Are you ready to go to Easter Island?

We were on Easter Island from February 9th to February 14th, 2008.  This was a challenging trip as we went from the cold of Antarctica to the heat and humidity of Easter Island.  We had to take along lots of clothing and luggage.  

Easter Island was called Rapa Nui by its earliest inhabitants. Rapa Nui is also the name for the island's earliest people. In Spanish, it's called "Isla de Pascua". It is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world being over a thousand miles from the nearest inhabited island and more than 2000 miles from Chile and Tahiti. It's really out in the middle of the ocean.

Easter Island was most likely first populated by Polynesians sometime around 400 AD. They are assumed to have arrived by catamaran or canoe.  The current thinking is that there was a second wave of immigration at some later date with the second group being Incan and coming from Peru.  The Island and all its mysterious stone carvings still present quite a bit of mystery to people.  The stone statutes and why they were carved, what they represented and all of that still entails a good deal of speculation.  Opinions vary widely from the Polynesians and Incan cultures to UFO's and Atlantis to who knows what. 

Easter Island’s history has early Polynesians finding a lush paradise with lots of trees and plants.  The inhabitants peaked at around 10,000 to 15,000 people and they had their own language, petro glyphs, statues, and civilization.  Then it went down hill but with much uncertainty as to why.  Possibilities include the destruction of the ecosystem, overpopulation, and deforestation.  They destroyed all of their trees and most plants, had civil wars, and it’s speculated, even went to the extent of cannibalism.

The first Dutch explorers arrived on Easter Island on Easter Sunday in 1722, hence the name Easter Island.  Most of the island's inhabitants had died by the 1860's with additional possible reasons being damage from the Polynesian rat, severe weather, cannibalism and slave traders.

The population was reduced to about 100 Rapa Nui people by 1877 with no real history being recorded about what happened.  The island was annexed by Chile in 1888 but most of the island was leased to a company raising sheep until 1953. After that, the island was managed by the Chilean Navy until 1966. The Rapa Nui people were given Chilean citizenship in 1966 and the island still belongs to Chile.

Most of the information included in these posts comes from our local Rapa Nui guide and from information posted at the sites we visited.  I can't say how accurate all the information is, but I will say that I am careful about taking notes and writing down what I learn.

I've included three initial photos to give you an idea of what this trip was about. Remember, this was in early 2008 and our point-and-shoot cameras were very simple and basic.

Tahai

Some 887 statues, or moai, have been inventoried on or from Easter Island. About a quarter of these were standing in place all around the island. About half of the total were still in the volcano/caldera/quarry area of the island where they were carved out of the volcanic rock.  The other quarter were scattered around, probably on their way to placements. These moai, or statues, are the big tourist draw here.

Tahai was a ceremonial complex, possibly one of the older ones on the island. The statues here were restored to their original placements by an American archaeologist, William Mulloy, in 1974. The restoration included the three 'ahus' or platforms that the statues stand upon, plus houses, and chicken coops. These photos will give you an idea of the look of a typical original statue placement.

Mulloy restored three ahus: the one on the left with five moais, and the next two with one moai each.  The middle one, at the end of the water inlet is a bit hard to see in this photo.

Below is the Ko Te Riku moai, which is the only moai on the island with its eyes restored. Very few moai have had their topknots restored as well, perhaps ten percent.

Below are the five Ahu Van Ure moais.

Vaihu

This is Vaihu, on the southern coast.  At some point during the history of Easter Island, the various groups of people had what is today described as a civil war or tribal conflict.  It was simply two or more groups fighting it out with each other.  All of the groups had their own statutes for their own ancestors.  The statues are called Moai.  Our guide, a local Rapa Nui woman, said that the statues had Power and represented power for their owners.  Naturally, in a civil war, the idea was probably to knock out the power of the other people.  That translated into knocking down the other people’s statues.  So naturally, those people retaliated by knocking down the first group’s statues.  Eventually, every single stone statue on the entire island had been knocked down.  They always knocked them down so that the statues face was in the ground.  So when early explorers showed up, the statues were all lying on the ground.

Our guide showed us the location below at Vaihu so that we could see what the statues looked like when the explorers arrived on Easter Island.  In truth, most of the statues still look like this since most of them have not yet been restored.

