Rapa Nui Day Tui

Without a tour to catch this morning, we had a much more leisurely start to the day and experienced a lovely sunrise. But before I tell you what we were up to today, I’ll continue with yesterday’s story. As we descended from the quarry at Rano Raraku, we saw one of the most unique moai, this one kneeling - the only one of its kind. It was also significantly smaller than the others. It’s important to note that you are not allowed to touch any moai, step on the platforms above their graves or even walk anywhere off the prescribed paths. Clearly they’ve had issues and have learned from those experiences that tourists are great, but the islands treasures need to be protected from them. Below the quarry there were many discarded moai, many of them now disintegrating with time. The primary burial ground for the ancients was at Tongariki beach, where 15 moai have been repositioned over their(?) tombs. Here it was more obvious than ever that each moai had a distinct personality. We met the Oceania masses a couple of times today, but managed to miss their hordes when it came to photos. The headpieces, by the way, where intended to be hairdos and don’t appear on many of the moai because they are add ons and not part of the original sculpture. What made Tongariki most impressive was the blue skies that appeared after the drizzle at the quarry. All moai face inland since that it where they came from. From Tongariki, we made our way on really bad roads to the the most northerly moai site, Anakena. this also happens to be the best beach on Rapa Nui. They had planted a nice stand of palm trees here that made the location seem even more inviting. Most trees like the palm, acacia and sycamore are not native to Rapa Nui, which was fairly early on denuded of trees. In trying to replant some original species, they have found that they will no longer grow here due to climate change. Interesting, huh? The moai here had interesting but fading petroglyphs carved on their back sides. We encountered tourist shopping at most sites, but here we ran into some more of Sam’s relatives, an aunt and cousin working the stalls. This is Sam’s cousin. Nice personality! From Anakena, we returned to Hanga Roa, right through the interior of Rapa Nui. Our final archeological stop was at Tahai, which as it turns out is what we’ve been staring at from our stateroom on the ship. This is the only location on the island that has a - and only one - moai with eyes. They all had them originally but through the years, none have held on to their eyes. This one had its eyes recreated. Because the large tour groups had not yet made it to this location, the locals, with their tourist items displayed, were relaxing with a charcoal BBQ and having some lunch. Our return to the Marina took us through the heart of the downtown, which was our objective for today. We were able to case where we wanted to return and on the way passed this interesting church. The island, like its keepers, Chile, is Catholic. Despite the fact that everybody on the island knows each other and therefore crime is virtually nonexistent, there is a large presence of police and military here who are all Chilean. Last night we dined for a second time with Karen and Joe, a couple who we met from Colorado. We had a great meal in Toscana and probably will meet up for some future meals. As the sun set, there was much frivolity on the waters surrounding the ship, as 3 long canoes with, I’m guessing students aboard, circled the Marina - sort of. Actually they were trying not to crash into each other. Tomorrow, since we’re back at sea, I will continue with the remainder of our Rapa Nui story.

Rapa Nui

After today’s excursion, I have to tell you that Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is not much of a mystery any more. Much of that is thanks to the great tour company we hired, Turismo Neuvo Mundo. This is a company that I found after numerous attempts to contact someone in Rapa Nui, without success. Short story is that I did connect with these people on the internet and will be forever grateful. We were on the first tender of the morning (again) and arrived a little early to make the connection with our guide, but he showed up ahead of time. Sam was born on the island and can trace his ancestry back to some of the nobility of the island. As we travelled with him, it’s also safe to say that most of the people we encountered today were his relatives and I guess given the 15 children in his father’s family and 12 in his mother’s, that’s understandable. The car above was our tour vehicle. We first drove up to the summit of Rano Kau which is the volcano closest to the only town of 6000 people, Hanga Roa. Here we learned that unlike Fakarava and Bora Bora, Rapa Nui does have fresh water, much of it found in the craters of the 300 000 year old extinct volcanoes. Every bump on this island is a volcano, but nothing has been active since prehistoric times. From Rano Kau, we had a nice view of Hanga Roa and the airport with one flight a day to Santiago Chile or Papeete Tahiti- that’s it. Immediately upon taking out of town roads, we noticed livestock on the roads and roaming freely in the fields. They are all branded and belong to someone but they are all free range, which probably makes it interesting trying to find them. Horses in particular, are found in large quantity - 4000 actually, on the island. Although we saw them in many fields, we also found them on roads and they’re managed by the Rapa Nui equivalent of cowboys. We left Rano Kau and drove along the south coast of Rapa Nui on the most amazingly terrible roads I think we've experienced. These roads had potholes that could bury a car. We finally made it to the next volcano, Rano Raraku where the famous moai were quarried. Every moai found on this island was quarried here and transported, who knows how, to their present location. In the case of the moai found at Rano Kau, they never made it further than the quarry and this is the largest concentration of around 300 of them on the island. Every moai was originally carved as a full body. Then they were placed in deep holes, which in time eroded, leaving only the heads visible. Then there was the violence. Civil war brought most moai to ruins, so with the exception of Rano Raraku, the moai of Rapa Nui elsewhere have been repaired and repositioned. The moai were quarried in a manner not unlike the obelisks of Egypt - carved from solid pieces of rock, which took ages and then transported in ways still not totally understood. What is understood is that, like the terra cotta warriors of China, each moai is an exact likeness of some important person and they were then placed as tombstones over their graves. The relocations of moai are over original burial grounds. Did they match up moai with grave remains? Not sure. One thing is certain. Most moai are elaborate headstones for graves of noblemen. After viewing the quarry, we walked up into the crater, which is now an impressive lake. There were also moai here, facing the lake. At this point we were half way through our tour of the island and that’s where I’ll leave it for today. We hit some periodic showers throughout the tour today, but had good visibility. Immediately upon returning to our stateroom, this was our view of Hanga Roa. The rains came and stayed for most of the afternoon. The afternoon tours might not have been quite as productive. We considered ourselves fortunate.

