this glass scattered all along the trail, a small keepsake maybe... By the time I reached the edge on the opposite side the clouds were moving in rapidly, I could no longer see the moto (islands) off the edge of Orongo on the other side and looking north rain clouds were looking more sinister by the minute with Hanga Roa looking like it was being rained on already. I spent just a few minutes at my intended spot when the rains started to fall, and by fall I mean they really fell, I had to double time it back to the car up and over hills and rocks around the edge of the crater all the time trying to keep my camera equipment covered from the elements. It was so warm and humid that had it not been for the small monsoon I was experiencing I probably would have stayed out there but visibility turned very low due to the deluge. So I got to spend only a few minutes at the edge and made a point to go back before I left, which I will cover that in a future post.
The rain stayed all day, I spent the afternoon either in my car along the coast or back at the hotel checking out my photos from so far on my trip; early evening and the rain died down, it was still overcast and light winds but I headed out and tried to get some long exposures along the coastline. here's a couple from the evening..
