Through My Lens - Easter Island

World Cruise - More of Easter Island

The Rana Raraku Quarry is on the side of another huge volcanic crater. There are 397 Moai still there in various stages of finished work. They appear to be only heads but that is because the bodies are buried beneath the earth that has accumulated over the hundreds of years they have been there.

This was quite a climb at times to get to the places where there were unfinished Moai left in the side of the volcanic hillside. One place reminded me of the Catholic churches of Europe that have old crypts in their basements with a carved sarcophagus.

It was amazing to imagine the work that went into these and the number of them! I can’t believe they could get one done in less than a couple of years and then to move them so far to set them up had to take considerable time. I asked our guide how the society could survive if all of their efforts went into making Moai. He thought that probably the rest of the population supported the artists who were making the statues by supplying their food. No starving artists sale here.

On the way down we stopped to admire one Moai who obviously had a beard and a bald head and another whose nose reminded me a bit of Bob Hope. Almost to the bottom, our guide asked if we wanted to look at the volcano’s crater. Nine sweaty, panting tourists looked at each other and shook our heads. The guide just smiled. He was probably at least less than half our average ages.

From the quarry we had enough of a drive to cool us down in heavenly air conditioning. The last stop on the agenda was Anakena Beach. When we arrived, we had to squeeze in among a dozen or more larger minibuses and tons of little jeeps that were probably rentals. This was the week of a festival on the island and there were lots of outside visitors and another cruise ship called the Peace Boat which we believed was all Japanese.

The beach was beautiful. The area reminded us of a golf course with a really big sand trap. We walked along a wooden boardwalk past several outdoor restaurants and past a huge tent that was obviously set up for guests of a ship or other visitors perhaps for the festival. There was a troupe of native dancers performing in front of it.

Up on the top of a hill was another ahu or stone platform with several Moai most of whom were sporting hats. These Moai seemed better preserved than the previous ones we’d seen. Perhaps they were a bit more sheltered.

One lone Moai stood a little ways from the group and when we approached it, I immediately recognized it as being familiar. I knew I’d seen pictures of it before. When our guide began to tell the story I understood why. Back in the late 1940s when Thor Heyerdah sailed the Kon-Tiki from Peru to the islands of the Pacific to try to prove that the islands could have been inhabited by Peruvians, he stopped at Easter Island. Together with the locals, he managed to raise this Moai back up to a standing position. It was one of the first to be put on its “feet” again.

Back in the van, we were an exhausted bunch of travelers but marveled at our good fortune to have done it all without the rain that was forecast. It spritzed a little as we made our way back to the harbor for the tender to the ship. Along the way, the road that runs down the middle of the island, we saw lots of cows and horses. The horses all run loose even though they have owners as designated by their brand and several times we had to slow to pass some grazing at the side of the road. The scary one was the bull who was stopped in the middle of the road. He let us pass by with a snort.

Moai raised by Heyerdah

Our tender ride back to the ship was as bumpy as the ride in the morning. It was good to be “home” again especially knowing that a hot shower was only an elevator ride and a few steps away. We dined at Tastes, a specialty restaurant that serves sample dishes like the Spanish tapas. Lamb kabobs, salad, crab dip, sausage on toasted bread, and a couple of delicious desserts satisfied our hunger.

A classical guitarist played his heart out to a smaller than usual group of guests. I’m sure it was due to the long day. Of course our Cruise Director informed us that he was giving us an extra hour that night. I think we all needed it. We set our clocks back and went to bed an hour earlier than usual. The next day was another sea day. Time to catch up with photographs and blogging and that illusive word count for the next book. 

World Cruise - Easter Island

On our way from Lima, Captain Giske kept updating us on the weather at Easter Island. The predictions all called for rain and temps in the mid-70s. It sounded a bit depressing and sure enough when we awoke we saw the deck outside our window was wet with rain.

As we dressed and ate breakfast we realized the ship was still maneuvering and thought that strange.

Soon we discovered why. As we stood in line waiting to get to the tender to take us ashore, the announcement came that they had needed to move because we were near the end of the runway and surprisingly enough there was air traffic. But once the ship had moved, there was also the need to evaluate the safety of running the tenders in the large swells that were present.