There wasn’t really all that much to see.  It looks like a group of rocks more than anything.  You would have to give them a close looking over to realize that they were moai that were lying face down in the dirt.  

The red topknot rocks, called pukao, are all from a different quarry (volcanic caldera) on the island from the quarry where the statues were carved.  A topknot like the one below might weigh up to 12 tons.

Rano Raraku

Rano Raraku is the ancient volcanic crater or the quarry where all of the stone statues on Easter Island were carved.  It was far and away my favorite stop on Easter Island.  About half the statues carved on Easter Island, some 397, are still in this area.  It is the only place on Easter Island (which is not that big) where the statue rock can be found.

Thor Heyerdahl, from his time on Easter Island, said, “Rano Raraku remains one of the greatest and most curious monuments of mankind, a monument to the great lost unknown behind us…”

The hills or rock hillsides in these pictures are the outside of an ancient volcano.  Most of the statues on the island were carved right out of the rock in the hillside that you see in the first and third photos.  The second photo is the area just to the right of the first photo.  The statues in the pictures were finished statues thought to be on their way to some placement site on the island when the society erupted in war and the statute building business came to a screeching halt.  Some statues were left standing, some lying down, some half buried by time, but all of these were fully carved statues when abandoned.

Moai in Transit

We are still at Rano Raraku, the ancient volcano and source of the rock of the Easter Island stone statues.  These are more photos of finished Moai (statues) that were on their way to be placed at some point around the Island, but never made it.  They were left here, stuck in time.  Other speculation includes ideas like these statues weren’t worthy enough for all the trouble to move them or they were damaged or broken.  It was really fun to walk among these statues.  We had few other tourists around when we were here so it was a great experience.

These are some of my favorite photographs from Easter Island.

The moai placed on the ahus were great but these moai here, just coming up out of the ground with nothing of note around them gave me an eerie and strange sense of mystery.  Our guide seemed to try and captivate us with a sense of mystery about Easter Island but she didn't have to say much when we were at Rano Raraku.

Moai in Process

We are still at Rano Raraku, the ancient volcano.  These photos are to show you some of the statue carving process or technique.  All three pictures show the same statue that was in the process of being carved when the whole statue-carving process stopped.  This statue is today called “El Gigante”.  It was never finished but is almost 72 feet high and estimated to have weighed between 145 and 165 tons.

Can you find El Gigante in the first photo?   (This is one of Vicky’s photos – and she still likes playing “Where’s Waldo”)

I moved around the hill for the next photo and moved even closer for the third photo.  They carved the statues in place right out of the rock.  At some point, they got all the way around them and then they moved them out and finished the back side and delivered and erected them.

It's hard to see with the shadow, but on the right side, they had carved down to a depth of about five feet or more. Eventually, the statue would be free of the hillside and they would lift it out and finish it. 

Rano Raraku Caldera

We are still at Rano Raraku but this time, we are on the other side of the hills from the first Rano Raraku pictures.  Now we are inside the ancient volcano, in the caldera.  The pictures are somewhat in sequence looking at the caldera, from right to left.  So the first photo is the right side, the second the middle, and the third the left side.

In the first photo, you can see some moai (statues) on the side of the caldera.  Who knows if they were placed there or abandoned there.

All three ancient volcanoes on the island have fresh water lakes inside them.  You can see the Rano Raraku caldera lake in the second and third photos.

Also in the third photo, you will see some horses.  They appear to be wild as they were everywhere on the island – and I mean everywhere.  They were all over the countryside plus in town, in people’s yards, at the bank, on the beach, everywhere.  Our guide said that they were all owned and branded but that no one could afford to keep them, so they just let them roam free and find their own food.  Our guide said that today there are about 4300 Rapa Nui (native) people on Easter Island and about 4300 horses.  There are also dogs wandering all over the island as well, along with plenty of cats.

And yes, our guide said that there was one variety of fish in the lake but I forgot my fishing pole.

