February 4th to 7th - Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Worth Every Penny and Every Moment!

The sweltering humidity of the previous night had broken by morning and I could hardly be held back from racing out the door to explore. The first order of business was to call my island home by its proper name, Rapa Nui. Similarly to Uluru replacing Ayers Rock as the proper native designation, Easter Island (Isle de Pasqua) really should be called Rapa Nui.



The hostel is not really anything special, but more of a boarding house of dorm rooms stuffed with sweaty, smelly, happy go lucky occupants. Although, hanging bananas from the porch rafters were a nice touch to distract of the heavy smell of mold.



The relative size of the island is impressive in reverse magnitude. The roads are small and sparse.



Everything seems to flourish here, especially the flowers.






Wild horses run reasonably free throughout the island and are only contained by the occasional property boundary fence or cattle grazing paddock.



There are in fact so many wild horses running free that there are varying degrees of health demonstrated.



Some creatures are beautiful, while others are apparently malnourished from the feeble ground vegetation growing in the volcanic refuse.



After checking car rental prices around town, I finally decided to rent a “rattle trap” from the hostel and set out on a Moai adventure. The Moai are the stone heads for which Rapa Nui is world famous.



My first Moai sighting I informally named after my friend Ginny because on her birthday, the summer solstice, the sun shines directly into the face of this lone guardian.



Moai are actually stone representatives of deceased tribe members. An “Ahu” is the actual burial site running for several meters in front of the statues and tens of meters on either side. Football sized stones were lain in successive rows to form an impressively repetitive boundary around the stonemason foundation for the Moai.



The coastlines have many different Ahu sites. Some have been preserved or either reconstructed to near original beauty. One of my favorites is positioned on Anakena beach.



This is the perfect location for a family lunch...



... and afternoon of swimming or relaxing on tropical white sands.



There are 889 known Moai on the island. Most Ahu, unlike the above beach paradise, are in varying forms of disrepair. There are two main factors that have contributed to the current state. First is that the island was split into two warring factions, the long ears and the short ears. This pod description is up for anthropological debate as some believe that the actual descriptive translations equate to something more along the lines of “fat” and “skinny”. Regardless, these two groups started to knock down their opposing Moai over hundreds of years, as a form of retaliation for attacks.



Which ever Moai were spared this fate were not so fortunate when a sunami swept the island shoreline more recently. Either way, any currently upright Moai situated on an Ahu have been resettled with some archeological support.



The island of Rapa Nui is gorgeous and was formed by the confluence of at least five separate volcanoes. The nearly baron land is strikingly beautiful.



The rugged coastline and volcanic rises constantly sent my mind back to the childhood classic book, "Island of the Blue Dolphins."



Grasses are native along with coconut and the banana trees. Everything else has been added in historically recent times. There is nothing poisonous on the island and no need to worry about ticks or other insects while walking through the grasslands or sparsely wooded areas.



Rano Raruku is the centerpiece of sculpted island history. There are over 600 Moai heads in just this one area.  An early morning drive afforded the gift of waking up to the Pacific sun in the silent company of stone strangers.

Before sunrise, the skies were so clear the sliver and remaining unilluminated lunar sphere seemed utterly visually tangible.

The Rano Raraku volcano cliffs served as quary to the early carvers. No one knows why these hundreds were carved and planted here, instead of making the trip to Ahu locations throughout the island.



What remains is a stunning testament to human engenuity and creativity.



One can easily spend the bulk of a day enjoying these massive wonders. Some are even as tall as 21 meters.



This particular Moai is the only known kneeling figure on the island.  

A few seemed to call out to me for a photo because of their individual character.  



If you neglect to make the hike into the volcano’s crater, then you will have missed half the show. First, the hike is beautiful and not very challenging and you will get to come in very close contact with roaming wild horses.



Next the full view of the crater is stunning. Walking along the rim gives a full perspective, not only of the natural beauty but of the Moai awaiting your attention on the other side. It is really very humbling to walk among these giants. They are mesmerizing in their simplistic beauty.



Several Moai are left in an unfinished state. The process is clear, with the top being carved first and the finished product ultimately being freed from the volcanic rock from the back.



