Easter Island - Days 3 & 4

Easter Island – Day Three (16/05/2017)

Another 9:15am pick up, today we were to survey the more local sites.  Tahai is actually walking distance from the hotel and I’ve seen it from across the bay but I knew we were visiting on tour so hadn’t walked this far yet.  Tahai has a single moai complete with eyes and pukao.  The pukao was an additional red stone carved and put on top of some moai’s heads to represent topknots (they look like hats but in fact they are hair).  The eyes are not of the original coral but painted on to demonstrate to visitors how the moai would have looked in their prime.  There is another single moai and a separate ahu containing five moai (and an empty platform) in varying degrees of destruction.  This was one of the first ahus, restored by American William Mulloy who dedicated his life and work to Easter Island.  The primitive methods of the 1960s are evident in the concrete band around their necks where they were “glued” back together.  A sixth moai from the empty spot lies just a few dozen metres away, face down and broken into four pieces, too difficult to resurrect.  Although he died in the US, Mulloy’s remains were returned to Easter Island and there is a memorial to him near this site which we visited.  He did a huge amount to promote the island and it’s mysteries and, for the most part, the Rapa Nui are grateful.

We moved on to Huri A Urenga which is in quite a compact area.  Quite a change to the vast expanses laid out before most of the moai but I think that is as much due to the changing environment that original design.  An Italian team is currently working on cleaning the lichen from the moai and this is the second one to be completed (each takes around six months).  Next up was Puna Pau.  This is the quarry from which the red stone of the pukao was mined.  It’s not overly interesting – and there’s no amazing view from the top – but there are a few pukao dotted about giving a sense of the size of them.  Although the rock is significantly lighter they would still have been a few tonnes in weight and quite a feat to get on a moai head!

This was just a half day trip so we had one more stop, Ahu Akivi.  Another Mulloy restoration of seven moai, they are unique in being the only moai erected inland and seemingly facing the sea.  It has been discovered that they are orientated to face the rise of the summer solstice, indicating that the position of the sun was important to the ancient Rapa Nui.  Further excavations have also found the remains of a village between the ahu and the sea.  This was a detailed set of moai with differing features again.  My English companions and I had started to analyse the moai we saw to try to determine their moods and personalities!

As I got off the coach my guide said I was on that afternoon tour for Orongo but I insisted I wasn't on until the following day.  I decided to relax by the pool for a few hours and nip out for a little souvenir shopping before changing for an evening at Kari Kari, a meal and traditional dance performance.  The concierge (maybe that word is a little strong, receptionist might be better) was supposed to book me a place – he hadn’t but there was a table and a seat available in any case.  The meal was lovely.  I chose the seafood soup, steak with rice and dessert was a crème caramel.  It was a good, hunk of steak, nicely cooked!  I also had a pisco sour included (I had to pay for the second one!)

My seat for the show was second row, dead centre.  The music was all enveloping – the sound in the small theatre incredible.  The dancing was beautiful.  The women moved so fluidly, undulating like the ocean.  The men, strong, aggressive and spiky in contrast.  On a few occasions members of the audience were invited to join the performers and many went fully into it!  One boy in particular was impressive in his commitment and a middle aged man found himself shirtless but gave it as much fire and bravado as he possibly could!  There were changes of costume and mood.  Unfortunately the slower moments coincided with the seven hour time difference catching up on me and I found myself dozing for parts of the performance.  At the end one dancer pointed to me as he spoke in Rapa Nui.  The English translation didn’t mention anything about audience members falling asleep but just invited us onto the stage for photographs.  I had to speak to the guy who had found me out and apologise!  He invited me for a drink after he had changed which I politely declined, siting that I clearly needed my bed…

When I returned I took a cursory glance at the schedule passed to me on my first day by the tour company and found that my guide was right and I was wrong.  My tour of Orongo HAD been that afternoon!  No lie in for me then, I’d better be up to sort this out…

Easter Island – Day Four (17/05/2017)

I figured the easiest way to fix my little screw up was to go straight to the Rapa Nui Travel offices.  I got there around 9am as planned and my guide was there, full of apologies.  They had tried to get hold of me (I was only by the pool as well!) so I could join the previous afternoon’s tour as they weren’t running the half day to Orongo today.  BUT (and this had already crossed my mind and I was sort of ready for it), I could hike it myself.  I was assured it would be around a 3 hour round trip.  They furnished me with a map and off I went.  I probably didn’t have enough water with me (annoyingly I didn’t think of this until after I passed the last shop).  I walked around the airport (nipping in to use the facilities)

It was an easy walk to Ana Kai Tangata, a sea cave with some ancient paintings inside.  They were hard to make out and this is where a guide is extremely useful as they can point out exactly what you are looking for!  It was a lovely place for watching and listening to the crash of the waves though.

Back up to the road and a ranger pointed me to the trail for Orongo.  Today’s history lesson concerns the birdman cult.  It is not known exactly when the birdman ceremony began but some think it may have taken over from the moai traditions when it became clear they were unsustainable.  However we know about it in quite some detail as it was still practiced late into the 19th century.  Every year each chief would choose a representative (hopu) from his tribe to compete.  They would gather at Orongo in August and wait for the first of the migratory sooty terns to appear.  When it did, the competitors would scale the cliffs to the water, swim out to the largest of three islets, Motu Nui around 2 km away.  Each hopu would stake his place and wait for the first egg to be laid.  Whoever found the first egg would shout to the mainland – the other hopu would verify it was indeed an egg from the sooty tern and bow down in reverence.  It was a very respectful competition.

