Blog Archive

Saturday 11 March 2017

Mar 06 - Introduction to Rapa Nui


March 06 - Introduction to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Our guide picked us up after breakfast and we headed off to explore the island & learn so much we didn’t know about this strange and fascinating island.

Our first lesson was that the name Easter Island was not the name used by the indigenous people. It was given by the foreigners who discovered the island on Easter Sunday. The local people use the name Rapa Nui which comes from the name of the island in Tahiti (Rapa) and Nui means bigger which was the name given by the Polynesian people who came and settled here in huge canoes.
They called it the Navel of the World. 

Easter Island has a population of 8000 and zero unemployment.  It is supported by Chile but they have a very definite cultural difference. There is a mayor appointed by the people and a head appointed by Chile.
With zero tax, its a fairly poor island relying on the supply airline LATAM airways which allows all locals an 82Kg baggage allowance a nd mos tof its income if from tourism and currently there are about 100,000 visitors a year. Tnere are still a lot of imports but fishing and farming are the mainstay although every inhabitant has an automatic right to land and so economic model is very different.....

So to pur first site of the day,  Tahal where we learned that the heads represent the ancestors of a clan. The heads all face inwards from the sea as they channel the positive spirit of the ancestors back to the living descendants. The Moai are all statues representing ancestors and if they are in groups they are all descendants of the same clan. The Moai were to signify stature and respect for elders and were expensive for a clan to do. They wanted to do this as the Rapa Nui believed their good fortune came from being looked after by their forebears and these statues were tributes to them.

Each Maoi is mounted on a platform called an Ahu and in front of this  there are stones which cover the umbilical cords of babies of that clan. Again the link to navels that is key to the beliefs and to the island being the navel of the world.
1896







This first Moai was a special one as it was the only one remaining with eyes. All the Moai had eyes, but they were made from coral and so didn't stand the test of time, so this was the only one on the island with eyes.
1894








From here we drove across the island which was also really interesting.
It is verdant,  green and has the most beautiful flowers, wild horses, a stunning coastline with high surf breakers and turquoise sea, very beautiful. It has a high rainfall so is very like a tropical island in vegetation which wasn't what we had expected at all when we came here. We expected a barren and austere environment, but it is very different to that. This probably came from the most common photos of the island from the 1950’s when it was barren. We would learn why over the next couple of days…


Janette cooling her feet in the very warm Pacific water
We went to the next site called Anakena which was where the first canoes landed and where the early kings of Rapa Nui lived. These Maoi are royal Maoi and have different carvings on their backs to represent the way they tied their loin cloths which signify their status within the society.










These are smaller Maoi and it is believed they were because they didn't need to impress with size for status as they were royal lineage.
The area here is very beautiful with a palm fringed beach leading into the warm Pacific sea & is used by the locals as a weekend beach area with picnics and food stalls selling fresh juices and snacks.
We all felt the need to at least have a paddle !!  


On then to Te Pito Kura. This is the site of the last Maoi to be put in place and also where there is a stone they call the navel of the world. They believe this stone was brought by the first king and has special Mana (positive energy) from the ancestors. Geological tests have shown it to be the only stone on the island to be high in magnetic iron.





We called them "The 15" each one about 10-12m tall
Note the one second from right - its the hair bun still very
much in use with Polynesian peoples today

From here we went on to Tongariki. At this site there were 15 Moai on a platform. These were all different generations from the same clan.
This site had been decimated by a huge tsunami in 1960 which had washed the Moai 150m inland. 
The site had been rebuilt but when they were cataloguing the Moai after the tsunami, they discovered remains from 33 Moai and discovered that they had built new Moai on top on the older ones, using them as part of the platform. With a stunning sea & cliff backdrop, this was a very atmospheric site.








Our afternoon visit was to Rano Raraku a quarry...............but one with a difference.
We had no idea the scale of the Maoi production, so this site just blew us away.




This was where the Maoi were from and surprisingly each Moai was carved in situ and then moved down the hillside down the road of the Moai to then be sent on its way to the its final site.

Production is in situ
here is one half way through

Moai production line
Production stopped at the outbreak of a war
This place was just unbelievable. Firstly, the sheer number of Moai that had been made & mounted round the island, then the massive number in the quarry under each stage of production, the painstaking task of carving these huge figures which took on average 40 men 9 months to complete and lastly, the sheer scale of the work that had been carried out and under way, we had no idea there were so many of these originally.


Then having completed the Maoi, they then had to move them up to 25km from the quarry to their ahu (platform) and install them.
imagine the disappointment if 40 people took 9 months 
to build it and it broke in transit like these !!
There was a route out of the quarry which was littered with broken Moai that had been damaged at this last stage as they were taken down the Maoi road. Imagine breaking one of these after a 9 month project….



Even with block and high factor sun cream
we were all struggling with the intense heat and humidity



By now we were completely melted as we had done all of this walking in the heat of the day with massive humidity and a very high UV level.

Even with factor 50 sunscreen we all had bits that had burnt so we went back to the hotel, jumped in the pool to cool off and try & absorb what we had seen.




We finished off with drinks in a little bar on the ocean with a good breeze, stunning Pacific view and watched the beautiful sunset over the breakers & surfers. 
What a place….astounding history, paradise scenery and fantastic island spirit ...we have been so lucky to be here and it is as removed from our expectation as it could be.






Mar 04 - Santiago Day Two


Steve needed to replace some camera gear and get some more camera chips in our last big city for a while so we don’t run out in Easter Island or the desert, so we headed out to the camera store we had found on google.

Paul & Mandy headed off to explore some of the areas we had seen yesterday from the bus and there was an artisan market on Saturday which was worth a look see. 

Lots of green spaces in Santiago - Cannobis shop!
Steve and Janette walked through the back streets of Santiago to the first camera store through leafy streets with really lovely houses. Although it is such a big city, there are lots of green spaces and trees on every street, we really like the city, it has a really good vibe.

There were some very interesting shops not found in other cities !






Unfortunately the camera shop didn’t have everything we needed so he directed us to another shop which was on the 5th floor of a residential complex – we would never have found it without his directions, but again we saw another whole section of Santiago. 

Very often, buxsiness and shops are in office blocks or houses so finding a supplier is not easy as it is at home.  You can only work on street names and number.



The view from the top of the world
 ...according to them anyway
By this time we had been walking for 4 hours in 28 degrees and almost 100% humidity so were pretty tired, so we jumped in a cab and scooted up to the Sky Costanera which is the tallest building in South America. It is 300 m high and the panoramic views from the 62nd floor of Santiago and the Andes was stunning. Not great for anyone with vertigo !!

The Andes surround this city which
 is only about an hour from the coast







Most people we spoke to did not have much good to say about Argenitinians and they dont seem to be good friends.
A lot of this is due to Argentina taking half of Patagonia in the early century but surprisingly, Chile is very pro British and supported the RAF during the Falklands debacle and Argentina have sulked ever since.









We got back to the hotel and were having coffee nursing sore feet when Paul & Mandy appeared looking just as shattered as us having walked out to the funicular and been to the zoo !


Rest now and then out for another evening in Santiago, walking through the street culture first , 
We headed to a great place recommended to us which had a hige selection of Chilean wines, available in tasting glasses or wine flights and great food, So we passed a happy evening trying some really lovely Chilean wines, including some great Carmenere. 

This area where we are staying is the trendy, artisan area but full of restaurants street artists, jugglers and musician....really nice vibe about the place and felt like a Mexican carnival town in places.


Day 2 of the famous 4 travels...in training

Janette and M\andy were very happy that you could have a wine tasting menu.  This meant that they could camouflage how much they really drank