Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Easter Island has long been the subject of myth, debate for historians and even a few alien conspiracies.  It has filled dreams of adventure of remote tropical places, full of unknowns which adds to its allure.  It is a bucket list for many (including both of us).  And – it lived up to the hype.

It took 5 days at sea to reach our destination of Rapa Nui  which the native name for Easter Island.  To say that it is remote is a gross understatement.  The nearest inhabited island is 1,289 miles away, the nearest town with a population over 500 is 1,619 miles away and the nearest point on any continent is South America at a whopping 2,182 miles. Yes, we were in the middle of nowhere.

The first inhabitants of Easter Island arrived from western Polynesia around 1200 A.D.  These first residents created huge stone statues, or moai, that are the source of debate even to this day.  The moai were carved to show the living faces of their ancestors.

The debate on the moai stems from the fact that most are from the Rano Raraku quarry and then transported to other places around the island.  This sounds simple enough but the moai are incredibly large and heavy.  The tallest erected moai was almost 33 feet high and weighed over 80 tons.  There also is distance, some of the moai had to be moved up to 11 miles – quite a feat for a culture that did not have cranes, trucks, or anything mechanical to move these giants.

We were fortunate to be able to tender in from the ship for both days of our stay, many cruise ships are unable to send any tenders at all due to rough seas – imagine coming all this way and not being able to land even for one day (one couple we met stated that this was their 3rd attempt at landing).  We took a two-day tour that covered the entire island.  As luck would have it our friends Gillian and John were on our same tour.

Our first stop was, in my opinion, the most breathtaking.  The Rano Raraku quarry is were 94% of all of the moai were carved.  When the local people stopped creating moai they just stopped – statues in mid construction, statues laying about, and statues in mid transfer – just stopped.  It was fascinating to see all of these huge moai in various stages of construction.  But why did they stop so suddenly?  The legend goes that in a tribal war, the ruling class lost and the lower class (quarry workers) won.  It is also believed that after the war all of the construction ceased immediately and even the erect moai were toppled over.  Several of the sites have been restored, starting in 1955, while many still lay in ruins.

Our next stops were just as amazing as we went to many of the sites were the moai are standing on their ahu, or platforms.

In touring the island and lectures on the ship we learned about another fascinating part of Rapa Nui – the Bird Man competition.  This “race” was to determine the dominant tribe of the island for the next year.  Each chief had a member of his tribe run the race. The chief of winner was to rule island for the following year. The race consisted of running down a hill, scaling down a 300 meter cliff, swimming 1 km through currents and sharks to a small island, finding an egg from a sooty tern bird and returning to the top of the cliff with the egg intact.  It sounds much easier than it looks as we peered over the cliff at the island below.

The mystery of the island, the awesome feats of engineering and artistry, as well as the incredible history and culture of the island has made our time on Rapa Nui one of my personal favorites of our entire time so far.  But, then again, the trip is not over yet…