Easter Island is one of those places that captures the imagination. It is a tiny island- only 14 square miles. It is one of the French Polynesian Islands and it is really in the middle of nowhere. It is a four hour plane ride directly west from Santiago, Chile. It is a refueling stop for planes going to Tahiti. It is also an alternate landing site for the NASA space shuttles. Easter Island is part of Chile, though the Rapa Nui Island people don't identify themselves as Chilean. It is also one of the most poorly named places we've encountered. It is named Easter Island because some explorer landed there on Easter Day. It wasn't discovered at that time as people had been living there for hundreds of years but yet it was considered "discovered" at that time. The people on the island refer to it as Rapa Nui Island. They speak Rapa Nui language, and identify strongly as the Rapa Nui people.
Easter Island / Rapa Nui Island, is also, of course, the island with the big statues. The statues and the story of the island are what have fascinated people with this island for a long time. The story includes exploration, kings, family rivalry, cannibalism, exploitation, and lots of mythology. Part of the fascination is that no one knows for sure what happened or why. People are taught the history through storytelling generation to generation. Depending on who tells you the story, you are bound to hear slight variations and personal beliefs sprinkled in. I would bet no two stories are exactly the same.
Anyway, we were fascinated by this little island out in the middle of nowhere. We were able to get there and back using our around the world ticket, so off we went. We were met at the airport when we arrived in the evening, given flower lei´s (like they do in Hawaii) and transported to our hotel. We arrived just at sunset, so we couldn't see much. The next day we were going on an all day tour and went to bed eager to check out this crazy place. Our tour guide was fantastic. She was born on the Island, her parents and grandparents were also born on the island, so she had full local credentials to tell us the story of the island from her perspective. It was really important to her to tell us about the people of the island and the history and to understand that it was more than a place that built weird statues.
I certainly can't do the story of the history of the island justice, and I hope to get a book and read more about the history (at some point in time), but here's a brief version as I understand it. True to the oral tradition, I'm sure what folllows is not exactly how I heard it, but pretty close.... So, there was a king on an island, and he had a dream about an island far away that was the "navel of the world." The king consulted his advisors to also dream about this island and find out where it was. There were a couple of failed attempts to find it over the next ten generations of kings. The king, ten generations since the original dream, decided to try again to find the island. He sent out his seven sons, and using the stars, they found the island. They knew they had found the right island as dream talked about an island with volcanoes on the corners and a couple of little islands just off shore, which is exactly the geographic features of this island. So, the sons went back, told the King of their findings, and the king moved with is whole family to the island. When they arrived, the King split the island in half- the west side for the king and the east side for his sister and her family. As generations passed, the two sides of the island became populated and identified themselves as either from the East or from the West. Anyway, being so isolated, they developed their own language- both written and oral, and their own traditions based mostly on mythology. One of the traditions was when an important member of a family had passed, they build a stone statue of the person to protect the rest of the family. Families lived in little clusters around the island, and these statues were placed facing the home of the family (away from the water usually). These are not small statues. The biggest one is about 90 feet tall, and they are solid rock.
One of the most discussed mystery of the island was how they moved these Moai statues from the rock quarry where they were carved to the platform that they were intended to stay. In some cases, this was seven or more kilometers away. The two leading theories are as follows. One, they stood the statues up and used tree trunks as wood poles to "walk" the statue to the proper place. Imagine standing with your feet together and rotating on the balls of your feet and then your heels to move. It's slow, but it could work. The other theory is that they were moved lying down and rolled over a bunch of tree trunks, moving the trunks one and a time until they got to the intended place. Our guide believed that they probably used both of those methods depending on the size of the statue, though I think she likes to let herself belief that the statues walked there on their own- the leading myth on the topic. Anyway, they would carve the statue and transport it. They would not carve the eyes until it was in place as the eyes held the mana (spirit) and they didn't want any risk of damaging the mana during transport. Once at the proper place, the eyes would be carved and they would place shell and obsidian rock to create the eyes.
There are a few other key pieces to this story. First, at it's height, it was rumored that there were over 25,000 people living on this island (the numbers range in some stories up to 100,000). The story goes that there were so many people on the island that they used up all of the resources. One theory is that they used all of the trees to move statues and for fire, that by the time they needed to leave the island, they couldn't build any boats because there was no more wood. During this time, there was also a lot of fighting between the east and the west which lead to all of the Moai on the island being knocked down, fighting, rumors of cannibalism, etc. There is also a rumor that there was significant disease and people died from that. Another rumor is that some people did have boats and did leave the island. At the end of this time, there were 112 people left on the island with no trees, no resources, and over 600 Moai statues either knocked down or never finished. The Moai statues that are standing today have been restored. Every single Moai was knocked down, and most broken.
It is a fascinating place. This king had a dream, ten generations later, they went to the island. They developed their own language, traditions, and culture. They grew in population and then imploded with only a few people left to carry on passing down the stories and the spoken language. The written language of hieroglyphs has been lost as no one knows how to interpret it and there are only seven examples left in existence all over the world (and not one of those, by the way, is on the island). And what is left on this island is these huge fallen statues. Some of them have been restored, and put upright, but only one has had eyes put back in and only as an example of what it must have looked like.
