Easter Island

Couldn`t resist... really now, Easter Island was never going to get any closer than Santiago, so away we went. I regret nothing. Even the expensive flight on LAN Chile (the only airline that flies to Easter Island) was fun. It was on a Boeing 767, loaded with on demand media... screens for every seat, with remote controls where we could choose from several movies, tv shows, CDs and video games. I was impressed.

We could see some of the statues from the plane upon arrival, which was pretty cool. I was a little worried about how much hotels would cost, but they ended up being about the same as in Santiago, and included transportation to and from the airport. The statue I am emulating here is about 3 minutes walk from the hotel.



There were a few showers the first night, but the sunset was nice, and lots of tourists collected in front of the moais (statues) trying to get the perfect silhouette.



The next day we took a stroll 20 kms up to the top of Rano Kau, which is a volcanic crater where the Rapa Nui cult of the birdman would hold it`s yearly competition to see who could swim out to some little islands and retrieve an egg and become the birdman for the year. Spectacular views.



The day after that was a complete write off. Easily more rain in one day than the prairies see in a year. We would see rain like that in Brazil, but only for a short period, not all day. Luckily we planned enough time to let that day go. The following day we took a rather expensive, but worthwile tour with an Aussie named Bill Howe. He made a good tour guide, and in good aussie fashion pulled no punches. The tour went to some noteworthy Ahu (where the moais are erected), then to Rano Raraku, the volcano where the moai are sculpted, and easily the highlight of the trip. The slopes are littered with completed, partially completed, and broken moai from 2 to 12 metres in height.




The moais at Rano Raraku are not quite finished as they have no eye sockets. These were left until the end when they were erected on the Ahu. Each moai represents a tribal chief, and when the cheif dies his spirit is transfered into the moai through the eye sockets. Eyes made of white coral were used, and the spirit could not enter, or once inside, exit without the eyes in place. A few years ago some moai were restored with eyes and all, but the islanders made them take the eyes out, as they were scared of exiting spirits. The islanders are all descendants of the short ears, who wiped out the ruling class long ears, who erected the moai.... so they figure any long ear spirits exiting the moai might be mad...



The moai were also erected with large red topknots called pukao, which could weigh several tons by themselves and were carved on the other side of the island. There are many theories about how they moved these statues, but no one knows for sure. What can be seen is that it wasn`t a foolproof system, and many moai broke in transit to their ahu.



We had a really sweet 5 days, and now are in Santiago, preparing to head to Punta Arenas and the end of the world tomorrow at 10am!

mike and Leanna