My plans for today were to walk up to the large volcanic crater of Rano Kau, south of Hanga Roa and then around to the ceremonial village of Orongo. In order to miss the large tour groups I decided to go after lunch. I ran some errands in the morning which included booking some activities for the upcoming days.

When I left for the walk to the crater the sun was shining... but as I ascended the sky became more and more grey and it started drizzling on and off. Second day in a row that the weather wasn't playing fair! Even though I had a raincoat and waterproof cover for my bag my legs got very wet in the long grass on the hike up. Rano Kau was very impressive. The crater lake, inside the crater itself, is over 1km in diameter. I walked around the rim, uphill a little and got an amazing (albeit slightly misty) view of almost the whole island. The crater lake looks like something from another planet with patchy green reeds in the bottom - quite amazing.

I walked the opposite side around the crater rim towards the village of Orongo. Normally people are only allowed to enter this village once during their stay on Easter Island to help preserve it but the lady at the desk said because the weather was bad she wouldn't stamp my ticket so I could return another day - score.

The village was in an amazing setting, positioned on some relatively narrow cliffs with the crater on one side and steep cliffs down to the ocean on the other. The Rapanui didn't live here permanently but moved here for a few weeks each year when the Birdman competition took place. As the separate tribes had started fighting they decided it was best to start a yearly competition where they would decide which chief would be the leader that year. The chief picked a warrior to compete on his behalf, who raced against other tribes warriors to collect the first egg of the season from some nesting birds on a nearby islet. The competitors climbed down the cliffs from Orongo and swam the 2 km to the tall needle like islet nearby. Here they waited for days or possibly even weeks, sleeping in caves, for the first egg to be laid. They would race to find it, then signal back to their chief when they had it and that would be the tribe that won. The warrior would then have to swim back to Orongo keeping the egg intact. My first stop at the village was a viewpoint looking out to the aforementioned needle-like islet known as Motu Nui. Luckily the weather was quite good when I got there and I managed to get a few photos.

After that I circled the village looking at the small stone houses the people used to live in when the competition was on. These were constructed quite differently to the normal boat shaped houses because they had to withstand harsher conditions and stronger winds. They were very small with tiny entrances so they would have been pretty cosy inside. At Orongo archaeologists also discovered many petroglyphs carved into rocks depicting pictures of the Birdman competition and the Rapanui's favourite God, the god of creation Make Make.

Unfortunately as I walked around the weather worsened, photos were difficult and I thought it was best to head back down and return another day. The descent was even wetter and by the base of the hill my trousers were drenched up to the knees. Luckily when I reached the road a nice man offered to give me a lift the last km or so to my accommodation.

I planned to head off again after dinner to watch a traditional dance show in town. However, the variable weather and very dark walk (not a lot of streetlamps here) put me off. Decided to dry off and drink a cup of tea instead!