Easter Island #3

On the side of the quarry mountain and in sight of the largest restored Ahu at Tongariki (15 standing Moai) is the Crouching Moai - here's our photo of what thousands have taken before





Tongariki is awesome.  We sense the guides plan it this way - you see the aftermath (the Birdmen) then the Quarry, and then you see the ultimate display - 15 Moai poised against the awesome coast.  For a people without metal tools, or wheels, or block and tackle; sculpting and hauling a 100 ton giant down from the mountain and erecting him by the shore was an incredible achievement....to have done it 15 times is numbing.

Following are pictures of Tongariki - do note the red rock top knot of the second Moai from the right.  We can't believe the fact that the Moai shadows point back to their birthplace is coincidental.
















A note on our guides:

Day One we had a very good local guide - Carlos - who was extremely knowledgeable and had worked with the Heyerdahl family.  We learned a lot from him.

Day Two we hired a fascinating lady - Josie Nahoe Mulloy - she is the granddaughter of William Mulloy, an archeologist/anthropologist from the original Thor Heyerdahl expedition who went on to devote his life's studies to Easter Island and re-erecting the Moai.  He is given a lot of credit for reinvigorating the island's cultural heritage and the latter day success with tourism once the Moais were re-erected. 

Josie is half Rapa Nui - she grew up in the States and took a degree in anthropology and then an MBA.  She worked as an investment banker in San Francisco during the halcyon dot com days, but 8 years ago decided to leave San Francisco and return to her Easter Island roots - she subsequently married a Rapa Nui man and is now well established as a guide.

Josie is knowledgeable, bright, charming and the perfect guide if you want to learn about Easter Island - then and now.  We walked, we ate, we drank, and had much fun and learned much about the past and present - here's a pic of Liz and Josie:



One of the most poignant sites we visited with Josie was the Ahu Akivi - one of the most famous restorations done by her grandfather. During the restoration in 1960 it took a full month - using a stone ramp and two wooden levers - to raise the first of the seven moai.  By the time they got around to the last moai the same task took them less than a week.

This sight has several unique characteristics - the moai are all of a similar size, the ahu is quite small and is inland....and most importantly....the moai face the SEA rather than facing INLAND as all the others do. 

This is Josie's favourite ahu on the Island - and we understand why - it was very special to be there with her (pic below of Ahu Akivi with Richard and Josie):



We asked Josie about burials in the Ahus - her response was to walk ten feet, turn over a rock and show us a skeleton.  It may have been opportunistic, but it did get our attention!