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Published: March 4th 2008
Easter Island
Who needs a forehead anyway.We flew through the night from Tahiti to Easter Island and were greeted by some very thorough passport checks as we formally entered Chile (about the only security they do have) and received flower necklaces from our host.
By chance we had arrived in time to catch the last few days of the annual Tapati Rapa Nui (Easter Island Festival). That afternoon, after a loooong wait we watched the parade (the 4 o´clock parade in true Polynesian style started at 7). It comprised various floats and lots of singing and dancing by the very scantily clad locals covered in mud.
Having retired to our room after having only 2 hours sleep in the past 36 hours we were delighted to discover the chickens which like most Polynesian animals wander and fornicate at their leisure. These little ¨rascals¨ (edited for content) seemingly set up camp outside our room and had a ´who can cock-a-doodle-do the loudest´competition throughout the night, every night. As such our plan to become vegetarian after the holiday (already strained by Laura´s inability to eat anything green) now has a loophole with chickens allowed.
The next day we explored by foot (carefully avoiding the horse poo
Easter Island
Mum, I don´t want to be on the stupìd float. - horses being one of the main forms of transport around the island) the only town of Hanga Roa, its moai, and thinking we should buff up a bit on its history, the local museum.
Using Andy´s pidgeon Spanish, we booked ourselves onto a tour which took us around most of the island (thankfully our concerns were unjustified and it was in English). The best sites were the re-erected 15 moai at Ahu Tongariki, and the quarry at Ranu Raraku volcano. The quarry, part of one of the three volcanoes on the island, is where all the moai were carved before being transported to sit on top of an Ahu (ceremonial platform) within which the bones of the elders were buried. The moai were carved to resemble the deceased and were erected to face inland to cast their Mana (force) over the living and protect them from harm. Originally they had their eyes carved from white coral and a local black rock, but these were the first to go when the locals started fighting over the increasingly scarce resources.
The site of the quarry was captivating as the moai were strewn all over the hillside. We liked it
Easter Island
Warrior in parade. so much that we hired a car and, as there is no insurance on the island, visited it again, very carefully.
Whilst most of the island is barren (looks more like the Scottish Highlands than neighbouring Hawaii) due to all the farming, it does have a rather nice beach and incredibly clear waters, as well as some very powerful waves, which a bedraggled Laura will testify to.
We also got to witness the closing ceremony of the festival. We arrived just in time to see the band rocking out with some polynesian classics. Then came the presentation of the diplomas for all the winners of the competitions that had been held during the festival. This was much like school prizegiving, and clearly there had been ALOT of competitions. A pattern emerged as we noted a recurring name in the announcements, Lucy Awah Toke. The crowd became excited, and as the three finalists for Queen of The Festival 2008 were presented, unsurprisingly one of them being Lucy, her apparent fan club next to us erupted. Even less surprisingly Lucy won.
Now the Oscars don´t have a patch on the Tapati festival. Lucy pulled a Gwyneth, followed by speeches
Easter Island
It´s just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right.... by the runners up, Lucy´s family, the town elders, the caterer, baggage handler and island dog groomer. After the hosts literally wrestled the microphone back Lucy had to lead her troupe in the traditional singing and dancing, backed by the traditional plinky plinky music. It finally came to an end with an impressive firework display, although some quite clearly illegal by UK standards. This signalled the start of the 400m dog dash as all the poor pooches who had been happily milling around the crowd suddenly leapt about four feet in the air and headed for the mainland.
As everyone was apparently recovering and nothing was open the next day we wandered round the tiny harbour and were quite taken aback to find four huge green turtles by the boats in the clear shallows.
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Pete
non-member comment
Stay away from Margo and Bob
Guys, glad to hear you are still having a great time. On your return I am certainly not letting you near our chickens for fear of retaliation attacks. Have you seen the movie Rapa Nui - probably one of the worst ever made - has to be seen to be believed, which ironically, is a bit like the real thing.