Day 5 Hanga Roa

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Day 5- Our first full day on Easter Island greeted us with the sound of cockral's cock-a-doodle doing , nice you're probably thinking, not at half five in the morning it wasn't. Breakfast was served on our little terrace on a tray around half past eight, and consisted of cheese, ham, hot water for a brew, juice and one of the flat scone/breads they seem to serve with everything.

We collected things together and decided to pack jumpers and macs as the weather looked changeable, and walked to the tour company round the corner to pick up the tour. It is also windy a lot of the time on the island, adding to the unpredicatable nature of the weather. We had to go and collect the rest of the group from their hotels which meant a group of 13 of mostly English, but a few Spanish speakers. Our guide Patricia explained our route for the day, which would take in a number of the most important sites.

Once we had everyone on board we set off towards our first stop. Along the way we could see lots of remains of platforms which once stood some of the Moai. These are called Ahu, and often contain the bones of the ancestors and redundant older Moai. Then, every terrace of stones looked like a candidate to have a head next to it - mostly they don't. The first location of Ahu Akahanga had a number of fallen Moai, and the basic concept of the reasons why the Moai had been built, what they represent and why they were destroyed were explained to us by our Guide.

For those not in the know about the history of the island - here is the shortened version. Colonisation of the island is thought to have been in 1000 AD by the Polynesians. The people created the Moai in reverance to their ancestors, and weathy families paid to have them carved and taken to their coastal locations and erected on platforms looking in on their villagers to bring good "mana" - luck on water, crops and animals. The problem was that the population outgrew the resources available to it on the island. All the wood was used as firewood, or to move the Moai, there were not enough animals, fish etc, and as a result the people turned on each other and their ancestors for not protecting them and began to push over the Moai. The villagers even turned on their own Moai, toppling their own in an act of anger.

The fallen Moai we know had once stood on the platform, because they had eye sockets carved in them. This was one of the last things that happened before they were erected. The Moai were carved some way from this location, and there has been much speculation as to their
method of transportation. Theories such as using log rolling have been put forward, but actually there is no way of knowing. The Moai are carved from volcanic rock "tuft" and tools from basalt were used to carve the main body. The more detailed areas were carved using obsidian, a hard black volcanic glass.

At this location, we also got to see a cave or lava tube, naturally formed and used by the Rapa Nui as a house. They also built houses resembling boats, which were long and narrow, and had a black rock edge and would have been covered in leaves and branches. They did not cook in these, always outside, in an omi or oven, which had heated volcanic stones to cook the food. This would have been buried, covered in leaves and then earth, and left to cook all day.

We travelled to our next location Ahu Tongariki. This is one of the most famous sights on the island, and was restored in the 1980's with money from the Japenese after a tsunami destroyed the placing of the Moai. There are 15 Moai standing facing inwards, most in really good condition. Unfortunately, the weather was quite cloudy, so we had to make the best of the light on offer. When the tsunami struck, the platform was destoyed and it revealed a further 18 Moai which had been buried under it. When the reconstruction took place it was decided to return the 18 Moai back to the under the base of the 15 in their rightful place.

Our final stop before luch was to the quarry where the Moai were mined - Volcan Rano Raraku. This also has a crater at the top of it. Here is was possible to see where Moai had been taken out of the rock, those that were still in situ, and some that had made it part of the way down the hill, forming a sort of Moai road. Here we also saw the largest Moai ever carved, which did not make it out of the quarry - at 20m tall and weighing approx 270 tons it is named "El Gigante". We also saw examples of other Moai with different features - elongated ears lobes and pronounced nipples. It was thought that these were female, but this has now been discounted, as there are only 5 that have now been positively identified as females. It was also possible to see the influence of settlers coming to the island, as one of the Moai had a 3 masted sailing ship carved on it - not something that Polynesians used. We also saw the only example of a sitting Moai "Tukuturi", which was bearded and may have links more akin to the Polynesians.

We then had some lunch, which was chicken rice and sweetcorn, then tinned fruit set in raspberry jelly for desert. Whilst we were still eating a couple of the tour group made a dash for the rim of the crater, and just made it back before the bus left again. There is currently an archaeological dig in progress, and they have exposed a partially buried Moai which is 4.5m deep. On the way to the next location, we passed the 15 Moai and as the weather had improved dramatically, the driver stopped to allow us to take some pictures as the composition of the setting had changed with much better light.

After taking a few more shots, we continued on to Ahu Te Pito Kura - the "navel of the world". At this site, there is a sacred rock which holds magnetic properties, meaning that when you place the compass on it, it sends the compass in all directions. We also saw the fallen Moai of "Paru", the largest Moai ever to stand on an Ahu. When they are raised and the eyes added, the white of the eye was made from coral and the pupil from obsidian. The later Moai had an added feature of a "top knot" or puki, which was made from a different red rock mined from a different quarry on the island. Again there are a number of theories as to how this "hat" was placed on the top of the Moai. Earlier Moai are distingushable as they are shorter, stockier with rounded heads, as they did not have to sit the top knot on them.

From here we went to the only beach on the island, which is also the site of standing Moai. This site looks more like Polynesia than anywhere else, as it is surrounded by palm trees and the sand is white. After we got some pictures, we went and sat on the sand. Russ put his feet in - cold was the verdict. There were some brave people swimming in the sea here.

We returned to the hotel, and got ready to be collected for the evening of entertainment that we had booked. We were collected at 7.45pm, but by the time the driver had picked everyone up, we where one of the last to arrive. On arrival we were asked to pay and it's the only time we've ever been asked whether we would like to leave a tip up front, before we've even seen what was on offer!

Once we had collected our Pisco Sour welcome drink, we went outside to the hut, where everyone was having a Polynesian design painted on their faces. This took a long time to get round everyone, so they drafted in extra painters. When the white paint was first applied, it was very pale, but as it dried the colour came out a lot more. There was then the opening up of the traditional oven which had been cooking our tea. There was chanting, singing and when the leaves were peeled back, it contained chicken, fish, pork and sweet potatoes. This was then taken away to prepare for our meal. Whilst this was happening, we were then shown some traditional dancing. The ladies were taught by a young girl (its all in the hips), whilst the men chanted and made a lot of noise - far more entertaining!

We were then called into eat, which was a bit of a scrum, with some people piling their plates like they hadn't been fed for a week. On the up side, the wine was free flowing and quite palatable.

For the final part of the evening, we went into a small theatre, to be treated to dancing and singing with some musical instruments. Luckily there was an English translation which helped. The dancers were very committed and by the end looked totally exhausted. They had certainly put a lot of effort in to what was a very enjoyable show. At the end, they invited members of the audience up to dance, and to have their pciture taken. There was a large uptake of older ladies in their 50's plus taking pictures with the young male dancers!

We then had to wait for our transport back to the hotel, and we were about the last to leave. It had rained a bit, but nothing significant. When we got back to the hotel it was after midnight, but we saw our bikes for the next two days had been delivered. So we went straight to bed in hope that the chicken chorus would not be so early this morning.

PS Internet connection sporadic - struggling to upload photos.

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Photos

Heads on the hillside at the Quarry
The rest of the torso is buried up to 25ft below