Then another wall expertly built, still intact after all the weathering of centuries. The highlight of the hike is a complex of terraces at East Palm Valley, the center of a population that is estimated at 100-150 people. At the top of a fifteen-foot high cliff, white with guano, amid loulu palms and ilima and ohai , are marvelously constructed walls. The site has a beautiful view of the azure sea a couple of hundreds of feet below at the bottom of the ravine. To the east are more terraces along the cliffs, where rain run-off might have watered the fields.
Caves appear farther to the south of the terraces.
One of the terraces above us has two pairs of two-foot high pointed basalt slabs thrust up like wings of a bird from the top of the walls. While the rest of the team continues up to the second peak from the east to view the sheer cliffs on the north side of the island, I remain behind to rest under the shade of loulu palms, still suffering from a bout of seasickness the day before. It is a pleasant place to relax, with a cool sea breeze blowing up the ravine. I think about the people who had lived here, perhaps for generations. No one knows why they came to the island, or why they abandoned it or failed to survive.