Rapa Nui (Easter Island o Isla de la Pascua)--An Introduction

On October 15, we began our adventure to Easter Island, a part of Chile officially since 1888.

We 12 were on the way to the Santiago airport at 7 a.m. for our national flight on Lan Chile on board a Boeing 787, my first flight on the Dreamliner, and it was delightful. There were no shades on the window, but passengers could adjust the darkness by pushing a button to get various shades of blue. Also, the extra inch or two of leg room was quite welcome.  We could take our full water bottles through security and on the flight since it was a national and not international flight.

Dark blue on left and medium blue on window to the right

 We were told it would be 6 hours long, but to our delight, it was "just" five hours, for the 3756 km (2334 miles)--almost as far as flying from NY to Seattle!  While Santiago was 4 hours ahead of Seattle (5 hours behind Israel), Easter Island was two hours behind Santiago.

The local airport was small but efficient and with a warm, welcome feeling.  There are 4 flight from Santiago weekly, I believe, and two from Tahiti, plus a number of charters.

We stayed at the Iorana hotel (http://www.ioranahotel.cl/), a little less than a mile walk from the center of Hanga Roa, the main town (population about 4,000) on the island.    Iorana means "hello" among other things in the Rapa Nui language.  The family-owned hotel is about 30 years old.  The parents who started it are now in their 80s, so two sisters returned from the US to help run it.  The lady pictured with Nava is in charge of the restaurant, among other things.  She gave all of us leis and kisses.  The leis are made with local flowers and leaves.  The other sister is in charge of the main desk.

A close up of the flower and leaf part of the lei

Our first pre-trip group photo
Joe, Pam, Ann, Haia, Jimmy, me, Nava, Les, Janet, Ann, Tracy and Cathy

Lu, our super-efficient guide, at front desk with other "sister"

Pet chicken outside the office

After checking in and eating a few snacks left over from breakfast and what we bought in Santiago, we traveled in a large van to get a tour of the small town.  We saw one of the places that hosts a traditional dance show, the market which is open daily, the post office where people can get their passporst stamped, a church which combines Catholic and ancient religious rituals, etc.  The island gets 1.5 meters of rain a year (about 5' or 60").  It has cement ditches along some of the streets for water runoff when it rains heavily so that the streets don't flood.  It is 27 degrees south of the equator and 25.5 degrees W, 2000 miles east of Tahiti and 4,300 miles SE of Hawaii, so it is quite isolated. It has a subtropical marine climate.  The temperature varied from 61 degrees F at night (15 C) to 72 during the day (22 C) while we were there.

Most people live directly or indirectly through tourism.  For example, the fishermen sell to restaurants and hotels on the island.  A limited amount is grown locally, mainly sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas, pineapple and guava (in season) and chicken and eggs.  Tourism is the number one industry and residents have a good standard of living, which was not the case until recently, although many things have to be imported and are very expensive.  For example, a bottle of catsup was $8 in a local convenience store.  There are 20 types of sweet potato grown here.  The island also has a small hospital with 3 doctors (a cardiologist, an anesthetist, and a pediatrician) and a midwife.  The island has no earthquakes but it can be affected by tsunamis from earthquakes to the west.

The island was formed by three now-extinct volcanos which erupted from the ocean floor:  Ranu Kau in the SW corner, Puakatike in the east, and the huge Cerro Terevaka (507 m high or 1663') in the center-north of the island.   The island was formed over 750,000 years ago with the last eruption probably 600,000 to 300,000 years ago but could be as recent at 10,000 years ago.  There are also about 100 satellite cones formed at the same time.

The total area of the small island is163.6 km² (63.2 sq mi) and is a maximum of 14 miles
 from side to side at its longest part.  Much of the island has been declared as Rapa Nui 
National Park which, on 22 March 1996, UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site

When we were leaving from Easter Island, I bought the book, A Companion to Easter Island, by James Grant-Peterkin.  Some of the information that follows is from the book.  The proceeds from the book go to help support a program for Rapa Nui seniors.   As Grant-Peterkin wrote, "Ever since the island's discovery by the outside world on Easter Sunday 1722, literature about Easter Island has ranged from expertly scientific to highly fanciful, and much of the 'mystery' ...associated with the island can...be attributed to poorly researched publications."  Some information came from early visitors who spent just a few days there.