Ahu Tongariki

We left the ancient volcano of Rano Raraku for a short drive down to a flat plain near the ocean and Ahu Tongariki.  Ahu Tongariki has the largest ahu, or platform, on the island.  The ahu is about 200 feet long. Ahu Tongariki has the most statues “in place” of any location on Easter Island.  It has fifteen statutes.  All the moai were toppled when the first Europeans arrived.  Then, in 1960, a tsunami hit here and washed these statues over three hundred feet inland.  Mind you, some of these statues weigh over thirty tons with the biggest weighing in at some 86 tons.  They were all restored and reset in their original place during a five year project in the 1990's.  It must have been quite a job to restore all fifteen statues at this site.  This is one of the most dramatic settings for the moai on the island.

I took the first photo while still on the side of the Rano Raraku volcano.

You can just see me on the left side in the photo below. We had to back up quite a ways to get all fifteen moia in the photo. 

Only one of the fifteen moai had a restored pukao, or topknot. 

Ahu Te Pito Kura

Ahu Te Pito Kura was our next stop on Easter Island.  It had it’s statues, but they were all still knocked down.  The highlight here was not the statues.  According to our native Rapa Nui guide, her forefathers were Polynesian and the world’s greatest navigators (at least a couple of thousand years ago).  Many people still wonder just how the early Polynesians managed to navigate the oceans back then.

The highlight at Ahu Te Pito Kura was a large and very round magnetic rock, called Te Pito te Kura.  Some people believe that the first King of Easter Island brought this rock with him in his canoe when he came to Easter Island.  Some people call this rock the “navel of the world”.  Many people call Easter Island the “navel of the world” as well – probably because it is midway between different land portions of the world but out in the middle of nowhere. 

The most interesting thing about this round rock is that a compass does not work when it is placed near this rock.  We watched our guide with her compass pointing North.  She then moved the compass near this rock and it no longer pointed North.  In fact, the arm of the compass rotated all around as she moved the compass over the rock.

You can see this rock in the first two photos.  Vicky has her hands on it in the first photo – “feeling the energy”.  I didn’t feel anything myself.  In the second photo, I’m sure you can’t see it, but trust me, the compass was no longer pointing to North.

The third photo is my “complaint photo.”  I spent a small fortune for us to go on this trip.  It was very expensive.  We live on a farm with some 260 horses.  And what do you suppose my wife spent most of her time taking photos of on Easter Island?  See the next photo.

Anakena

Our next stop was Anakena.  It was a beautiful white coral sand beach with lots of coconut palm trees and a great place to spend some time. The coconut palm trees were reintroduced from Tahiti as the original Rapa Nui destroyed all the trees on the island.  This beach is reported to be where the first king landed and where he lived on the island.  I can see why as it was the best beach we saw, by far.  Most of the coast is rocky.  Anakena also has two ahus.

As for the ahus, the first ahu only has one moai which you can see in the first photo.  It's the Ature Huke, which is the moai that Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer, restored when he was on Easter Island.  This was the first moai to be restored on Easter Island.  It was restored in 1956 using only “natural methods”.  That means that they used only rocks, logs, ropes, and people power.  I think the idea was to prove that these huge moai could be raised without modern day equipment.  All I know is that Thor picked a great spot to spend his time restoring a statue.  The beach and water here were wonderful.

The second photo was taken from the statue in the first photo.  This second ahu has seven moai.  These statues were not restored by Thor Heyerdahl but they are just to the left of the first photo.  They were restored in 1978 by a native group.

Ahu Nau Nau has seven moai but the last two on the right were quite deteriorated. The four on the left had their pukaos or topknots also restored.  Only about ten percent of the moai had pukaos. 

Orongo

Orongo was our first stop on our Easter Island tour on this day.  It was very high on some cliffs and held a great deal of historical significance. Ancient legend said that the Polynesians would search the seas and find three islands which would be their special new home.  Easter Island is basically one island, but you can see the two others islands in this photo off of Orongo which made the legend “come true”.  You can also see a petro glyph or rock carving in the photo as well.

Another highlight of Orongo was that it has another of the three volcanoes on the island.  This one had the most colorful and interesting caldera.  The next two photos were taken from almost the same spot as the first photo was taken.  In other words, the crater is very near the edge of the island.  The lake in the crater has all sorts of interesting plants.  There are also many more petro glyphs and other things to see down in the crater.  Until recently, a trip down into the crater was a highlight for all tourists.  But in only a few months before we arrived, someone destroyed some historic things in the crater and tourists are no longer allowed down in the crater.

