Rappy Nui Year!

Happy New Year from Easter Island - or Rapa Nui as it is actually called by the locals. Easter Island is so remote, if you can´t pick it out on the map you should have a try. It´s part of Chile now but still 3,700km from the mainland. One of the most remote populated places on earth.

So is it worth the trip? Well if quitting your job and blowing all your savings was something you were thinking of doing, then this is one of the places that makes it all feel worthwhile. Isolation, stunning scenery and literally tonnes of history and mystery.

Around 400AD it is believed that about 100 Polynesians arrived here and set up home. They set about planting crops, hunting and fishing and by around 1000AD they were capable of supporting a skilled artisan class who decided to start getting creative in the surrounding volcanic valleys.

They began to carve out giant Moai from the rock and using very primitive means and tools, transported these giant creatures all around the island to stand guard over their villages. The Moai are scattered all over the island and around 350 of them made it to the Ahu (alters) on which they were somehow raised. So many theories exist about how and why they are created but what is known is that around 600 years later things started to go wrong on the island.

At the end of the 17th century the resources on the island were running out and conflicts were taking place. Many Moai were toppled from their platforms during the conflicts and those that were left standing were knocked by tsunami and earthquakes over the prevailing years.

It is such a fascinating place to explore and learn about. Our highlights were visiting Ranu Raraku which is the "nursery" where the Moai were carved from the rock. Hundreds still remain here in different stages of production. Lots of them are buried up to their necks in soil and grass and just stare eerily out across the island.

We also climbed the volcano Ranu Kao. It was a pretty steep hike up there but one of those amazing moments when you reach the top and stare down into the crater of the now extinct volcano. It´s an almost perfect circular crater that stretches 1km across and in its far corner a ceremonial village was constructed called Orongo. This village was built to house the islanders and their leaders during the Birdman ceremony. This basically involved representatives of each of the villages climbing down the side of the volcano and into the sea, swimming across to an islet and racing to retrieve the first seagulls egg of the year. Once they had it back on land, they presented it to their leader and were crowned the Birdman for that year. A huge Birdman cult existed on the island and there are petroglyphs of him scattered all around.

The Islanders themselves are a pretty wild and wonderful bunch. On New Years Eve morning we attended the Catholic church in Hanga Roa and the locals put on a huge show of singing all their local songs in the Rapa Nui language. Real entertainers. That night we went down town to celebrate New Year and there wasn´t that much going on so we ended up taking it pretty easy. It turns out the Islanders were all celebrating at their homes and went out to the night clubs at 1 or 2 AM. We got up early on New Years Day to see the sunrise at Tongariki. As we drove passed the nightclub on our little scooter lots of the Islanders were just exiting the nightclub and drunkenly attempting to mount their horses for the way home. Brilliant - but we totally missed the party.

Rapa Nui is a place we really didn´t want to leave. The weather was pretty perfect for somewhere so exposed, and there are great surfing and diving opportunities off the coast. But most of the time Moai watching kept us busy for hours. But after just four days we had to leave and get back on our South American adventure. Next stop Patagonia - stay tuned...

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