The history of the island is quite complex and there have been different theories/versions of what happened over time.  Polo, our local guide, is Rapa Nui.  His mother is Rapa Nui and his father is Chilean,  and he heard stories from his Rapa Nui grandmother that were passed down over time and are now matching up with a lot of recent, Western theories of what transpired. Polo learned Rapa Nui, a Polynesian language similar to Tahitian, from his grandmother.

The century of arrival of people from Micronesia, is controversial.  Some say they arrived as early as 400 CE and others say as late as 1200 CE, but most say between 600 and 800. Whatever the date and place, they traveled over 2000 miles to start a new society in an uninhabited island.   According to the legend passed down through the Rapa Nui people, about 1400 years ago, a Polynesian chief named Hotu Matu'a sailed in a double canoe (catamaran) with his sister and extended family.  Legend said that they came ashore at Akanhaga.    When they arrived, over two-thirds of the island was covered with palm trees and edible plants.  There was plenty of fish and seabirds in the area.  The new arrivals brought a few animals (probably chicken and rats) and some edible plants with them too, which they soon planted and cultivated.

The first afternoon on the island, we toured the SW part of the island, first seeing Vinapu, a site dating from the twelfth century.  The sites were well-marked at the entrances, but we saw few park rangers.

 The road was bumpy with cows crossing the road at their leisure.  This photo was taken through the front window of the bus as we waited for the cattle to get off the road.  Polo told us that the cattle in this area were owned by one person.  They are not sold but are "like pets" until butchered for special annual ceremonies like certain saints' days when the whole community is invited.  Polo said that his family has such an occasion in December and butchers 8 head of cattle for the event as well as chickens, etc.

Back to a bit of history:  Hota Matua had 6 sons, and each was given a section of the island.  At some time, each tribe subdivided between royal descendants (from oldest son) and workers, so as a result there were 12 tribes.  A rather strict caste system existed in each tribe. Even today people can trace their lineage and our driver Horacio was a direct descendant of royal lineage.  A person could have 20 to 30 last names to help remember the lineage.  The family that owns the hotel where we stayed is also close to royal lineage as they are cousins of Horacio.

By 1700, according to Polo, close to 3000 lived in each tribe, with probably around 30,000 native people on the island.   Other sources dispute the total and put the maximum to 9000 people.

Easter Island is famous for the Moai or statues on the island, of which so far 1024 have been located. Ancestor worship was common in Polynesia.  Nowhere else in Polynesia did statues get to be the size of those on Easter Island, however.  Starting in about the 1200 CE (though most likely earlier), the moai on Easter Island were carved to be used for burying important leaders in each community.   During a civil war that started in about 1680 CE and lasted about 160 years, all of the visible statues were pulled down.

There is a lot of discussion as to why the civil war began, and several reasons are posited.  Here are the main ones:
1)  The people had used many of the natural resources and not enough were left for all to survive.
     The trees had been cut down for boats and also for making agricultural land.
2)  There was a very structured caste system, and some of the communities were divided with half
      being leaders/royalty/priests and the other half being workers.  There was a revolt by the workers.
      Part of that included a revolt against the cult of worship of ancestors and a new worship of nature.

Although people talk about the statues, all were mounted on "ahu" or platforms, which are not talked about much. Over 300 platform sites have been discovered.  Vinapu is a great example of how developed the platform building on Easter Island had become.

Each different site had an explanation in Spanish and English with
 a map showing the location on the island.

 The moai were knocked down during the civil wars.  The main ahu, called Vinapu or Tahira, is made of stone blocks that weigh several tons.  Only about a dozen were carved from basalt.  The rest were carved from a lighter volcanic rock.  They were set in place with amazing accuracy and also artistic in appearance.   It has similarities to walls I saw years ago in Cuzco, Peru.  One theory is that people from Polynesia traveled to the East until arriving in South America.

Polo next to a wall

 The wall is oriented astronomically.  One of only about ten feminine statues is found here too, carved in red scoria which is usually just used for the hats.  It originally had two heads.

A female statue

An Ahu with knocked down statues

 

The ahu (platforms) were near the water and almost all the moai faced away
from the ocean and toward the villages to give support to the people

A close up of a head

  The second site, Vinapu II, was used as a funerary pillar.  A frame was set up for drying dead bodies.  Eventually, only the bones of the important person were buried in the base of the Moai, after being polished.

A toppled moai

A top knot of a moai

A top knot upside down used to water cattle

A painter named James Grant was in the area in 1774 and his paintings helped to show what many of the still standing moai looked like before being toppled (the last by 1838).

