Be sure to check the full picture set here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127254275@N07/?

Rapa Nui is devious. You arrive thinking of tall statues with stone hats and aliens. One greets you at the airport but you’re smarter than that, you can tell he’s faking it. The locals will greet you with flowers to make you think you’re on a tropical island. You know better, give me large statues with stone hats and aliens.

Faced with your determination they set you free and let you roam on the island so you start looking. You find your first alien statues at Ahu Tahai where you and all the other alien hunters gather for sunset to await the spaceship. It’s magical.

Rapa Nui is magical. You get excited by the first Moai replica at the airport until you realize it’s a replica (but still remain a bit excited). The locals greet you in true polinesian style with flowers and after dropping your bags you start exploring. 15 minutes outside the village Ahu Tahai offers you the first views of a real Moai and an unforgettable sunset.

Rapa nui is devious. Not happy with the lack of spaceships, you start the next day with the determination of walking the entire island to find more clues. You find Rano Kau, obviously a landing pad, flooded to cover their tracks. There are even what are obviously burried spaceships on one side of the crater. The descent on the other side gives you a another glimpse of the cover up: toppled large stone aliens with toppled large red hats. We are on to them.

Rapa Nui is magical. You think you’re here for the Moai but then you discover Ranu Kau and you have a hard time picking up your jaw that keeps scraping the soil as you tour the volcano and Orongo village. You make your way around the crater and then down to Ahu Vinapu for a close encounter with toppled Moai. You still think about the crater.
 

While the previous day yielded some clues there are still things to uncover. Deciding that the locals are in cahoots with the large stone aliens with large red stone hats(LSAWLRSH from now on) you decide to continue trusting only your legs for locomotion. You encounter a lone alien at Huri A Urenga. He is obviously hiding in this unusual setting. You keep marching and strike gold: the place where they abandoned their large red stone hats at Puna Pau. They knew you were coming, obviously. Farther, 7 of them are motionless awaiting their spaceship. You continue down the coast and encounter what is obviously a staged abandoned village and some caves to put you off the track. You press on to Hanga Kio’e for another unmoving LSAWLRSH that probably got lost from the group of 7.

Rapa Nui is magical. With determination, your jaw still detached from Rano Kau, you decide it’s Maoi day. You start with an appetizer at Huri A Urenga, then visit the pukao quarry at a Puna Pau and by half day you’re standing in front of Ahu Akivi just when you thought your jaw was safe. You continue to the coast where Te Peu and the views make you want to stay there forever. You march, encouraged, to Ana Kakeng and by this time your jaw has been acting like a plow for two days now.
 

Rapa Nui is devious. Encouraged you press on, this time deciding you need to cover more ground. By know you think you can outsmart the locals so you accept a rental car. Things get real at Tongariki where you corner 15 of these tricky bastards. One the way there have been decoys at Anakena and other places but you now understand they were only meant to keep you away from the important stuff. The aliens thought you would let it go. Imbued with new resolve you march on and your sisyphean determination pays off: Rano Raraku: dozens, hundreds of them trying to blend into the rock, hide underground, anything to keep you from discovering their true nature, size and abilities. Like all the other alien hunters you take hundreds of photos while the victorious grin on your face seems etched in stone. The reminder of the drive down the coast and the rest of fallen LSAWLRSH can’t fool you anymore: just decoys.

Rapa Nui is magical. You start the next day with Anakena and then, pausing at some other sites, make your way to Tongariki. 15 Moai on a 200m platform ensure that by know you have given up on saving your lower teeth. As if this was not enough, next is Rano Raraku. Nothing can prepare you for it and no writing can do it justice: 400 Moai in all stages of carving. It’s surreal, it’s amazing, it is unlike anything you have ever or will ever see. Your jaw is no longer relevant, things are happening at a different level. Rapa Nui is truly magical.
 

Full set of pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127254275@N07/?