Tuesday, February 1, 2011
What a busy first day! It all started at 4:15am when I woke up to prepare for my bus ride to the airport. I slept poorly since I was nervous about getting up in time and the taxi driver arrived ten minutes late (not a big deal since I’d given myself plenty of time). The LAN bus was waiting when I arrived but I was unable to sleep for the hour and a half journey to the airport.
On arriving at the airport at 6:45am I couldn’t find a separate check-in for business class, which was a bit surprising considering LAN is like the BA of South America. After checking in I discovered that there is no lounge in departures (which I was kind of counting on for food), so I had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts before going through security. Of course, there was a Starbucks on the other side but it was too late. With plenty of time to spare, I read about Easter Island in the Chile Lonely Planet at the bookstore and concluded that I needed more than five days on the island.
Even though there was no business check-in, the plane had proper business class seats, flat-bed and all. I was served an omelet with tomato and bread, fruit, yogurt for breakfast and watched “Morning Glory”. Since I’d gotten little sleep, I tried to take a nap but mostly failed and ended up watching an episode of House. I was able to see most of Easter Island as we approached, and got some good pics of the island from the air.
I found my name of the board of the hostel and got leid. With my luggage in tow, I waited for the others and we eventually were transferred to the campsite. There were about 50 tents set up on the lawn, and I felt relief to have secured a bed in the one five-bed dorm. After I’d settled in, I was anxious to see the moai. On my way into town, I stopped for lunch at Aloha and ordered the tuna empanadas. It was a generous portion, but very expensive for empanadas. I spoke with a few tour agencies to get information on prices and tour options before walking to the town church. Inside the church were some uniquely Rapanui wood sculptures and a painting of moai.
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| I'm on Easter Island! |
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| Church of the Holy Cross |
In the heat of the day, I continued my walk through town towards Tahai, a site just north of Hanga Roa with three restored ahu (platforms) with moai. When I took a turn down a dirt road, some type of police car started honking at my from the road. I stopped and looked in question but when they continued driving, I kept walking. I could just make out the top of the first moai and wasn’t about to turn around. As I walked forward, the three ahu appeared in full, and I hurried to move closer thrilled to finally be seeing these statues in person.
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| First sighting of the moai |
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| Ahu Vai Uri |
I actually hadn’t realized that one of the platforms, Ahu Vai Uri, had five moai while the Ahu Ko Te Riku supports a single moai with red topknot and eyes (the eyes are not original but were inserted to show how the face comes alive once eyes have been added). I spent an hour walking around the ahu, taking pictures and speaking to one of the park rangers who gave me some excellent information. I also strolled up to Hanga Koi’e (thought to be one of the last ceremonial platforms built in the island around the 17th century), a single moai (around 4 meters tall weighing about 14 tons) on an ahu which I saw in the distance from Tahai.
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| Ko Te Riku |
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| Hanga Koi'e |
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| Ahu Ko Te Riku |
This is probably a good time to include some information from a guidebook I picked up by James Grant Peterkin, A Companion to Easter Island.
The Carving of the Statues (approx. 1000 – 1600 AD)
“Ancestor worship was common throughout Polynesia, with the idea that an important person’s mana, or spiritual power, continued to be valid and able to affect the outcome of events long after their death. Nowhere else in Polynesia did the construction of platforms or carving of ancestral representations reach the extent that they reached on Easter Island…
On Easter Island, when a chief or important member of a tribe died, a statue was commissioned from the quarry at Rano Raraku and transported across the island back to his village, where it would be erected in such a way as to overlook the village and his descendants. A very common misconception is that the statues on Easter Island were all set up facing out to sea, as if to offer protection from any outside forces, whereas in reality they all faced inwards, in order to oversee and offer a protective clock over their people.
As the islanders became more proficient in the art of carving and transporting stone statues, so the size of the moai began to increase, and although it is a slightly simplistic rule, moai can generally be aged by their size and style: the earliest statues tend to be small and rather crudely carved, while the later ones are larger and more stylized, with the very largest moai being found still in the quarry at Rano Raraku, unfinished from when the moai carving period came to its end.”
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| Ahu Tahai with Ahu Vai Uri in background |
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| Ahu Vai Uri |
When I’d finished admiring Tahai, I headed back toward Hanga Roa down the main coastal road past the cemetery and Ahu O Rongo (once an important ceremonial center). As luck would have it, I found Mi Kafe, a café that I’d read about in both my guidebooks which apparently serves excellent ice cream. So I wandered down to Fisherman’s Wharf and ordered the passion fruit and mint flavors on a cone. I sat down to savor the cold ice cream in the heat, quickly licking the sides as it was dripping, enjoying the view of the fishing boats and Ahu Ko Peka Ta’e Ati (an ahu located in the middle of town with two standing moai).
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| Cemetary |
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| Fisherman's wharf with moai in distance |
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| Ice cream at Mi Kafe |
Satisfied with my first afternoon on Easter Island, I walked along the coast back to Camping Mihinoa. An hour later at 8:50pm, I watched the sunset just outside the camp grounds as the waves crashed against the rocky coast. I’m thrilled to be here and looking forward to the next four days.
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