Kat & Marty

The plane flight out to Easter Island (Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua or locally called the Naval of the World - Te Pito o Te Henua) took Marty and I by surprise. We had become a little callous about jumping on buses and flights without thinking too much about it. Firstly we almost missed the flight as changing the dates for our journey out to one of the most isolated and mysterious islands in the world, hadn´t shown up on the airport check-in system. We managed to sort it out just in time to board before take-off. After 4 hours and our second meal being served on the airplane we realised we were travelling a lot further than we had anticipated. On the 6th hour we came in to land on an overcast and  stickily hot day. Our first impression was that we had arrived in NZ, only the fact that we were on a runway that went from one side of the island to the other gave away we were somewhere smaller. The houses were similar wooden houses to anywhere in rural NZ, and the Polynesian locals gave further similarity to home. After my stay there,  I believe the Easter Islanders do have a close afinity with NZ Maoris in language as well as in spirit.

Soon however, we discovered the differences from home. As Easter Island is under the rule of Chile, it is a Spanish speaking island though they still retain their own language of Rapa Nui also. In the airport arrival lounge we decided to stay with an HI affiliated hostal thinking they would have more information on tours and rental options for exploring the island. Immediately we had layes of tropical flowers thrown around our necks and were whisked back to the hostal for fresh fruit juice. The other travellers we met at the hostal were friendly and welcoming, and soon had us up to date on how to see the island and what was best to see, so our choice of accomodation paid off. We went down to the main street of the only town on the island, Hanga Roa, and had delicous fresh fish sandwhiches for lunch followed by sweet caramel cakes. It was here we met Keith who is an Irish cyclist who was cycling around Central and South America. He had biked up so close to live volcanoes he was able to cook eggs on the lava. With so many interesting stories to listen to, we ended up talking all afternoon. Dinner was a little hard to come by as we had arrived on a public holiday but we managed to rustle up some pasta and tomato sauce that cost a dehibilitating $15. Everything on the island had huge mark-ups, including fresh fruit and vegetables as it was all imported twice a week from either Chile or Tahiti, the only places that flights actually leave for Easter Island from. At no time in our explorations did we find any sign of local agriculture despite fertile ground. Horses roamed free over the island but no or few cows. The local people seem to thrive off a flourishing tourist industry. One of the main things for sale are small to huge stone heads or Moai.

Moai are one of the reasons Rapa Nui is considered one of the world´s great mysteries. Early history records explorers landing on a tree covered paradise with healthy and happy people. They lived in two tribes; the Long Ears in the north and the Short ears in the south. At some point they started building Moai, huge stone bodies and heads,  perhaps to honor their ancestors or to show their wealth and power. They also built ahu or stone altars. Sometimes Moai were placed on the ahu but most were left bare. At some point, building the Moai became more important than anything else and even now you can visit the quarry where they were made and see some 600 Moai in various points of completion. They are also present all around the island with their backs to the sea. A few generations on visitors to the island reported a treeless island with starving people. It is thought all the trees were cut down to transport the Moai to their sites although legend mentions the Moai walking themselves to their resting places. At some point there was a war between the tribes with the vanquishers destroying almost all the Moai.

With this destruction, a new culture arose - that of the Birdman. Each year men from each family group would race out from the village of Orongo to an island, Motu Nui, off the end of Rapa Nui where they would wait for weeks for the first Sooty Tern egg of the season. Whoever could successfully scale the cliffs back up to Orongo and present the current elders with the unbroken egg became the birdman. A position of honour, they were kept in isolation for a year with only one person to talk to. They weren´t allowed to wash themselves or feed themselves but had to rely on their companion. He would gain control over distribution of the island`s resources for his clan or family so maybe that was why it was such a sought after position. The birdman features in many souveneir shops and on many carvings. Most controversially, there was a large carving of the birdman at the front of the Catholic Church.

In the last few years, various governments and businesses from around the world have donated funds to have destroyed Moai set back on their feet and restored. Now you can see what they would have been like in much earlier times.

Another common souveneir, were the Rongo Rongo boards. These are boards that have the strange writing/hieroglyphics of the Rapa Nui people of which noone knows the meaning of. It seems that there was a slave raid on the island taking most of the inhabitants, including all the elders who held special knowledge and inside information on the writings and on Moais and ahus. Early missionaries showed up on the island and whatever meaning was given to the writings/carvings then was rejected by them. The Rongo Rongos were mostly destroyed though a few (about 12-15)  survived. Later explorers trying to solve the mystery of the meanings were refused  by locals. They were told either that the Rongo Rongos were disallowed and the secret would now never be told or that they didn´t know anymore. Marty read one account that said one old man when asked after being liquored up, got up and did a strange dance, but didn´t say a word. This gave rise to believe that perhaps they were instructions to a dance or ritual. Either way there is no way of knowing. Artists faithfully reproduce the carvings and sell them off for incredibly high figures. We think the prices must be sustained by the cruise ships that call in as they were a little out of reach of the common backpacker.

For our first day on Easter Island we joined with two American guys (a father and son) and rented a 4X4 to drive around the island and visit all the sights. It worked out cheaper for a 24 hour hire than to go on the guided tours. It was so liberating to have our own vehicle and be able to stop where ever we wanted. Our first visit was to a volcano crater, dormant, that housed reeds and a variety of bird life. We walked around the rim to the now reconstructed village of Orongo where the birdman race began. The cliffs these guys had to scale were steep and fell straight down to sharp rocks and huge ocean swells below. I can well imagine a lot of men would have fallen to their deaths in haste to get the first egg.