After an hour’s delay, it was decided that they could do it but warned guests that anyone who had problems with walking or balance needed to stay on board. It didn’t stop a lot of those with canes from going and kudos to the crewmen who helped them on and off.

The sun broke through the clouds and we had a sunny ride albeit a bumpy one to shore. As we neared the small harbor you could tell that this was definitely an island formed from volcanic action. A garden of sharp volcanic rock was near the entrance to the harbor and I wondered how many ships had been lost there.

Once ashore, the leader of our small private tour found his connection and our adventure began. Our first stop was to get snacks for lunch since we would be far from town. Our guide took us to a small deli and we each got an empanada and more water to take with us. The empanadas we got were called Neapolitan and had ham, cheese, tomatoes and some greens stuffed in them. They were delicious when we ate them later.

One more stop to buy our park tickets and then we were off to see the village of Orongo. It sits on the side of a huge volcanic crater that now has a shallow lake in it. Orongo is believed to be the ceremonial site for the birdman cult.

The Rapanui would gather here for the ceremony where representatives of the tribes would send men to climb down the mountainside of the volcano to the sea and swim out to an island called Motu Nui where the sea birds came each year to lay eggs. The swim was quite a distance—over a mile but they did it lying on long thin floats made of reeds. A special headdress allowed them to bring an egg back while keeping their hands free for the return swim. The first man back with an egg safely intact gave his tribe the honor of ruling the island for a year.

The village was all made of flat stone houses. The one house we could see into had a large stone in the middle for support. The entrances were all small allowing for only one at a time to crawl through. It was quite a security system. By the time an intruder stuck his head in it was probably pummeled or removed. There were examples of petroglyphs (carvings and paintings in stone) that were removed years ago by others, some from foreign countries, and not many were on display in the area. Much restoration still needs to be done and I’m sure there is a lot to be discovered yet at this UNESCO site.

Back in the van our guide told us our next stop was to see some Moai. A little cheer went up from the nine of us. This is what we’d come for. It was a bit of a drive to the spot called Ahu Tongariki, the largest stone platform that held Moai. These Moai have had a rough time of it. They were toppled during civil wars and they were also washed far inland during a tsunami. The restoration has placed them all back where they were originally, facing the village that once was before them.

Our guide said that many believe the Moai were there to scare away unwanted visitors from the island long ago but his information was that the Moai were made as monuments to the ancestors and would watch over the village before them. Whatever the reason, they were certainly imposing figures and each was its own character. At one time they all sported hats but they haven’t been sorted out and replaced yet.

In the distance was a huge hillside of stone, the quarry where these and the 1,000 other Moai were cut out using only the harder stone of the island that could cut into the volcanic rock. That would be our next stop.

World Cruise 2015 - Easter Island

Easter Island is our first stop heading west across the South Pacific from Peru. Anticipation and excitement are building for this stop, a first for us. The island is about 64 square miles in size and is about midway between Chile and Tahiti. The island formerly known as Rapa Nui by its inhabitants was renamed Paaseiland or Easter Island by the Dutch explorers who found it on Easter in 1722. In the late 19th century it became a part of Chile and now has tourism as its main industry.

Much of the attraction, or perhaps all of it, lies in the 900 giant stone figures called moai that date back centuries and have become iconic and synonymous with Easter Island. The statues average 13 feet in height and weigh in around 13 tons each. They are carved from local rock formed from volcanic ash. It is not known why they were made or for what purpose but some could date back as far as 700-850 A.D. The largest moai is 32 feet high and weighs 82 tons.

Tradition has it that long before the Dutch arrived two ethnic groups lived there peacefully but sometime around 1680 there was a civil war, the Short Ears verses the Long Ears. When an expedition from Peru landed on the island in 1770 they estimated the population at 3,000 but when James Cook arrived in 1774, the population was reduced to about 600-700 men and only 30 women. They surmise another civil war in the span of four years.

Today, under Chile, the island's largest town is about 3300 people. The people speak Spanish and their economy is based on tourism. In 1995  UNESCO named the island a World Heritage site The Short Ears and Long Ears now live peaceably I'm told.