The winner would return to the shore with the egg and either he or his chief would become the birdman – or tangata manu - for the next year.  He would have all of his hair shaved off and live in strict seclusion where the only human contact he would have would be with a priest who would bathe and feed him.  Meanwhile the tribe would rule the rest of the island until the following year.  Doesn’t sound much like a prize to me…

Orongo itself is the far side of Rano Kau, the crater of an extinct volcano.  Obviously, uphill.  And today happened to be the hottest day of my trip.  It was a hard slog up for about an hour.  There was a lovely shaded section of trees for a time but for the most part the landscape was open and the crater was shielding any cooling breeze.  It was one of those hikes when you keep stopping and thinking, “surely not much further?” – I knew nowhere on the island was particularly high and this wasn’t the highest place but the ascent just seemed to go on and on.

Eventually the top was reached and the view across the crater to the sea was absolutely spectacular.  This really felt like the “navel of the universe”, this deep crater of wetlands which is now a protected eco system.  It was like I’d come back to the beginning of the world. So many thoughts ran through my head as a caught my breath.  Everything in my life that had brought me to that point – marriage, separation, the love of a band, falling out with friends, misreading an itinerary.  All of these things in my life that had lead me to this place on the other side of the world, on my own.  The accomplishment of finding my own way, in so many aspects made this a rather emotional moment for me.

Gathering my thoughts together, I embarked on the footpath around the crater to Orongo.  I say footpath.  A great deal of it was overgrown and I was glad of the company of a couple who helped guide the way.  Fortunately the foliage were soft yellow flowers (I think they are lupins) and at least it was relatively flat!  At the visitors centre I read the displays regarding the birdman ceremony, then ventured out to see the islets and the village.  You could feel the wind whipping around and realise how sheltered from the elements it must be inside the crater.  Indeed at one point the path moves inside the crater and you feel the temperature rise instantly.  I hovered with an English tour guide for a while but felt a bit dodgy listening to his entire tour for free.  So I continued to walk around the village – this would have been largely ceremonial and not used for tribal living.  However I couldn’t see any of the famed petroglyphs, again I missed having a guide to point them out.

An interesting point of note is that the moai currently residing in the British Museum is from Orongo.  Hoa Hakananai’a – “lost / stolen friend” is unusual as he was made from basalt, a much harder rock than the traditional moai.  The carvings on his back date to the era of the birdman cult.  It is likely that the moai itself is older and was thrown down, then repurposed.  I find it rather sad that he’s not here.

I returned to the footpath down the road rather than the overgrown way.  I had another moment taking in the view over the crater before embarking on the much easier descent.  I think it took about a third of the time down!  I passed an American girl at about the halfway point and assured her it was worth the sweat – by this time it was gone midday and I was glad I’d gone up when it was a little cooler.  As I reached the end of the path and reconnected to a road I seemed to acquire a dog.  There are dogs everywhere here.  They don’t look like strays, I think people treat them like cats and let them roam free and come home when they are hungry.  The dog accompanied me past the airport where I decided to follow the coast around into Hanga Roa.  I visited my last “new” moai at Hanga Piko and continued along the road.

The English gentlemen had recommended a restaurant around here which I hadn’t expected to go to but as I was passing, it was lunchtime and I had just burned a significant quantity of calories I duly went to Mahia.  There was no-one else there and I took a table right at the open window.  The recommendation was that this had the best fish in town so I ordered the local fish (which always seems to be tuna!).  It was a huge slab, about 4cm thick and cooked perfectly for me - ,  raw but just warm on the inside.  The seasoning was sublime.  It was served with green sweet potatoes – much nicer and slightly less overpowering than the orange ones we get in the UK.  I had another emotional moment – again, if I had visited Orongo on yesterday’s trip I would never find myself eating this amazing piece of fish watching the waves crashing in front of me.  Fortune has a funny way of presenting itself sometimes.

I finished with some baked bananas.  There was a little hassle with paying – the connection with the credit card machine went down and they had to scrabble together the change for the 20,000CLP notes the cash machine kindly dispensed yesterday.

My previous plan for the day had been to visit the museum before the afternoon trip.  I believed it closed around 4pm and only took an hour to visit so I continued along the coast road, stopping for some souvenirs on the way.  Past Tahai that we had visited yesterday morning and I again clocked some stalls and a wooden moai that I had taken a fancy to.  Shopping can wait, museum first.  The museum was ok but didn’t explain much I hadn’t already heard or read about.  It did however have a rare female moai, the only remaining coral eye and the remains of a moai head with good detail that you can get really close to.

From the museum I returned the way I had come.  I did shop.  I have spent a lot more on souvenirs and gifts than I normally would but I think I’ll allow myself just this once!  I stopped by the five moai and sat down, took the boots off my aching feet and wrote the diary for a while.  I considered staying out until the sunset but that was still two hours off.  I was hot, sweaty and dirty from my travels.  I needed to be clean again.

So now I’m sat in the hotel reception writing up my last adventures on Easter Island.  Having eaten at lunch I’m not really hungry for dinner so I think all that remains is for me to pack.  I could happily spend a few more days here.  It’s a wonderful combination of a place where life slows down but it’s still a source of endless fascination.

(PS – I will upload more pics when I have better internet!)