Near an area called Vai Mata, we encountered another remnant of early Rapa Nui history, the stone foundations of “canoe houses,” ancient shelters for the royal clans who lived in this area centuries ago. An untrained eye would have trouble deciphering these oblong outlines of large carved stones set firmly into the sod, but Beno walked me over to an exposed example and explained that they were the foundations of dwellings that were shaped like upside-down canoes, echoing the attachment to the sea of the local culture.

Centuries ago, these dwellings would have included roofs made of wooden beams and thatch of hau hau, a native plant, and even featured lanais made of ocean-smoothed rocks. Showing the reverence Polynesians have for stones and their living mana (or energy), Beno explained that foundations like these were named and passed down through generations.

In what became a pattern throughout the day, we would encounter something striking or unusual, like an ahu platform with a strange prow structure set in the front, and Beno would provide a thoughtful explanation. In this case, it was Ahu Poe Poe, one of the few boat-shaped ahus, a true rarity.

A few minutes after we left the site, we caught sight of the only other hikers we would see all day. From a distance we watched as they approached, looked around briefly, then left. They most likely had no idea what they had just experienced.

Something similar happened a short time later when we neared a cluster of large volcanic rocks sprouting ferns. I had walked right by, but Beno called me over and, with a stick, pushed aside one of the ferns, revealing the narrow entrance to a cave, one of a countless number of such subterranean passages throughout the island. In centuries past, the caves were used as refuges such as during the inter-tribal wars and 19th-century slave raids.

A few miles on and halfway through our journey, we rounded blustery Cabo Norte. If you look at the island as an arrowhead, we were at the tip, pointing due north into the Pacific.

A sharp wind buffeted whitecaps below and clouds raced across a dramatic horizon, summoning a vastness that gave me a true sense of the isolation of this place. It also deepened my respect for the skilled navigators who reached the island at a time when some other cultures dared not venture into the open ocean for fear of falling off the edge of the earth.