The Mystery and Magic of Easter Island

Oh. My. Goodness. We are in Easter Island and it's incredible!

I'm going to start from the beginning. Like three million years ago..... A volcano, then another, then another erupted in the middle of the Pacific ocean, miles from anywhere. Offshoot eruptions filled in the gaps between the main volcanoes, forming an island. They stopped erupting about 10,000 years ago. Today the coast is still very wild and rugged.

Jump forward to about 800AD and we find a group of about 200 Polynesians, probably from what is now French Polynesia, crowded into a large double canoe, looking for land. They are great sailors and navigators and make their way for about 3,000kms to this speck of land and settle in. The island is just a pimple on a sea of blue - only about 20kms long on its longest side.

Life is good for the new inhabitants and they multiply at a great rate. Polynesians at that time believed greatly in mana, a person's spirit or aura. They believed that when someone powerful died, usually a chief, their mana could be preserved by building a statue dedicated to them. These statues were called moai (pronounced mo-eye). If that moai overlooked their village, then the old chief's mana would protect the village. And thus began the era of one of the most astonishing building feats in human history.

A quarry was found where the stone was soft and (comparatively) easy to carve. Teams of carvers spent one to two years carving a single moai. As time went on, these moai got larger and larger until some measured 10 or metres high and weighed 80 tonnes. These were raised on platforms all over the island (I'll come to the 'how' later). The results were spectacular.

Tongariki, the largest collection of  moai now standing on the island.

The statues are quite similar but there are always subtle differences between them.

Some moai have a top-knot on their heads. It is thought that this represents the hairstyles they wore. These top-knots were carved from red scoria, sourced from a different quarry. Also note the long fingers at the bottom of each moai.

At another site called Anakena, more of the statues had top-knots. This site was located right in front of one of the island's two beaches. The old fishing villages used to be located where canoes could access the sea.

Our first trip out was with a guide. This was a great way to get a lot of info before exploring further by ourselves. Gina was a local with a lot of historical knowledge. She was great! John and Gina are standing beside an old crematorium at Akahanga.

After that. we hired a little Suzuki Jimmy and drove around ourselves. It was a great way to go.

There was one separate statue at Tongariki, nicknamed the Travelling Moai. This statue was lent to Japan, a country that has a fascination with Easter Island. In return, they paid to rebuild the entire complex at Rongariki. It was a huge project that took years and cost a fortune but they were true to their word - they rebuilt the complex and returned the moai.

We ended up visiting this site three times! It was really special. 

One day we had the whole place to ourselves.

As we drove out, a rainbow appeared over the complex. Amazing!

One of the big questions about the Easter Island statues is how on earth were they moved? The Polynesians didn't even have large animals let alone machinery. There are many theories - they could have been rolled on logs. But when the old people were asked how the statues were moved they always said, "they walked". Some archaeologists recently came up with a new theory. The statues were carved in such a way that they had a forward-leaning centre of gravity. The archaeologists discovered that if you tied ropes around one and started rocking it, it actually moved forward and "walked". Some of these statues were moved many kilometres so, whatever the method was, the achievement was astonishing.

There are about 1,000 moai on the island and almost none are under cover. They are a few hundred years old and are showing signs of erosion. The island is very windy and fairly wet. It's hot in summer and sea spray is everywhere. All of this is bad news for the magnificent statues that are carved out of soft rock. It's only a matter of time before each one becomes an indistinguishable blob of rock. Check out this one that had been left lying on its back near the sea.

Sometime by the early 1700's, overpopulation began to be a problem. When the islanders had first arrived, Easter Island was covered in trees, mostly palm trees. There were now no trees left. Food began to get scarce and fighting broke out between the various tribes. As the fighting got worse, they began to not only steal their neighbours' food but they toppled their moai as well. In a few short years, all the moai fell. The magical, mystical statues were now just rubble on the ground.

At Akahanga the statues have been tipped onto their faces while their red top-knots lie nearby.

The quarry, called Rano Raraku, was a remarkable place where the nearly 400 moai in various stages of completion, lay or sat where they were left. As we approached the quarry several moai lay on the ground. They either broke while being transported or were abandoned during the fighting.

There were many stages to making the statues. First, the front and sides were carved while the body was still attached to the bedrock. When that was done, it was cut from the bedrock then slid down the hill into an awaiting hole. The statue would stand upright in this hole to allow the back of it to be carved. Many moai were in their holes when the quarry was abandoned. This has left an eerie scene where hundreds of half-buried moai are scattered along the lower slopes of the old quarry. It's magnificent.

You will have noticed by now that the statues are all very similar. The heavy brow, ski-ramp nose, thin lips and long ears are evident on all the main moai however every now and then one is completely different. This guy overlooks one end of the quarry. He is kneeling, something moai never do, and his face is different. It is thought that maybe he was a revered master carver but nobody really knows.

The top-knot quarry was also abandoned with work partly completed. These top-knots were ready to be transported when all work stopped. They still lie where they were left.

The people weren't just moai builders though. They also carved figures into rocks. These usually represented canoes, fish or bird-gods (more to come on this later). Again though, nothing is protected. The rocks were completely exposed to the elements and you could already see a lot of erosion.

This rock is famous for having the largest petroglyph (rock-carving) on the island. The curved lines on this are a huge double canoe. But look at those puddles! There is no attempt to keep the rain off it.

There is actually one site that has been covered, although not for the reason you'd expect. This one is next to the modern quarry and they thought they should do something to protect the three moai here from the rocks being flung from the quarry during blasting! These moai were already badly eroded though.

