Ahu Akahanga

Towards the end of our trip, we rented a car with some people we met at the camp and decided to use our bandana map (a souvenir we purchased in Hanga Roa) to see the remaining ruins. Even though we did not go during the tourist season there was still a little “market” where the locals sold souvenirs at the entrance to the ruin. Unlike my earlier post about Ahu Tongariki, the moai here are toppled over and were left in a dilapidating state, however, this added another layer of beauty to the ruins. This was the first ruin we encountered where there were other people, we weren’t sure the boundaries of this particular ruin since we didn’t see any signs indicating not to pass this point. We assumed incorrectly that we couldn’t go near the ruins since there weren’t any people near them, you can go by these ruins and on the other side of them you will find another toppled over moai and an unusually small moai. The first thing we came across when we came upon this ruin was the remains of the ancient village that was here. You can see all that is left of the hare vaka or boat houses. For the villagers who did not have shelter there is a paved path that leads to a small cave that offered shelter.