We were asleep before our heads hit the pillows last night, and slept well. We are five hours ahead of French Polynesia time, the same as Central Daylight Time, so we're in the same time zone as Chicago. What is weird is that Rapa Nui shouldn't be on CDT but because most of their business dealings are with Chile, which is one hour ahead of EDT, they want to stay on a somewhat similar schedule. So sunrise is not until after 8am and sunset is about 8 pm. But, anyway, to get up at 8am (which was just 3am a couple of days ago) for our first tour, we needed to set an alarm.
Breakfast is included with our room and it was quite a feast. Fresh mango juice, fresh fruits, breads, a huge omelet and coffee or tea. It was a good start to a busy day. Our guide, Chris, arrived in a 4WD vehicle at 9:30am, and we were thrilled to see that, not only did he speak English, he had gone to Virginia Tech (G's alma mater) and even shared the same accent. It started to rain right then, and so Chris decided to route our tour around the very short shower, which worked very well.
Our first stop was Tahai, just north of Hanga Roa. The three Ahu (platforms) of Tahai were restored by American archaeologist William Mulloy between 1968 and 1970, and provided a good introduction to the layout of an original Rapanui village.
(I am having difficulty uploading pictures here, which is disappointing, but to have internet at all (in the outdoor public sitting area of the Hotel Tau Ra'a) is a wonderful surprise. I'll continue to blog and upload photos when I can. I took over 100 today alone.)
We briefly visited Ahu Tongariki, one of the most famous ones, with a whopping 15 moai in a row. It has as its backdrop the beautiful sea cliffs of the eastern side of Rapa Nui. We will be revisiting Tonagriki for sunrise on Saturday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. The water around Rapa Nui is the most clear, brilliant deep blue. The cooler temperatures inhibit the growth of plankton and algae that can cloud visibility further north. And the air is absolutely pollution free. This island is a photographer's dream.
The largest ahu, Tongariki
The bulk of our afternoon was spent at the quarry from which the moai were carved, Rano Raraku. Along with Tongariki, Rano Raraku provides some of the most famous photo ops on Rapa Nui, and was certainly an 'I can't believe I'm here!!' moment. The moai varied in size, being shorter and squatter initially but eventually being carved much taller. And only a portion of the moai are above the ground; a larger portion of the statues, including the hands and hips, are buried under the ground. Rano Raraku has 397 moai in various stages of creation, as moai carving became more and more limited as resources on the island began to diminish. And everywhere we looked, there were fallen moai, usually lying face down but not always, which never made it to an ahu...they fell and broke en route (after over a year of carving!).
The quarry at Rano Raraku
Source: wallpaperswa.com
Ads inspired by the moai at Rano Raraku
Our final stop was at Anakena Beach, the landing spot of the original king of Rapa Nui, Hotu Matu'a, and one of only two beaches on the island. Here there are three ahus, the most impressive of which is Ahu Nau Nau, with its seven moai. Ahu Nau Nau was restored in 1978, and its moai are unique in that most were very well preserved by the sand of Anakena Beach, in which they were buried. What is humorous is that one of the moai is headless, and there is a broken moai head used to fill in the back of the ahu, but archeologists believe the two are unrelated. It is simply reflective of the fact that, by the end of the 600 years of moai carving (approximately 1000-1600AD) even materials to build the ahus were running out.
Anakena is also the location of a stand alone moai on which Thor Heyerdahl conducted his theory of how the moai were erected into place: Ahu Ature Huki. This was the first moai on the island to be re-erected, in 1958. Using long poles to lever the statue up, and rocks to shore it up, it took a team of men 18 days to tilt the moai into place.
Anakena Beach was beautiful but the water looked rough and chilly...at least for these two travelers most used to French Polynesia's mid-80sF water temps.
Anakena Beach
One of the most amazing things about Rapa Nui is its size, 64 sq. miles. Nearly every view contains at least one coastline; many views contain several. Where I am sitting right now, though I am not on the water, I can see the ocean only two blocks in one direction, and a volcano in the other. It is certainly an awe-inspiring place, even without the hundreds of moai and other archeological artifacts found here.
Chris dropped us back at our room at 5:30pm. We are going to walk in search of empanadas and beer and return to our little porch to enjoy the view and have dinner. We have another full day of touring tomorrow, and need to get to bed fairly early. I'm so glad we're here for a week! Sitting around at the hotel tonight, several other travelers were bemoaning their three and four days here. We won't be able to see it all, but we will certainly be able to say we've seen the highlights of what the island has to offer.