Easter Island #4

Josie took us on a drive to the highest point on the island - the following photos are the three vertices of the island - notable is the absence of trees.  In fact erosion is an ongoing problem.

One interesting feature is that virtually all the population is concentrated in the one city (Hanga Roa) - the result of oppressive policies by the British sheep farming company that effectively owned the island and subsequently the Chilean navy, who ruled the island.







It was long thought that the Moais didn't have eyes until an archeologist discovered a coral eye while excavating in the sand at the beach at Anakena.  Now there are a couple of theories as to why the archeologists haven't found more eyes....

One -  because they're coral, they may have simply deteriorated away or...

Two - the eyes were given to the moais after they were erected to bring them to life - and when the Rapa Nui people lost faith in the moai, they toppled them and removed and destroyed the eyes in anger.

One of the moais near town has eyes - (near Ahu Taihi which is a 10 minute walk from town) - 3 pics follow:







Following are photos of other moai from other ahus around the island.....

The moai are the stars of Easter Island, but some of the lesser known attractions are incredible.  One was a lava tube known as "two windows".  It's an anonymous small hole in the ground as shown below:



You crawl in backwards, creep a good distance along a 4 foot high passage and eventually come to a "Y" intersection - at the end of each branch is where the lava poured into the sea.  Two "windows" suspended hundreds of feet above the surf below.  We crept to the edge and looked down.....a long way down.





The Rapa Nui mined the top knots for the moai from a separate quarry - of course, when you're moving 100 ton statues with stone tools you always decide to mine their caps from the other end of the island!

The top knot stone is bright red and quite hard.  Today the quarry is over grown and the round top knots are gently subsiding into the grazing ground.  It's all rather bucolic, with meandering cattle, silver fig trees and the red stone.  Elsewhere on the island you find top knots where they came to rest when their moai were toppled.









We closed our visit to Easter Island with bottles of wine and great conversation on Josie's veranda.

There's a number of books recently on the best seller lists that employ Easter Island as a metaphor for what humanity is doing on a global basis ("Collapse" by Jared Diamond and "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright).

The warnings get a lot more credible when you're actually there - the implicit peril of hubris, the futility of religion taken to illogical conclusions, and the inevitable consequences of environmental destruction.  Ironically the Easter Islanders may be repeating their ancestors' folly - over breeding, erosion, larger and larger cruise ships, a casino....but since we're doing similar things on a global basis, who can blame the islanders for playing along?

The flights to Santiago and home were low stress - scooped Business Class seats (yeah!) -- the kids on the plane were inexplicably quiet; our luggage arrived when and where we did; the house was still here; our birds are fine and the first tulips are poking their heads up from the frost hard beds.

We had a wonderful time.  Learned more than we expected; met a lot of interesting people (local and fellow travelers) who taught us how little we know about the world.  We'll go back to South America, but next year most probably New Zealand and Tasmania, with a side trip to Japan.

To come - a "random observations" wrap up and a separate list of recommended hotels, restaurants and attractions.

Comments

[Ann McMaster]

What a site! Humbling . . . looking forward to your Random Observations. Be well.

[Sally Fowler]

An absolutely stunning report, both pictorially and in your comments on these fragile parts of the world.

[Daddy L]

My wife and I were in Easter Island October 2004, we were totally awestruck! Loved it there. Here's a link to our photos of our trip:

http://ericlowe.f2o.org/index.php?cat=2

I also have a site where people can post pictures and reviews of the food they eat, which I see you also like to do. If you have any food photos you'd like to contribute, please do.

http://mealme.com

[April and Robin]

Hello Richard and Elizabeth:

This is a FANTASTIC blog. I would actually like to see this turned into a book or two. You have excellent photographs and the writing is superb. I look forward to your next blog.

[Joan Foster]

Enjoyed reading about Easter Island. I wonder if you know that Tongariki was the set of Moai re-erected by the Japanese after they were lifted and toppled by a tsunami? That might dispel the suggestion of mystery that their shadows pointed back to the quarry.

We were there this year, too, and were awestruck with the moai and ahu (the rock platforms for the statues) around the island.

The Thor Heyerdahl side of the story is hotly discredited by some who felt he was opportunistic and self serving. I was surprised at how angry he made some of the people from Easter Island.

[IngridG]

I love your blog. Very thorough and the pictures are beautiful!

I am also thinking about going to Easter Island in 2008, but really need to know if you booked your trip through an agency? If so, who was it?
I want to combine Galapagos with Easter Island - already did Peru.

You can email me at nimbette2@yahoo.com
Ingrid :-)

[joni s.]

your trip is not only fabulous but informative. thank you for the report and the wonderful pictures.

[DavidP]

What a great trip. Was curious if you had the email address of Josie since we are going there next week and wanted to hire her. Please email her email or phone if you have it. My emial is david.polayes@credit-suisse.com

Thank you.

Dave