Our second stop was to the crater Rano Kai, situated in the SW corner of the island.  It is the largest volcanic crater on the island.

  We were amazed by the marvelous view.

The lake inside the crater is over a kilometer in diameter.  The "bite" at the back of the crater was created by erosion from the base of the cliffs, which has caused the upper part to collapse.

The lake is covered with mats of freshwater reeds that float on top of the water. The water is about 14 meters deep (45 feet) and under the water is a large amount of sediment.  The reeds are similar to those on Lake Titicaca in Peru.  Research has shown that these reeds have been here for over 30,000 years.   It was super-windy on the lip of the crater where we were standing (see how my hair was blowing),

but inside the walls of the crater, the plants are sheltered from the salt of the sea, so it acts like a gigantic greenhouse.  Polo used to go with his grandparent and collect plants from inside the crater.

Our final stop for the day was Orongo, a ceremonial village by the coast, southwest of the crater.

 It is in a dramatic setting, near the rim of the crater above and with 1,000 foot tall cliffs at the edge that plunge down to the Pacific Ocean.  Petroglyphs were found in this area too.   Here is an example of one.  The one behind it probably is a man-made one, but I am not sure.  The most common shape has the body of a human and a head of a bird.

A close up

We did not see a lot of flowers on the island growing wild, so this bunch was a delight.

During the moai period, Orongo was used seasonally for ceremonies including coming of age rituals for boys and girls.
After the collapse of the old religion honoring ancestors and formal leaders as demi-gods, at the end of the civil war, the society had collapsed into anarchy.  Order needed to be restored, and a new religious belief system  arose which followed Makeh, a god of the natural environment, closely related to fertility of the land and surroundings and migratory sea birds.  The chiefs and priests of old were not no longer in charge.

Each spring in September there was a physical endurance competition called the ceremony of the birdman, which  gave each tribe the chance for leadership.  Annually the head of each tribe chose a representative to compete to obtain the first egg of the manutara (Sooty Tern)

The seabird returned each spring to nest in a rocky outcropping (islet) two kilometers offshore from Orongo. When the signal was given,  the participants ran around the crater of Rano Kai and over the lip, scaled down the cliff and swam the 1.2 miles to Motu Nui, the largest islet and where the birds nested.

Motu Nui, the largest of the rocky outcroppings

  They had the aid of a reed surfboard to keep them afloat and for taking basic supplies. The competitors stayed in caves on this islet, often for days, and waited for the first Sooty Tern egg to be laid.  The first man to get his hands on the egg won the competition. He then signaled back to the crowd in Orongo for his chief to shave his head and eyebrows in preparation for his role as birdman and spiritual leader for the island in the coming year.  The winner had to return the egg intact to Orongo.  He carried it in a pouch around his head while swimming back.  The winning tribe would benefit from the victory with greater access and control of the remaining resources.  This competition continued for at least 150 years with the last race taking place in 1867 when Catholic missionaries put an end to it.

Information boards give a detailed explanation of the ceremony.  Here are a few:

The Birdman

The ceremonial village of 54 houses was only used for several weeks a year.   They were restored in 1974 by William Mulloy and a group of islanders.  One was left open so visitors could see what they looked like.

People crawled into the houses through a small entryway.

It was very windy here, so thatched roofs would not work, but basalt slabs were built above.  The roof was made of progressively inward leaning slabs to support the large central stone.  The houses were used for sleeping and protection for bad weather only.

Food was cooked daily below the hill and brought up for those involved in the ceremony.

We headed back to our hotel for dinner.  Here and in many parts of the island we saw small birds called Yucca Finches which allowed us to approach.  We enjoyed hearing them sing

A number of us walked from the hotel down to the shore.  Along the jagged rocks of the coast, we saw waves come in and create a geyser-like effect for several seconds.

Four replica of moai about 5 feet tall stood between the hotel restaurant and the shore line.  Several of our travel group stood next to the moai for photos until one of the owners said for our safety and for the continuing of the statues we should not get so close.  (One had already toppled.)

We had a delicious dinner at the hotel:  a nice salad, fish (doesn't the piece of fish look like a fish), fried sweet potatoes, and sauteed vegetables.

 We also had bottled water with a picture of the island on the bottle.

 An unknown vegetable was in the salad.  When we asked what it was, the cook brought it out to show us.

Two days later, Lu figured out the name but it was not familiar to any of us.  It was similar to a cucumber in taste.

Sunset from the hotel was stunningly beautiful.

Read on to the next blog to see the statues in all their glory!!