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.
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.
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