Orongo Housing

Another Orongo highlight was some restored housing.  The Rapa Nui (native people) lived in at least a couple different types of housing and Orongo had one of them.  These houses were actually quite roomy inside.  Some units were connected so that extended families probably occupied them.  Others were single units.  They were dug into the earth and then bounded with rocks and backfilled with earth.  I suspect that they were quite cozy on a year around basis and also a great place to get out of the wind and weather.  The entrances were very small and we were not allowed to go inside.  You can see some of the housing units in the first two photos.  It was sort of like a condominium complex. 

The third photo, while not very good, shows a much larger entrance to the inside of a housing unit.  It looked like I could have stood up inside the house, but I would not have had any excess headroom.

Vinapu

Vinapu was our next stop and another Easter Island highlight.  Many archaeologists believe that the Rapa Nui people were made up from two early immigrations to Easter Island.  It is believed that the initial immigration wave was Polynesians.  It is believed that the second immigration wave was Incas from Peru.  Why would people think that.  Thor Heyerdahl and others felt great confidence due to the rock formations built here at Vinapu.  Below are photos of the ahu, or platform, which show extraordinary masonry.  Stone work such as this has never been discovered at any other Polynesian site.

I’ve only included a couple of close-up photos from one wall at Vinapu.  This stone work is very much like the Incan stone work around Cuzco and Machu Picchu.  The Incan stone work is very unique with its extremely close joined rocks and its rounded pieces and interlocking pieces.

One interesting point and another that adds to the mystery of Easter Island is that some archaeologists believe that these walls were constructed before the year 1440.  Similar walls in Peru were built after 1440, so how could people have migrated to here from there and....?

The third photo is from our trip to Peru and is a close up of some Peruvian Incan stone work.  I have to say that seeing this was very exciting.  Hence the reason for the belief that there was a wave of immigration from the Incans from Peru.

Ahu Akivi

This is Ahu Akivi.  It is considered to be a very unique statue placement on Easter Island.  That is because this was the only place on the island where they found statues that were originally “facing” the water.  All other locations had the statues facing inwards and away from the water towards the land.  You can see that the Ahu Akivi statues, having been restored, are facing the ocean – in the first photo.

Another interesting point here is that all seven moai are of equal shape and size.  This is not seen anywhere else on Easter Island.

This site also seems to be a celestial observatory.  The moai exactly face sunset at the spring equinox and their backs are exactly to the sunrise at the autumn equinox.  This situation is also only found at this location on Easter Island.

The lighting was very challenging at this and other sites for taking good photos of the moai.  That's why I tried to include Vicky in plenty of my photos.  Exactly, what moai? 

Easter Island Miscellaneous

I always try to learn something from wherever I go in the world.  On this trip, I learned something with an agricultural bent.  Our family owns a farm up north in Lassen County, California.  The farm is called “Bird Flat Ranch”.  We grow alfalfa, oat, and grass hay and over the years have grown wheat, barley, safflower, winter wheat, and other crops.  I worked at Bird Flat Ranch for two springs many years back.  One of my memories is riding the big tractors for up to 12 hours a day with no cover over my head except for my hat.  I always thought it would have been a real bonus to have a cab or roof over the tractor to keep the sun and wind at bay.  Well, the Easter Islanders solved this problem with a very low tech and thrifty solution.  You can see their solution in the photo below.  I’m including this for my brother-in-law and nephew up in Doyle, California.  Good news from Easter Island Tim and Luke.

Our Rapa Nui guide told us that the Moai (statues) and the Ahu (platforms) that they rest on are sacred and no one is allowed on them. But we kept passing the statue below that was right in the middle of town and every time we passed it, we saw many native Rapa Nui leaning on it, sitting on the platform, drinking beer on the platform, and on and on. While we didn’t want to be disrespectful or be ugly Americans, I did want a picture with a person next to it showing the size of the statues.  Vicky wanted to “hug” one of the statues.  So we went down to the ocean early one morning before anyone else was up and about and took a couple of photos.  This is one of those pictures.

Well, that’s it folks.  That’s the end of our Easter Island trip.  The last picture is from our last evening in Easter Island which gave us a great sunset to end our trip and to remember Easter Island.