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Published: February 6th 2006
Whatever you want to call it, it is the small volcanic island in the middle of nowhere between Australia and South America. It is 3600 km west of Chile (of which it is part of) and 2075 km east of Pitcairn Island and this makes it the most isolated inhabited island in the world (you have to be famous for something). It is located at “27°09'S 109°27'W” (put that into Google earth and you shall see) and is just over 160 km2 big and has today a population of just about 3800 inhabitants.
I arrived there on the 25th and found a nice and not that expensive (This one if for you Marc) accommodation in Hanga Roa, the only and therefore biggest town on the island. I shared my room with Paul and Tom and met also lovely Connie the Canadian (Hope my memory doesn’t fail me here), a French couple and Ines a French lady. (A big hello to all of you if you ever come across this entry). With the latter two I shared on the third day a little Suzuki 4WD to explore the island. Ines played the part of the guide as it was already her
Maoi close up
A close up of a restored Maoi. The top knot (the thing that looks like a hat) and the eyes are replicas.third time on the island and you could say that she knows most of the stones on the island by name. The reason for her presence this time was the annual Tapati Rapa Nui which is a two-week festival held every February (It started 2 days after I left. Talk about bad timing) and features if you believe the tourist information: “native dance, chant, and song, and competitions such as horse racing, woodcarving, fishing, kai kai (string figures), traditional body decoration, a parade, and a queen contest!”
Well whatever. As I mentioned Ines was a great resource and knew a lot about the island, the history and the different Ahus (Platfoms) and Maois (Stone heads) around the island and was for some reason obsessed with Caves. I share her obsession to a certain degree but my head had to pay the price as I bumped it continuously into the low ceilings of the lava tube caves. It was a very busy day but in the end we thankfully squeezed in a quick stop at Anakena beach which is just like a beach should be. There are palm trees, white sand and more important to me really warm water.
The
Ahu Tongariki
The largest Ahu with 15 Maois. This Ahu was rebuild in the 70s just to be destroyed again by a Tsunami and has been rebuild again thanks to some rich Japanese business man. days before we hired the car I went with Paul and Connie up to Orongo village and on another occasion to some other inland Ahu. Both walks took about 5 hours each, which is not that bad if it wouldn’t have been so bloody hot and for the fact that I went to the same places with the car a day later….
Apart from that nothing too exciting happened. We normally had dinner at the hostel and went afterwards to see the sunset of which was always different and I have loads of pictures of it.
If you’re interested in the island and its history then keep on reading otherwise …
Hanga Roa is more of an oversized village than a city and has a certain kind of charm to it. Apparently only locals are allowed to own land on Rapa Nui and it seems that most of the pensions, hostels and some of the hotels are owned by locals. One interesting fact about Hanga Roas the airport is that it exists and that the runway is extremely long. Both are thanks to NASA which needed an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle.
During the hay
It’s a long way home
The most remote inhabited island in the world and here you can see why... days of Rapa Nui sometime before 1700 (depends on whom you believe) the population was estimated to be around 16.000 which is a lot for an island of this size. Where those people came from is still not completely clear. Some, like
Thor Heyerdahl who crossed an ocean using a Kon-Tiki raft made of balsawood and other native materials, claim that they came from Polynesia or Asia while others claim that they came from South America. Wherever they came from it was a heck of a trip and I wonder how you would find an Island that small in an ocean that big.
If you wonder what all those 16.000 people did (apart from the obvious: making babies) then I can help you. Someone must have been really bored on a Sunday afternoon and decided that it would be fun to first carve out a up to 22 meter high Maoi (statue) out of solid volcanic rock without metal tools! and then drag the up to 160 ton heavy Maoi to various locations around the island. But then you’re not finished you also have to build a huge Ahu (base) to put the Maoi on. Sounds like fun to me
Digging for oil
Two Maois still standing at the quarry and it must have sounded the same to all the locals as they carved around 887 Maois and moved about 288 of them to an Ahu. A large number are still in the quarry or on the way to their final destination (talk about slow delivery). Other people (speak historians) claim that they did all this for religious reasons but hey who knows maybe I’m right… I guess one fact that makes them right is that the Ahu´s were also graveyards and the theory is that the Maoi represent ancestors which were watching over the living. The Easter Islanders believed that manna, or power and prosperity, was transmitted from revered ancestors to living members of the tribe through Maois.
This Island might also be a great example of what happens if you do not use your resources carefully. In the beginning the Island was completely covered with trees but they were all used to move the Maoi. Not having any trees is not a good idea as the islanders found out and it caused massive problems (which ones I forgot but use your imagination). At one stage it must have been so bad that they started eating each other…
The five best preserved Maois
The Ahu the Maois stand on is directly behind the Anakena beach and the Maois have been buried by sand. The top knots are also on of the few well preserved original ones. Another obvious problem is when you do not go along with your neighbors on such a small Island, as there is not really a lot of space to avoid each other. I guess therefore they started a war which decimated the population further. This also explains why none of the Maois were standing in the end. As Maois were powerful guardians of a village the enemy tried to topple them as soon as possible after attacking a village to “weaken” the enemy tribe.
Ok enough of the social comments lets get back to the story.
Once they also got bored of making war and the idea of dragging stone slabs around sounded silly they instead invented a new religion based around “Make Make” the local god of fertility. It didn’t involve a lot of dragging but it’s wasn’t without pain to believe in this god. Each year the local chiefs and a selected “representative” (speak the fastest climber and swimmer) would gather in the ceremonial village of Orongo, built on the rim of the volcanic crater Rano Kau. There they would wait for the arrival of the sooty tern birds (what a name!). Once they started nesting the competitors
Anakena beach
There are only two beaches on the whole island but what beaches they are
would climb down the cliffs, swim through shark infested water over to the island and try to collect the first egg of the season. If they won the tribe would gain some special privileges and the winner was called the “birdman” for a year. The price for him was (and here come the weird part) a year in seclusion… Not sure if they fed him the local virgins during this time but you would hope so, otherwise this would be a lousy first price.
Obviously this Island is a photographer’s wet dream and I took around 120 pictures in the few days I was on the island (Whoever invented the digital camera should get the Nobel price). I added a few to this blog but there are plenty more to be seen.
If you want to know more about the history of the island then I recommend checking out this
WikiPedia entry or this
Nova entry. An then there is also the file “Rapa Nui” which was produced by Kevin Costner (this should be warning enough)
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Brad
non-member comment
Wife
Hi ralph! looks like a pretty amazing spot! those moai look awesome! long way to go though just to get head! ha ha