Easter Island, Chile – Part 2 (Post #103)
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006Mike writes…
After a great full-day tour with our guide Elizabeth on Saturday, we thought we would see some of the other sites on our own Sunday. After our great breakfast at the Tekena Residencial late sunday morning, we set on a hike along the coast towards the volcano at Orongo about 5km east of the Hanga Roa village. A pamphlet provided by the tourist office in town guided us through several signposted sights along the way including the airport which has a 5km long runway. Originally, the runway was much shorter however at some point the U.S. convinced the Easter Islanders to lengthen it to accommodate the Space Shuttle in case of an emergency landing.
Though there are not many trees on Easter Island, along the base of the volcano, we passed through a forest of introduced trees including Eucalyptus and Cypress. We really enjoyed our hike which, at times, reminded us of a 50mile run we did to Mt. Hood along the PCT in Oregon, U.S. Here is a photo we took from a spot shortly after the forest of introduced trees. About mid-photo it is possible to see the town of Hanga Roa (the only one on the island).