We just got back from a Bucket List trip to Easter Island. Alex and I were in Santiago for almost 2 days and Easter Island for 3 days. Here's our Trip Report.
One Love 2-3 minute video of our trip here
Fun Facts:
Luckily, the island is still beautiful and some of the moaias were repaired and brought back to life.
Days 1 & 2: Santiago - market and city/neighborhood walks
Day 2: Santiago + Easter Island sunset
Puffer fish
Heading to Orongo Volcano Crater, next to Orongo - a spiritual and religious center, mostly used during the Birdman race for tribal leaders.
Alex is perched on the right side.
Birdman (head like a bird, body like a man).
Birdman Race - each tribe would pick one representative to compete in this annual race where competitors would climb down a perilous and rocky slope and then swim to the island behind Alex. On the island, they would wait for the terns to lay an egg; the first one back with an egg won their tribe's leader to be the Tangata-Manu and get lots of goodies from the other tribes. Many people died due to shark attacks and falling off the cliffs.
Petroglyphs on the cave ceiling.
Top Knot factory and how they put these hats/huge boulders on top of the statue. These were red since they were made from red scoria volcanic rock.
Here is the quarry where they painstakingly cut out top-knots.
Day 4: Sunrise + Moais, Moais, Moais + Beaches + Rapa Nui Show
This volcano turned into a factory called Rano Raku, and almost all the moaia statues were carved here and then transported to all parts of the island. There are about 400 statues left at Rano Raraku. Of these, around half are finished and the rest never reached a completed state. As tall as these heads are, two thirds of the statues are below the surface. Many are 3 stories high, up to 80 tons!
The petroglyph below is a boat - proof that this statue was built post-European arrival.
How were the statues carved? Direct from volcanic rock - you can see one Moaia, but there is also another in front of it, another above it, and another to the side, which are all in the process of being built.
Day 5: Sunrise + Caves - We saw the sunrise in Akahanja, which have moaias that have been toppled (but not restored or put back up). We also enjoyed the waves and did some cave exploring before heading back to Santiago
Alex then headed to Patagonia (Bariloches, Argentina) for some rock climbing. Photos to come.
One Love 2-3 minute video of our trip here
Fun Facts:
· Where is it located? Easter Island
is one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. Only 150 square miles and
2,000 miles from South America in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of Chile.
· How did it get its name? The Dutch visited
the island on Easter Sunday 1722.
· Why is it so famous? Scattered
across the island are over 6oo massive stone statues, on average over 20 feet,
some even weighing 80 tons (half of a house). What an accomplishment to carve
and move!
· Why did they build the moaias? They were
spirits of their ancestors to watch over their village. The bigger, the better.
They are 1 piece carved from volcanic rock.
· How did they move the moaias? We’re not really
sure, but there are lots of theories (here are a few), but one
of them is the wobble method here).
· Why did the population go from 12K to 111 in just a
few centuries?
We’re not sure but here are some theories:
· No more trees – The island used to be full of
trees, but the islanders may have cut them down (slash and burn) to move the
moaias and/or rats from their boats from Polynesia ate the seeds from the trees
so the trees couldn’t grow.
· Without trees – there was soil erosion which hurt
farming , people had to live in caves/stone shelters, they couldn’t build canoes
for fishing or to escape
· Clan wars – with less resources, clans started
warring and pulled down the moaias from other clans
· Disease – from the Europeans
· Slavery – thousands were taken by Peru (all but
110 old people and children were taken)
Luckily, the island is still beautiful and some of the moaias were repaired and brought back to life.
Days 1 & 2: Santiago - market and city/neighborhood walks
Day 3: Scuba Diving (dives to caves & underwater moaia) + Hikes
Puffer fish
Heading to Orongo Volcano Crater, next to Orongo - a spiritual and religious center, mostly used during the Birdman race for tribal leaders.
Alex is perched on the right side.
Birdman (head like a bird, body like a man).
Birdman Race - each tribe would pick one representative to compete in this annual race where competitors would climb down a perilous and rocky slope and then swim to the island behind Alex. On the island, they would wait for the terns to lay an egg; the first one back with an egg won their tribe's leader to be the Tangata-Manu and get lots of goodies from the other tribes. Many people died due to shark attacks and falling off the cliffs.
Petroglyphs on the cave ceiling.
Top Knot factory and how they put these hats/huge boulders on top of the statue. These were red since they were made from red scoria volcanic rock.
Here is the quarry where they painstakingly cut out top-knots.
This volcano turned into a factory called Rano Raku, and almost all the moaia statues were carved here and then transported to all parts of the island. There are about 400 statues left at Rano Raraku. Of these, around half are finished and the rest never reached a completed state. As tall as these heads are, two thirds of the statues are below the surface. Many are 3 stories high, up to 80 tons!
The petroglyph below is a boat - proof that this statue was built post-European arrival.
How were the statues carved? Direct from volcanic rock - you can see one Moaia, but there is also another in front of it, another above it, and another to the side, which are all in the process of being built.
Alex then headed to Patagonia (Bariloches, Argentina) for some rock climbing. Photos to come.
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