Thursday, February 3, 2011
Talk about packing it in. I just got back (5:45pm) from my full day tour with Rapa Nui Travel after being picked up at 9:15am. Sabine was our English/German guide who’s been living on Easter Island for three years. Raquel (34, from Sao Paulo) and I were the only English speakers so we spent the entire day hanging out. On our drive to Ahu Hanga Te’e it started raining and we stayed in the van a bit longer hearing about the site before heading into the drizzle. It was the first unrestored platform I’d seen. The moai looked powerless lying face down on the ground.
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| Me at Ahu Hanga Te'e |
Ahu Hanga Te’e (Vaihu): “Set around the attractive fishing bay of Hanga Te’e, this platform used to support 8 moai, each one with its red topknot. The moai are now lying prone in the exact position that they were thrown over, while the cylindrical shape of the topknots caused them to roll some distance, with two of them even having to be fished out of the bay! It is an important point: villages, and hence platforms, were always located next to bays, so as to provide the inhabitants with easy access in and out of the sea, since the main source of food for the islanders was the ocean.
“Just in front of the platform, you’ll notice a large round circle named Paina, after the ceremony that used to take place inside it.”
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| Ahu Hanga Te'e |
After Ahu Hanga Te’e we drove to another unrestored platform, Ahu Akahanga, a large site which also contained remains of the boat houses, umu (ovens), scattered topknots, one moai lying on its back and another moai face down some distance from the platform, and a cave used for protection during the tribal wars. I took a picture with the moai face down to try to provide some perspective on how large they are, but even though it appears that I’m touching it, I’m not (see picture below).
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| Ahu Akahanga |
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| "Touching" the moai. Notice how small I am next to it. |
Ahu Akahanga: “The following two sites of Akahanga and Vaihu are both excellent platforms to appreciate the way in which the moai were toppled and the ahu destroyed. While not perhaps as photogenic as the restored ahu, either site is an important part of the chain for fully understanding the island’s turbulent history. There’s something very powerful about seeing these once mighty structures in such a sad state. Remember that not a stone has been moved at these unrestored sites for almost 300 years, and it gives you a chance to see the island exactly as the early European explorers such as James Cook would have seen it.
“Entering the site of Akahanga, you immediately come across the remains of several hare paenga, or ‘boat houses’, with their distinctive foundation stones and decorative terracing.
“You will pass several ovens in a row, and clearly the cooking area for this particular village. The ovens, or umu, were extremely simple in their design, with stone slabs positioned in either a rectangular or hexagonal share, and a fire lit inside. Volcanic rocks were heated up by the flames until almost red hot, at which point the food, wrapped in either banana or taro leaves to prevent it from burning, was placed on top of the hot stones, and the entire oven covered with earth. The food was placed in different layers, depending on the extent to which it needed to be cooked, and several hours later the food was cooked and could be eaten.”
“Continue to the small cave, noting the man-made entrance that would have offered much greater protection from either the elements or unwanted visitors.”
Continuing on, we came to the ahu I was most excited to see Ahu Tongariki, a restored platform with 15 standing moai. What an incredible sight! I stared in awe as we approached. Before walking closer to the platform, I surveyed the “traveling moai” (called so because it was successfully returned to the island after having been sent to Japan in 1990 where it featured in a trade fair in Osaka and Tokyo), the topknots lined up along the side of the grassy field and a 16th moai on its back. Then it was up to the ahu to get a better look at the 15 moai and their carved heads. Amazing what the Rapanui’s built.
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| Traveling Moai with Ahu Tongariki |
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| Details of moai at Ahu Tongariki |
Tongariki: “This ahu represents the very pinnacle of the Rapa Nui stone carving period, and the sheer effort and expense involved in having created such an extravagant ceremonial altar is beyond belief…
The platform was restored between 1992 and 199 by a team from the University of Chile… The Tongariki restoration project cost over $2 million to complete, paid for by the Japanese Government together with a private Japanese construction company, Tadano, who also donated a crane capable of lifting up these enormous statues (the largest moai at Tongariki weights 88 metric tons).
“The moai lying on its back in the middle of the plaza looks like it once belonged on top of the platform as the 16th moai, but closer inspection reveals that it never had its eye sockets carved, i.e.. that it never in fact reached the platform.”
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| Moai on its back |
From Tongariki we drove inland to Rano Raraku, the quarry where the moai were carved. Nothing could have prepared me for what I’d see. Moai heads were popping out of the ground all over the hillside. There are almost 400 of them. Even though you can only see part, they are completed moai which were never moved to their platforms. Some of them are lying on the ground on the way to their ahu and to think what the island would have looked like if they’d all made it. I still can’t wrap my head around how they went about moving the huge statues. Raquel and I strolled along the paths making sure to check out Tukuturi (the kneeling moai) and the largest moai ever carved (21 meters in length weighing in excess of 200 tons but never finished).