I'd trust the one on the left. He seems a little more stable.



No one is really sure how the Moai made their way to their Ahu standing places. The local tribal tradition is that the spiritual leaders used to coax the statues into walking to their final destinations. Other theories suggest the use of long over-harvested coconut trees, uses either as levers or roller beds. The truth of the matter is that no one knows for sure.



To add to the mystery and miraculous construction, is that when fully complete these massive statues wield “top knots” made of a red volcanic rock, only found 18 kilometers away. So at some point, full adorned, Moai needed to move to their respective Ahu and be met with a perfectly carved, matching, top not.



Whew, logistics, even on a small island, can get complicated. How this was completed with each skirmishing faction using the exact same locations for materials is beyond me. Something just isn’t quite adding up here.



From archeological remnants, it appears that at least one of the clans made use of lava tunnels for more sheltered living. The inhabitants utilized the natural "light wells" for planting banana trees and other food stuff in the natural wind protected environment of the subterranean greenhouse.



Other groups made use of hollowed sea caves for temporary shelter...



... and as a convenient ceiling art galleries.



Another incredible setting is Rano Kau, the highest point of the island with its 410 meter high volcanic rim.



Not only is the view into the caldera impressive, but at the ocean side edge there is a former native settlement, where the cult of the “bird man” would meet once a year for competition.



Ultimately, representatives of both the Long Ears and Short Ears or Fat and Skinny groups, depending on your preferred linguistic interpretation, would meet here to compete for top cult shaman or birdman. Ultimately, one person was dubbed and the loosing party would feel drubbed and further skirmishes ensued. Despite this, the tradition continued. To endure the harsh conditions, groups lived in thickly stoned, low lying huts, well protected from the persistent howling winds. Believe it or not, the weather is actually a little cold on the exposed rim.



An interesting contribution to the landscape is the petroglyph carvings, which unfortunately are beginning to weather badly.



The rim of the volcano and remaining artifacts are really interesting to see, but unfortunately I was making some artistic design contributions of my on at the site.  Prior to leaving town I happened to have lunch, which looked something like this (on the way down). 

Later it turned into feed for the transplanted field rats, while climbing the volcano, with a human equivalent of digestive pyroclastic flow. Have you ever seen such a pale white guy with Ray Charles glasses? (Fortunately for me, a very kind couple vacationing from Santiago shared their tour van, to get me off the volcano and back to the hostel where fourteen hours of continuous sleep was not a problem.)



Looking back towards the only town on the island, Hanga Roa and home to roughly 2,200 permanent residents, the magnitude of the island’s airstrip is apparent but hard to fully capture. In preparation for possible space shuttle mishaps, NASA built the largest landing strip in the southern hemisphere right here on tiny Rapa Nui. It stretches the entire width of the island, next to Hanga Roa. I guess the good news is that this asset provides a “no excuses” platform for any form of tourist plane or spacecraft to safely land.



February marks the annual celebration for the Polynesian residents of Rapa Nui. Each day brings native competitions of various sorts: stone carving, fishing, reed boat racing, sewing, etc. I happened across these two Rapa Nui natives building reed boats (water boards) for the race across the Rano Raraku crater lagoon.



Many of the annual festivities centered in the area of a massive erected stage, with a sand floor.



The evenings are filled with celebration. Polynesian dancing on an epic scale is not only impressive, but moving. The elder locals in the crowd sing along to the traditional songs, as the next generation dances on stage. An honest pride of continuing heritage permeates the crowd. It is not hard to appreciate their fervor.



Lonely Planet says to make sure to spend at least three days “on the ground” (not including travel days) to gain an appreciation of the island. Rapa Nui really deserves at least a week of careful meandering. Having completed this life’s goal, I am itching to return. There is something magical about the location, 3,700 km off the coast of Chile, with warm friendly people and breezes. Whatever the pinnacle of recommendation may be, that is what I hold up for Rapa Nui!

It was sad for me to leave the last Moai, on the way to the plane, but Aconcagua was calling and the time to climb mountains had come.