Visiting Easter Island (Boat-Based)

Anakena Walkabout (continued)

I stitched together a panorama of the coastline, taken when I was standing next to the conical rock pile. You can click on this picture to enlarge it (248 kb); use your browser's "back" command to return here.

Looking back towards Anakena cove. You can just make out Nine of Cups.		Looking the other direction at the rugged shoreline.

When I finally reached the cliffs, there were spectacular overlooks of the rocky shoreline and rough surf plus panoramic vistas of the whole region—I took lots of pictures. I walked along the cliffs up to a large conical pile of rocks that looked like it might have had some ancient significance. Nine of Cups was visible far in the distance, and I called Marcie on the radio and asked her to take a picture of me, which she did, and I took a picture of her from my vantage point.

It was a glorious day with beautiful weather, and I really enjoyed taking an aimless ramble and snapping pictures whenever I wanted. Unlike when I'm with others, today I could follow my own whims and take it at my own pace, which was wonderful. I also enjoyed being all by myself and away from all other people, so I could just commune with nature and allow myself to resonate with my surroundings, without any other distractions.

After my relaxing walkabout I returned to the boat. That evening, David made pizza for dinner which was delicious as usual. Marcie made a special treat for dessert—chocolate ice cream! Unfortunately, it didn't have enough time to freeze so it came out as chocolate mousse instead. Nevertheless, it was very tasty and a special treat.

At night, I stayed up to run the engine and update my journal. When I was just about done and ready to hit the sack, all of a sudden we got called by Pascua Radio (the Armada) at about 10:00 p.m. We usually go to bed at 8:30 p.m. or so, though we leave the radio on. Using my very mediocre Spanish I handled the radio call and managed to get a weather forecast for tomorrow. The good weather is expected to continue, so we'll very likely stay another day.

The rugged rocky shoreline, once old lava flows, now being wave-tumbled into rounded cobbles.

Looking far in the distance at Cabo O'Higgins at the northeast end of the Poike Peninsula. You can see three separate volcano cones, from left to right: Maunga Parehe, Maunga Tea-Tea, and Maunga Vai-Heva. The main volcano cone of Maunga Pukatikei is out of view to the right.