The north coast of Easter Island, between the town of Hanga Roa and Anakena beach, has no road, and is only accessible by a foot trail, or on horseback, covering a distance of about 15 km.  I had done this long hike on my first visit to Easter Island in 2009 and was anxious to repeat it.  I headed north through Hanga Roa, stopping along the way to pick up another liter of water and some food, and then headed out of town on a delicate footpath that ran along the edge of the sea cliffs. 

The trail took me around six hours, but I stopped frequently to take photos, and only properly stopped once for about 20 minutes to eat my bread and pear.  The landscape was incredible:  neon green grass and jet black volcanic rock, no trees, and cliffs that drop off from a significant height into the ocean below.  For the most part, the path followed the edge of the cliff, and I was careful to watch my footing, as there was nothing to keep me from going over the edge.  I took a pretty hard fall towards the end of the walk.  I slipped on a loose piece of rock and went down hard, but luckily just landed on the grass and not on any of the razor-sharp rocks strewn about.  

After I turned the point on the northern tip of the island, I actually came upon the same cave that I had rested in when I last walked the trail, and where I had actually found a human skeleton tucked into the back corner of the cave.  I looked thoroughly, but it wasn't there anymore; either it had been moved, or my memory wasn't as good as I thought and I had stumbled into a different cave.  For the most part, there were only three things to be seen on the entire walk:  sharp rocks, grass, and the bleached white bones of cows and horses that had lived and died in that isolated corner of the island.

Toward the end of my hike, the path led down into a boulder field at the base of a strange, rounded hill.  There, at the bottom, in the middle of absolute nowhere, was a small house in the midst of a patch of palm trees, surrounded by a herd of horses.  I can't imagine a place more remote: completely isolated and hours by foot from the nearest road.  I didn't see anyone there, and if someone was home, they didn't show themselves.  For that matter, I didn't see a single person for the entire day on the trail.  Plenty of cows, and many wild horses, but if they had opinions about my being there, they didn't share them with me.