One lovely morning we hiked from the main town, Hanga Roa to Rano Kau – one of three main volcanoes on the island. The hike is about four hours round trip with some great scenery along the way. The crater is incredible and complete with a lake (one of three natural fresh water reserves on the island). The positioning on the coastline is perfect and you will see in the pictures that part of the wall fell into the ocean adding a dramatic effect to the scene. Side note: the weather turned windy and rainy without notice, so if you plan on going be prepared for that – I guess it’s common behavior up there!

As if the crater wasn’t cool enough in isolation, the birdman ceremonial village, Orongo is on the coastal side of the crater (a post of that coming soon!).  It’s quite easy to see why they chose this location for their ceremonies.

As you saw in one of my previous posts, Rano Raraku is most popularly known for the moai quarry, but it also has a crater that deserves attention. I admit, the moai kind of steal the show at the crater because of their high placement along the wall; you have no choice but to be amazed. Just this year they closed off hiking up to the moai, so we were only able to observe from a distance, but it was still a phenomenal sight.