From there we drove back down past the airport and past a seemingly interminable amount of fallen Moai that we eventually stopped stopping at, until finally we reached Rano Raraku or the nursery - the quarry where the Moai were birthed. It felt like being in a mind puzzle. At first one would think one was looking at a single Moai half calved out of a rock in the hillside then slowly you would be able to pick out more and more from left to right and right to left, rightside up and upside down. They were every which way you could imagine. It was also great to see a lot finished, scattered all about the hillside. From here it was also possible to see the Ahu Tonariki - a line of 15 Moai lined up against the ocean. It made for great photography.

We now made our way around the base of another volcano and out to the other side of the island. Here we saw another fallen Moai but missed the round rocks that are supposed to signify the navel or belly button of the world. We also visited the single swimming beach with golden sand named Anakena. Here a Moai was erected by the Kon Tiki crew. A group led by Thor Heyerdahl from Norway, who sailed across the ocean on a cork raft from South America, the Kon Tiki expedition were trying to recreate how the first people may have arrived on Rapa Nui. We also experienced a slightly darker side of life here, seeing a horse with bad sand colic lurching it´s way around the bay. People had market stalls out and men were cutting coconuts from some palms (Rapa Nui is now no longer treeless). It felt restful to be there. We were all quite exhausted by this point and drove back to the hostal. Some people went down to see a cultural show, but we decided to go and see the Rapa Nui movie that screens regularly at a hotel instead. After a lot of misdirections we finally came to the movie screening 20 minutes late, only to discover it wasn´t screening that night. We made up for it with a few card games back at the hostel instead. 

Our second day was a lot more restful. After a long sleep in we went souveneir shopping. We walked around and decided on which stone heads, posters and what Rongo Rongo board to buy. After making our decisions to buy we went back to make our purchases and discovered that all shops close up for the afternoon. This allows for a long lunch and a siesta but in fact, some shops that we saw never opened the entire 5 days we were on the island. This meant that we should follow the local tradition and we went back and had a long afternoon nap too. That evening we went for a walk down by the beach away from the town and discovered another group of Moai, one of which appeared on our Lonely Planet Guide cover. We watched the sunset and Marty took some photos, it was all very peaceful. On our way back to the hostal we saw some of the other travellers in a bar so we joined them listening to a local band. We ended up buying a CD of their music as our Easter Island souveneir.

Our third day was a Sunday so we took the opportunity to go to a church service. It was very relaxed and informal with people arriving up to minutes before the ending of the service. Young children ran around and half way through a young girl arrived outside on horseback. Though we didn´t know the catchisms or songs, it was refreshing to us to be a part of the service. I found my eyes kept resting on the carving of the bird man and wondering how they had incorporated that ritual into the Catholic faith.

Our day of waiting to make our purchases gave us time to review our finances and we decided that all of the decisions made the day before were a little out of the bounds of what we should be spending so we settled for one miniture stone head instead - the perfect representation of the island`s culture. That night we made it to a screening of the Rapa Nui movie. It incorporated a few of the different themes and histories from what we had learnt of the island`s history and it was fun to see all the areas we had explored on film.

On our fourth day we hired bikes to ride out to a cave with windows that looked out over the sea. It became a bit of a mission as we had a late start so most of the island´s working bikes were already out on hire. One shop finaly managed to put together two rideable bikes for us and we headed out of town on to the gravel road. Marty soon left me behind as he is a speed demon when it comes to bike riding, but unfortunately he took a wrong turn. He came back and waited for me back on the main road not realising I had already gone past. I biked slowly on, becoming more and more irate that he hadn`t waited for me, nopt realising he was now behind me. At the cave of two windows, I borrowed a torch off a local guy and went in alone - the view was beautiful but I missed having Marty there as I knew he would enjoy the experience of crawling in. He, on the other hand was at another cave I didn`t know of and spent a few minutes exploring there. I talked to a guy on horseback and he promised to let Marty know that I was looking for him if he saw him. He did see Marty and tell him but by then time had passed and I had moved on. I went back to our hostel while Marty went to the muesem where we had planned to finish the bike ride. After a while I decided to go back and see if he was at the muesem but somehow missed seeing his bike parked out the front so once again we missed each other. From there I went around the coast to visit some cave paintings. Here I lost my way and gave up tired and disheartened to go back to the hostel and take a rest. To my surprise, back in town, I finally found Marty riding down the road. We had a coke and some food then went back to the informative muesem that gives out books on the displays in English. After seeing all the displays we went down to the Moai to watch the sun set. We were a couple of hours too early and eventually gave up in the hope of finding some food. We ended up having dinner at a cute restaurant with seaside themes, tables full of shell displays and sushi on the menu. We were relieved we had to take a seat inside as we watched those on the street side tables be harrassed by stray dogs for their dinners. Back at the hostel the other guests were having a party so when we got back we joined in - a perfect last night to our stay on the island.

Our last morning was spent over a leisurely breakfast talking to our new friends then going out and checking in at the airport. Our plane was delayed so we walked in the hot sun back to town for Marty to get an ice-cream at a delicous home made ice-cream shop we had found. In true island fashion, it was closed when we got there and not due to open (or so said the sign on the door) until our plane was meant to take off. There was nothing for it but to walk all the way back again. We passed a couple of guys trying to push start a heavy truck so we stopped to help. Some of the cars we had seen were missing major parts of the body work - windows, the entire back, the bonnet, doors - you name it one car or other would be missing it. The speeds were always slow and no one seemed to run into problems with the disrepairs...

It was sad to leave behind a place that was so much closer to home for me, yet still so exotic. Despite the drain on our funds, I would have easily spent another week or two there without running out of things to do. Scuba diving is meant to be fantastic and there are so many hidden secrets to try and discover as well as the modern culture to indulge in. But now it was time to explore the Region de Lagos (Lake district) of Chile