So, This Is What Land Looks Like

I think we’ve been at sea a little too long. You should have seen the excitement when Easter Island or Rapa Nui as the locals call it, first came into view. Even as just a vague suggestion of land on the horizon, everybody was up on deck with cameras. Rapa Nui, as I will continue to refer to it, is the world’s most isolated inhabited island. We are still 3700 km from Chile who maintains control over the island. As its name suggests, the Polynesians were clearly the original settlers and today the majority of its population are descendants of the original inhabitants. As we pulled into our anchorage, the Chilean Armada pulled along side to deliver the customs agents that would clear our ship for disembarkation. They brought on some officials, one of whom was aboard each tender that headed to shore. They’re sure watching these Americanos! The tender to shore was a rough one. The swells were easily 3 to 4 metres and the actual dock on shore was in a protected little cove accessed by a tenuous narrow passage and pounding surf. Ride ‘em cowboy! Of course, the reason we’ve arrived here almost a full day ahead of schedule is that we had a medical emergency that finally got offloaded to an ambulance which made its way to the airport. There’s lots of speculation and stories about the subject of this emergency, but we really haven’t ever received any reliable information about the nature of the issue. I guess it’s none of our business. I have to tell you that there are many disgruntled passengers who feel otherwise. As we walked from the dock to town, our first attraction was a very large tortoise laying on the beach. I’m not sure whether or not he was a prop for tourists - becoming cynical I guess - but he was a great photo op. As we walked into Hanga Roa, the only town on Rapa Nui, we noticed a lot of stone architecture and fences made from lava rock. All the people on Rapa Nui live in this town, so I wasn’t kidding when I said only town. Since it was Sunday and since it was apparent that the locals didn’t expect the cruise ship this early, things were pretty quiet and most shops were closed. We saw our first of what will likely be hundreds of moai, huge faces carved from volcanic rock. These sculpted monoliths are found in large numbers all over the island in various states of preservation. How and why they were built remains a mystery. Thanks to National Geographic, these faces are what has made Rapa Nui such a famous island. Expect a few more photos of these in the next two days. Not all moai are in recognizable form, due to weather and violent destruction. These remains are none-the-less important for the island. Not unlike Bora Bora, with their extremely high ratio of people to dogs, we quickly discovered that dogs rule on Rapa Nui. They ran into dog packs in a couple of places today that seemed to be focused on who could do what with specific females. Dawn was less than impressed and of course that made them gravitate to her. After our brief but enjoyable walk on terra firma, we returned to the ship to watch the sun go down on Rapa Nui. This is one of those times that it pays to ask for a port side room, because we can sit on our balcony and totally enjoy the vista of Rapa Nui as well as watch it fade into darkness. While doing this we noticed for the first time three white crosses atop Mount Tuutapu. Maybe we’ll find out what they’re all about tomorrow.

Work of Art

The Marina was built in an Italian shipyard and christened by Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight in 2011. Although her photo hangs in the lobby, the ship is laden with a variety of works of art. Some of the art is structural like the Grand Staircase with the glass elevators and enormous glass vase at the base of the twin stairs. There are also many crystal tables and lamps. Given the particular remoteness of this cruise and the lack of amenities at ports of call, I don’t know how they keep their multiple fresh flower arrangements looking so beautiful. There are a fair number of three dimensional sculptures and ceramics aboard as well. Pieces of art, a lot of it very abstract, adorn almost every wall space including the staterooms. In the first few days aboard, there were many works of art hanging on walls that were for sale. Since then, most have been sold in champagne auctions. Did I mention that there are a lot of extremely well healed people on this ship? After morning around the pool, we attended a wine tasting in Toscana this afternoon. One of the French sommeliers who clearly had substantial training, guided us through a tasting of five wines: a French Chablis; a Californian Frogs Leap chardonnay; an Italian Chianti Ruffino; an Argentinian malbec; and Mumm Cordon Rouge Champagne. That was highlight of the day. Tomorrow, we finally reach land.