Anyway, we were really enchanted by this cute little tropical island. Our day long tour was great. We visited some of the key sites and were told lots of stories about the island. On highlight was a platform that had 15 restored Moai in a row- including the biggest one on the island. The statues are all male (each one with hands pointing at their genitals), but they are all different (as they were modeled after real people). They all have this unmistakable Easter Island face, but they each have unique facial features and expressions that make them more personal. It is also really beautiful since you are always right next to the water and all you can see out is clear blue ocean as far as the eye can see.
Easter Island / Rapa Nui Island, is also, of course, the island with the big statues. The statues and the story of the island are what have fascinated people with this island for a long time. The story includes exploration, kings, family rivalry, cannibalism, exploitation, and lots of mythology. Part of the fascination is that no one knows for sure what happened or why. People are taught the history through storytelling generation to generation. Depending on who tells you the story, you are bound to hear slight variations and personal beliefs sprinkled in. I would bet no two stories are exactly the same.
Anyway, we were fascinated by this little island out in the middle of nowhere. We were able to get there and back using our around the world ticket, so off we went. We were met at the airport when we arrived in the evening, given flower lei´s (like they do in Hawaii) and transported to our hotel. We arrived just at sunset, so we couldn't see much. The next day we were going on an all day tour and went to bed eager to check out this crazy place. Our tour guide was fantastic. She was born on the Island, her parents and grandparents were also born on the island, so she had full local credentials to tell us the story of the island from her perspective. It was really important to her to tell us about the people of the island and the history and to understand that it was more than a place that built weird statues.
I certainly can't do the story of the history of the island justice, and I hope to get a book and read more about the history (at some point in time), but here's a brief version as I understand it. True to the oral tradition, I'm sure what folllows is not exactly how I heard it, but pretty close.... So, there was a king on an island, and he had a dream about an island far away that was the "navel of the world." The king consulted his advisors to also dream about this island and find out where it was. There were a couple of failed attempts to find it over the next ten generations of kings. The king, ten generations since the original dream, decided to try again to find the island. He sent out his seven sons, and using the stars, they found the island. They knew they had found the right island as dream talked about an island with volcanoes on the corners and a couple of little islands just off shore, which is exactly the geographic features of this island. So, the sons went back, told the King of their findings, and the king moved with is whole family to the island. When they arrived, the King split the island in half- the west side for the king and the east side for his sister and her family. As generations passed, the two sides of the island became populated and identified themselves as either from the East or from the West. Anyway, being so isolated, they developed their own language- both written and oral, and their own traditions based mostly on mythology. One of the traditions was when an important member of a family had passed, they build a stone statue of the person to protect the rest of the family. Families lived in little clusters around the island, and these statues were placed facing the home of the family (away from the water usually). These are not small statues. The biggest one is about 90 feet tall, and they are solid rock.
One of the most discussed mystery of the island was how they moved these Moai statues from the rock quarry where they were carved to the platform that they were intended to stay. In some cases, this was seven or more kilometers away. The two leading theories are as follows. One, they stood the statues up and used tree trunks as wood poles to "walk" the statue to the proper place. Imagine standing with your feet together and rotating on the balls of your feet and then your heels to move. It's slow, but it could work. The other theory is that they were moved lying down and rolled over a bunch of tree trunks, moving the trunks one and a time until they got to the intended place. Our guide believed that they probably used both of those methods depending on the size of the statue, though I think she likes to let herself belief that the statues walked there on their own- the leading myth on the topic. Anyway, they would carve the statue and transport it. They would not carve the eyes until it was in place as the eyes held the mana (spirit) and they didn't want any risk of damaging the mana during transport. Once at the proper place, the eyes would be carved and they would place shell and obsidian rock to create the eyes.
There are a few other key pieces to this story. First, at it's height, it was rumored that there were over 25,000 people living on this island (the numbers range in some stories up to 100,000). The story goes that there were so many people on the island that they used up all of the resources. One theory is that they used all of the trees to move statues and for fire, that by the time they needed to leave the island, they couldn't build any boats because there was no more wood. During this time, there was also a lot of fighting between the east and the west which lead to all of the Moai on the island being knocked down, fighting, rumors of cannibalism, etc. There is also a rumor that there was significant disease and people died from that. Another rumor is that some people did have boats and did leave the island. At the end of this time, there were 112 people left on the island with no trees, no resources, and over 600 Moai statues either knocked down or never finished. The Moai statues that are standing today have been restored. Every single Moai was knocked down, and most broken.
It is a fascinating place. This king had a dream, ten generations later, they went to the island. They developed their own language, traditions, and culture. They grew in population and then imploded with only a few people left to carry on passing down the stories and the spoken language. The written language of hieroglyphs has been lost as no one knows how to interpret it and there are only seven examples left in existence all over the world (and not one of those, by the way, is on the island). And what is left on this island is these huge fallen statues. Some of them have been restored, and put upright, but only one has had eyes put back in and only as an example of what it must have looked like.