One place was set up to show us how the houses were made. The houses of the chiefs were in the shape of an upturned canoe. The bases were edged with basalt rocks with holes carved into them. Poles were fitted into these holes and a roof frame constructed on these.

The ancient people also had areas of religious significance. Here, a circle was where ceremonies were held, right in front of the moai and their fallen top-knots.

Horses and cattle roam freely all over the island. This is all very lovely to see but horse and cattle hooves wreak havoc on platforms and fallen moai.

The moai originally had coral and scoria eyes in them. Only one has ever been found. It's now in the museum.

The moai were always placed on platforms and these platforms were amazing creations in their own right. Some were huge and contained tonnes of rocks. One was even carved so the rocks fitted each other perfectly. 

Back to the island's history, in an effort to restore order after all the rioting and raiding, it was agreed that there would be what was called a birdman competition each year. Each tribe had one representative who had to race the others down a 300 metre cliff, swim 2kms to an island, collect a bird egg and return that egg unbroken to their chief. The winning tribe got to rule for the next year.

This competition was held at the very tip of the island. Everyone moved there for a few weeks to prepare for the race. They built houses of stone here because the wild winds wouldn't allow thatch to stay in place. These have now been restored.

The second island is the one they had to swim out to after climbing down the cliff. Apparently people died from falling from the cliff.

Directly behind the birdman village was a huge crater where they would no doubt have sourced a lot of their fresh water from as there are no rivers on the island.

In 1862, tragedy struck the island when Peruvian slave traders came calling. From a population of around 12,000 they took about 1,000 people for slaves. A catholic priest later managed to get over 100 of them sent back to Easter Island. Sadly, most of them died en-route and only 15 made it back to the island. Those 15 came back with unwanted baggage though - smallpox. Within a few years all but 111 islanders died. From what was once a spectacularly successful society, this is all that was left.

The next 100 or so years saw little improvement. The island was annexed by Chile who subsequently leased the whole island out to a sheep farming company. The islanders were rounded up and forced to stay in one town while the company took over the island. It wasn't until the 1960's the natives were given any say in how their island is run. Today the place is pleasantly ramshackle but on an upward trend.

Not all the features on this island are man made. These lava tubes were cool to explore.

In a few places the ceiling had collapsed, leaving an open hole to the sky. Lots of plants grew here and we found this huge beehive!

That evening we watched a magnificent sunset from a great restaurant on the shore.

After that, we went to see a traditional dance show. Unlike the dancing we saw in French Polynesia, this was put on for tourists but came highly recommended. Well, I didn't know what I was in for! Strapping, fit young men, wearing nothing but g-strings, feathers and tattoos gyrated their near-naked bodies around right in front of us! It was more like the Chippendales than a traditional dance. But who was I to complain?

Oh yes - there were women too!!!

The funny thing was, we had seen this sign in the street earlier. It means "hair removal". Sitting as close as we were to these performers, there's no doubt they had visited this shop!

Around the town we saw some other interesting sites. Isn't "Danky Cheeskater" the coolest ice-cream name you've ever heard?

For such an isolated place, the food was excellent. There were heaps of vegetables! The local specialty was empanadas, like pasties. They were great! 

Unfortunately, everything had to get flown or shipped in and it was all so expensive. A meal each cost us about $70 Aussie dollars. There is no proper port here. Goods are unloaded from the ship onto small boats to be brought to shore. We heard that one time there was a ship with the next load of gas bottles on it that sat offshore for a month waiting for the seas to be calm enough to unload. There was a shortage of gas across the whole island.

Chickens and roosters were everywhere. I love chooks and the ones on this island were all so pretty!

We met a Japanese guy called  Naoshi. He recently ran for the position of mayor in his home town and lost. This trip was a holiday for him to get some balance back in his life I guess. He had a really funny habit of making noises during a conversation. For example, a conversation might so like this: Me: Did you visit the quarry today? (Naoishi: mmmmmMMMMMmmmm!). Weren't the statues amazing? (erggGGHHHHHhhhh!). It rained when we were there (ooeeeRRGGGHHHhhhh!) It was still fantastic though. (hmmMMMPPPHHHhhh!). I really can't describe it but it was so funny!

We met other good people here including an English couple who were travelling araound South America in a motorhome. She had MS so it was a great way for them to go. They had led interesting lives - both were in the army and lived in the Falklands after the war. 

We also met a Kiwi couple. Together with them and Naoshi, we saw the Kevin Costner-directed movie, "Rapa Nui". (Rapu Nui is the local name for Easter Island.) It was interesting to see the movie while we were on the island where the story was set but we could see why it was a $20 million flop. Noashi continued to gurgle and hmmphh his way through the movie.....

The differences between French Polynesia and here were striking, largely due to the difference in climate as well as the Spanish influence versus the French influence. Gone were the colours, the flowers, the bright clothes and the obesity of French Polynesia. The people of Easter Island were friendly but perhaps not as much as those of French Polynesia.

We also had a bit of a hiccup here when we learned that Courtney had her Irish passport and bank cards stolen from her bag in Buenos Aires. It has been a big headache for her - and for all those at home that helped her - but she's just about got everything sorted now.

The last site we visited was the one closest to town called Tahai. They have replcated the eyes in one of the statues here. It looks a bit strange.

On our last night we watched the sun set behind these amazing statues. Many other people did the same thing. It was wonderful and a fitting end to our stay.

So that's it for now. We're off to South America and will be with Courtney in a few days!

Ciao!
Heather and John