After a long silence here is the next chapter in my adventures - "To Easter Island and back".
After a long wait I finally boarded my flight in Santiago's airport.
After a few hours we landed in the middle of the ocean, 3,700km away from Chile, in Easter Island's airport - Mataveri. We landed at night and the island was clouded so I couldn't see a thing from the air.
As soon as I was on the ground I started looking for possible victims - people who would rent a car with me. The first couple thought I was trying to sell or rent them a car and were uncooperative. Soon later I found a German guy and then another three Finnish girls and we all rented a small bungalow in the "city" together. The Island's main (and only) "city" is Hanga Roa and in it live almost all 3,000 (or so) inhabitants of the island. From it leave the island’s only two paved roads.
Our attempts to find some food failed (it was too late) but finally we found a small restaurant still open and went in. We were the only people there and the waiters were playing cards. A quick glance at the menu revealed that they had juice, which made us all happy. We called the waiter and were surprised to find that the only juice they had was Guyava. This seemed a little odd but the girls tried it and liked it. The following day we went for a hike up the volcano near the city (Easter Island is a small triangular island with an inactive volcano in each corner). We started walking to the volcano and on the way a small dog joined us and stayed with us all day long. We first stopped in a big cave in the cliffs under the volcano where we saw some nice rock paintings done by the original inhabitants of the island. Later we continued to climb the volcano - this volcano is called Rano Kau in the local language (Rapa Nui) and from it we had great views of the island, the ocean and the volcano's crater which is a shallow lake.
At the top of the volcano is a large complex used by the original Rapa Nui as a ceremonial village. The village (Orongo) is located just at the top of the volcano with great views of the crater and the ocean.
Some of the village has been restored and is made up of low houses.
All in all, it was very impressive.
We then started to make our way down and then I noticed that the volcano was entirely covered with Guyavas... the mystery of the Guyava juice was finally solved!
Later we rented a car and started going around the island's many ruins. The coastline is almost an unbroken line of platforms (called Ahu) that were built by the Rapa Nui. Some of these Ahu had the great statues (Moai) on them, though exactly why this was done is unknown. Most of the Ahu lay in ruin and the Moai that were placed on them lie face down and broken.
A few of the sites have been restored and they are quite amazing - the Moai range from 2 to 21 meters high. Each of these sites is amazing - the island is a very small place and you can’t avoid the image of it with all the statues standing on their platforms. As if this wasn't enough some of the statues had rock "hats" which were carved from a different stone and later put on the Moai (how this was done is yet another mystery).
We spent two days going around the island in the car, going through many of the Ahu. We went to see a Pacific sunrise at Ahu Tongariki that was reconstructed and has 15 standing Moai in a great location just across from where the statues were carved, where we arrived later that day – yet another volcano called Rano Raraku.
In the volcano about 300 Moai have been found, in different stages of production - some finished and on their way out and others still waiting to be detached from the rock. As soon as you approach the volcano you can see tens of Moai looking at you, poking out of the ground in odd angles.
A closer inspection reveals that the Moai are actually buried to their shoulders in the ground - and that the rest of their huge bodies is just below... We started running about the many Moai and when we settled down a little we continued into the volcano's crater. This volcano also has a lake in it but instead of Guyavas on the slopes it has Moais. Hundreds of them. You have to be careful where you step if you want to avoid stepping on a nose or a mouth jutting out of the rock... At the rate they were going I think they would have carved up the entire mountain if they had enough time.
Where one Moai ends another begins, they wasted no space. From the top of the volcano we had nice view of the crater and Ahu Tongariki and this is where we had lunch. On the way down we stopped by the largest Moai ever carved - 21m long it lies on the ground waiting for the carvers to finish it. Needless to say - you feel quite small in comparison!
After the long day we went to see the sun set over Ahu Tahai.
That night was a fool moon and we went to see some of the restored Moais in fool moonlight - it was just great and if any of you are going to Easter Island in the future try to be there when there's a fool moon! The same night was also the night of the Seder and it felt quite "special" to be the only Jew in a 3,000km radius...
On the morning of the flight we went to the airport and were surprised to be informed that the flight would depart from gate one. This came as quite a shock seeing as the airport has only one gate. The flight back was great and when it was all over (half way through a Kevin Spacey movie!) I was a bit restless - the visit was too short! I must return there one day!
I would like to add just one bit of advice - when renting a bungalow, no matter how good it looks - always, always, ALWAYS remember to ask if they have hot water!
That’s it for this little update. I hope I have some more for you soon.
Adios!
And that's how they looked on a caffe table when we went celebrating:
So, about the teasers:
Yes, we know it's hard work! Suffer in silence! Wrapping was harder.
So, who's next?