Anyway, we were really enchanted by this cute little tropical island. Our day long tour was great. We visited some of the key sites and were told lots of stories about the island. On highlight was a platform that had 15 restored Moai in a row- including the biggest one on the island. The statues are all male (each one with hands pointing at their genitals), but they are all different (as they were modeled after real people). They all have this unmistakable Easter Island face, but they each have unique facial features and expressions that make them more personal. It is also really beautiful since you are always right next to the water and all you can see out is clear blue ocean as far as the eye can see.
There are four extinct volcanoes on the island and one was the primary rock quarry for the bodies of the statues. The hair on top (and no, they are not hats, they are called top nuts, which was a fancy hair-do at the time, sure to make a comeback one day soon) was carved and transported from another quarry with darker red colored rock. Anyway, the rock quarry is really amazing. There are several hundred Moai there. Many were stopped in process, some appeared to be finished but not transported, and some had fallen and broken along the way. As with most questions about the island, no one knows for sure why there are so many Moai here, but they are all along the side of the volcano. 
Besides a great guide, fantastic weather, beautiful surroundings, and the Moai, we also were fortunate to be on this tour with a great group of people. There were two other couples about our age on extended trips. One couple from Australia planned to travel for between 18-24 months, and the other couple from Canada have been travelling almost every six months for about six months for four years. It was fun to meet other folks doing very similar trips. We wound up having a great dinner- delicious fresh caught tuna- with our new Canadian friends (she is originally from Uganda, and he from Tanzania). It was a great day on the island at the center of the world.
With only one more full day on the island, we decided to maximize our time by renting a little scooter. We got up early and scooted all the way to the other side of the island (20 minutes) to the platform of the 15 statues to see the sunrise there. We just (barely) made it on time for sunrise, but it was spectacular.
We did a half day tour up to the crater where the Birdman lived (another whole mythology story that I won't try to tell). The inside of this crater (extinct volcano) was it's own little eco-climate. It was lush and green with bushes and trees growing. As there are almost no trees on the island, this was a very different site and very beautiful.
In the afternoon, we scooted around the island to see more platforms and check out a couple of the caves that exist on the island. The weather was clear, but it was WINDY. I guess when you are in the middle of the ocean with nothing to block the wind, it gets windy from time to time. It was intense. We visited the statues of the seven sons (the ones who found the island) which are the only statues facing out into the ocean, theoretically facing in a straight line to the island from which they came.
We checked out one very large cave, formed by a lava tube. We were able to go back into it about 100 meters, but unfortunately our batteries died to our flashlight and we had to turn around. As the story goes, they used to house the girls in these caves to teach them all of the history and oral traditions while keeping them pure and their skin white (no access to sunlight). Our guide said they would keep the girls there for about seven years. Yikes. I had the song "Girl Land" from Free to be You and Me going through my head...
We stopped at a variety of sites along the island coast watching the water crash against the rocks, visiting more of the Moai, and just enjoying the freedom our little blue scooter provided. We got back to our room just after sunset, happy, tired, and completely windblown.
We woke up the next morning, intending to check out sunrise on the other side of the island, but instead woke up to a very steady rain- and no more wind. We were glad to get a little more sleep, but sad our sunrise venture was rained out. It continued to rain and rain. Unfortunately, we needed to drive our scooter back into town to return it and then walk back before leaving for the airport. We decided since we were going to be completely soaked anyway, we might as well go see one more site. We figured it wouldn't be crowded. It all went fine, and our rain gear even worked to kind of, sort of, almost keep us dry.
Alas, it was time to head back to the airport. This is the first place we really would have liked to stay another day. The people are friendly, the island is beautiful, the statues are enchanting, the stories are captivating, the food is really good, and the water was safe to drink. A great little island in the center of the world.
3 comments:
Hey Danielle and Larry,
Rapa Nui sounds awesome. I always wondered what the statues were called. 2 months into your adventure and things seem to be going well. How exciting! I've checked out your blog a couple times so far. I'll get a question from someone here on how you're doing every couple of weeks - so you're in our thoughts - our jealous thoughts - but still... Take care! - Abby
You guys look & sounds totally happy - glad to see the updates. keep on truckin!
Hi Larry and Danielle,
We've been checking in to your blog posts every now and then to see where you guys are at and what you're up to. By now you've probably heard that Obama got elected and the whole world cheered!
We're curious about some things you may or may not be observing about the world so far.
1. Are you seeing or hearing about any evidence of climate change? I'm specifically wondering about Antarctica.
2. How has the global economic recession affected any of the places you've visited - if at all (yet)?
We are enjoying a rather mild autumn so far here in Colorado. I think of all the stories I've read about your travels I like the one about Easter Island the most. I heard those people cut down the last of the trees and therefore sealed their own fate. Sort of reminds me of the story "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. Have you ever read that? Anyway, Easter Island is a little microcosm of Western culture, in a way.
I wonder how your opinion of American culture will change over time, if it hasn't already.
Ciao guys,
Margaret
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