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| Rano Raraku |
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| Tukuturi - kneeling moai |
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| Largest (unfinished) moai |
Rano Raraku: “The Quarry contains 397 moai in various stages of carving. A large moai would have taken approximately one year to be carved by a team of workers, under the guidance of a master carver.
The quarry was seemingly shared by everybody, although perhaps divided up according to tribe, but no knowledge of the segregation of politics has survived.”
“Broken moai were simply abandoned – their mana was considered to have disappeared if they fell and broke, requiring another moai to be carved in its place.
“Be mesmerized by the sheer quantity of moai in all stages of carving, as well as the almost ghost-town atmosphere that pervades, as if the workers had all simply downed their tools one day, never to return.”
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| Rano Raraku |
Having spent over four hours at various moai sites, it was time to sit down for lunch. Since I hadn’t pre-ordered the lunch box, I got an empanada at the mobile stand. While I waited for my food, three Rapanui men came up to get some drinks wearing some traditional clothing, as in basically a thong covering their privates. It was quite a shock. I sat down with the group when I finally had my food and dug in.
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| Men in traditional dress |
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| Me and Raquel at lunch |
When everyone had finished their lunch, we got back in the van to drive to the north part of the island with a quick stop to take pictures of Tongariki from a different viewpoint. Ahu Te Pito Kura with a single moai on the ground. “The unrestored platform with moai is lying exactly as it was when it was thrown over some 200 years ago. The statue here is a giant, and the largest moai to have ever been transported from Rano Raraku and successfully erected onto a platform – it measures a whopping 10m, and probably weights in excess of 100 tons. Its topknot, lying next to its head, measures almost 2m in height and weights in the region of 10 tons.” Next to the ahu is Te Pito Ote Henua (aka Navel of the World) which is supposed to be a stone with mana. I sat down on one of the smaller rocks to feel the power of the large rock, but it didn’t really work for me. Raquel said she felt something from the ground. Maybe I didn’t believe hard enough.
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| Me with Ahu Tongariki in the background |
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| Ahu Te Pito Kura |
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| Trying to feel the mana from Te Pito Ote Henua |
Clouds started rolling in when we reached Anakena, a beach on the north part of the island with palms from Tahiti, with Ahu Nau Nau, Ahu Ature Huki (supporting a single moai, noteworthy for having been the first moai on the island to be re-erected), and a moai on its back. By the time I was walking around the moai, the sky broke; I got soaked, even though I didn’t go swimming in the ocean. The seven moai on Ahu Nau Nau had incredible carvings on their backs.
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| Anakena beach |
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| Ahu Ature Huki |
“Some 1300 years ago, two double-hulled canoes laden with animals, plants and a group of hardy Polynesians, sailed into the bay of Anakena, and thus colonized what was to become the most isolated outpost in the Polynesian triangle.”
“The centerpiece of Anakena is without doubt Ahu Nau Nau, standing majestically at the top of the sand… It was underneath this platform that the white coral eye… was discovered…. Note the exquisite detail on the features of the moai – after the statues were all overthrown, sand gradually covered the entire platform, protecting these moai from the harsh elements that have so eroded the island’s other statues.”
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| Ahu Nau Nau |
“The level of detail on the backs of these moai is also superb, and they’re the only examples outside of the quarry to display this level of detail.”
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| Backs of moai at Ahu Nau Nau |
With 20 minutes left at Anakena, I sat at one of the restaurant shacks talking with some of the Germans in my group. When we arrived back in Hanga Roa, I was dropped off at the post office in order to get my passport stamped. As has become my daily habit, I stopped at Mi Kafe for more of their delicious chocolate café ice cream. I made a quick stop in the tourist office only to find out that no other people were interested in horseback riding. L
By the time I walked back to Mihinoa it was 5:45pm. Evelyn, the sweet young woman at reception gave me a hand-made flower bracelet; so kind. She is so helpful and thoughtful. Before going to the opening ceremony of the festival tonight, I’m having dinner (pasta and salad) with the girls at the hostel who I met yesterday during the sunset at Tahai. Some background information about the festival; I’ll fill you in on my experience tomorrow.
“The Tapati Rapa Nui festival began in the 1970s as a way of maintaining and promoting the Rapa Nui culture amongst the islanders, and in particular for generating interest and a sense of identity amongst the children… The festival consists of numerous dancing and singing competitions, as well as traditional sporting events such as swimming, canoeing, horse racing, haka pei and the island triathlon. Each year, two young female ‘candidates’ complete with each other to become the Queen of the Tapati for that year.”
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