Easter Island- Day 2 Tongariki

After visiting the rock quarry from the previous post, we walked a little ways down to see Tongariki, the most famous ahu (the platform where the moai were placed). This is the one from all the pictures- 15 moai, sitting beautifully against an ocean landscape. We could see Tongariki from the quarry first, so that's how we knew which direction to head.

This ahu was absolutely beautiful. We took tons and tons of pictures, and below are some of my favorites.

Can you see Jesse and me in the picture?

Here is Jesse, just so you can see how big these things really are.

The island of Rapa Nui (or Easter Island) is roughly 15 miles long and a little less than 8 miles wide at its widest part. We were thinking that doesn't sound so bad, so we hitchhiked our way around the island. It worked great for going towards the quarry (Rano Raraku) but it didn't work so well going back to the city of Hanga Roa. It seems that everyone was heading towards the beach (which was past the quarry) and no one was heading back to Hanga Roa! We ended up walking for, we guess, around 8 miles before getting picked up by a local truck.

Easter Island- History and part of Day 2

The native name for the island is called Rapa Nui, but its called Easter Island due to Captain Cook finding the island on Easter Sunday in 1774. Archaeologists haven't agreed when the native people came to the island from other Polynesian islands. Some say as early as 300-400AD and others say between 700-800AD. The native people came in canoes from Polynesian islands, therefore bringing some of their traditional culture with them. But, since they were so isolated (the closest island over 1,000 miles away), their culture changed over the course of the years.

They divided the island in 12 different chiefdoms, where each chiefdom had a certain resource that was needed for the entire island. One cheifdom had the rock quarry where the heads were carved, one had the red rock quarry where the pukao (the red hats) were quarried, one had the highlands where most of the food was grown, etc.

The building of the moai started with ancestor worship. Each head was made in the likeness of a dead chief or another important person from the island. Each head took over a year for 5 or 6 people to make. The heads are carved out of a quarry called Rano Raraku, in the center of the island, then they are moved to their location around the coast, but facing inward. Some anthropologists believe that the moai are faced inward so that they are looking after their descendants still living on the island.

The building of the moai didn't last very long. The resources needed for such a massive building enterprise weren't sustainable on such a small island. Once the island was deforested, there was no way of transporting the heads to their proper place on the coast, so the ancestor worship was giving up. Jesse will explain the culture/religion that took its place in a later post.

Even today, with large areas of the island re-forested, the island isn't sustainable, especially with all the tourism that takes place. The soil is volcanic, since the island is a volcanic island, and the nutrients of the soil were depleted. When Captain Cook found the island in 1774, most of the population was starving and was only 10-15% of what it was when they were building the moai. Most of the food consumed today is brought in from Chile and therefore is very expensive.

So, now enough with the history, here are some of our pictures.

The second moai that we found. This was is toppled over and Jesse is investigating the surroundings. Most of the moai had fallen over by the time that missionaries, arriving in the 1800's, started to take over the island. The missionaries' accounts of the island are where a lot of the information about the culture comes from.

In the quarry where the moai were carved from. Jesse is being attacked by one moai in this picture. There are tons of moai still stuck in the mountain, awaiting their final place by the sea, which makes archaeologists debate about the cause and the problems the people had to make them just desert their religious beliefs.

The moai below is still stuck in the volcanic face of the mountain. This moai is also one of the biggest moai on the island. Its over 100 feet long.

There was a path along the volcano where the quarry is and it leads to a beautiful crater lake.

Easter Island- Day 1

Before I start telling about the wonders that exist on Easter Island, I have to tell the tale of how we happened to end up going there for our vacation. It all started with an idea that spawned when our friends Alex and Caitlin, after getting their jobs in Ecuador, and us, getting our jobs in Paraguay, decided to spend this first Christmas holiday season together. It was the first Christmas that Jesse and myself haven't spent with family back in Wisconsin. So, after looking at flight prices for both couples, we settled on Chile.

Of course, after booking the flights, we started to plan our trip. Alex, being an overzealous vacation planner (even more than me) really wanted to take advantage of our time in Chile and fly to Easter Island. Easter Island is part of Chile, even though its a five hour flight from Santiago. The only flights in the world that go to Easter Island are from Santiago or Tahiti, both with the same airline.

So, Alex convinced Caitlin to front the money and they purchased their tickets. I, having no willpower when it comes to traveling, was easily convinced. The trick was convincing Jesse. After a few weeks of discussing, pleading, conniving, and promising to find and read a copy of Jared Diamond's book "Collapse", we bought our tickets!

The day after the winery tour (discussed below) we went to the Santiago airport to catch our flight to E.I. It was delayed. For 6 hours. Believe me, we had a blast waiting for updates on our flight. It was all worth it however, once we landed on Easter Island. We were greeted with leis, as E.I. is part of the Polynesian Islands, and our transportation to our hostel/campground. Alex and Caitlin brought their tent along and they camped oceanside at the same place that Jess and I had beds.

Caitlin and I with our leis. Most hotels that came to the airport to pick up their guests brought leis with them.

These two photos are views from our hotel/campground.

Below is the first moai that we saw. A moai is the large stone heads that the native people of E.I. made for their religion. More on the history of E.I. to come in the day 2 post.