September 20, 2018

September 20, 2018

The French owner of our Easter Island cabana delivered breakfast to our room. It was the European version of lunch meat, cheese, and fresh bread.

Today our island paradise vanished. It rained most of the night and is still overcast. We decide to stay local and do indoor things. We start at the Post Office to get our passport stamped with the Easter Island entry.

On the way to the museum, we make a quick return to Tahai to explore it during daylight. Tahai is representative of a typical village. It has three Ahu altars with Moais facing inland to the village. The Moai are highly eroded indicating that they are some of the oldest. This site has a well preserved house foundation of basalt slabs. Covered with a thatched roof, they would resemble overturned boats. I guess if your life revolves around the sea, a boat shape is what you know best. Tahai has the only Moai that has been restored with coral eyes. After the Moai were transported and erected, only then were the eye sockets carved and the coral piece added, bringing these revered ancestors to life.

The Rapa Nui Museum while small is very well done and explores some of the many mysteries of this culture. It has interesting artifacts like the only original coral eye, one of the few female Moai, and three examples of the Rapa Nui written language that has yet to be deciphered. It gives more information on the Polynesian diaspora and how they may have navigated the vast distances between islands.

After a lunch of giant empanadas, we visited Vinapu. Unlike Tahai, this site is completely unrestored. All Moai were toppled during the Rapa Nui civil war. This Ahu has several moai laying face down with the heads rolled away. Another interesting feature is the stonework of the Ahu base. The ocean side retaining wall is exquisite and shows skill similar to the Inca suggesting there was contact despite the distance. Maybe this introduction to Inca stonework was the impetus to begin carving the Moai.

Our next stop was Puna Pau. This is a small volcanic crater that was quarry for the red Scoria rock used to make Topknots. Topknots were added to some Moai and are thought to represent the tied-up hair buns Rapa Nui men often wore. I find that theory lacking as the perfect cylinder shape has little resemblance to hair. This windy hilltop quarry has twenty topknots laying around waiting to be transported and married to a Moai.

We continued our local tour going next to Ahu Akivi. This inland location has an Ahu with seven restored Moai facing a farming village;

Back in Hanga Roa, we stopped at the Museum again to use the restrooms. I convinced the receptionist to play the English language movie. It turned out to be a different film and was a History Channel show about Polynesians and evidence that the Diaspora wasn’t accidental. Polynesians may have traveled between islands trading scarce goods.

The sun has returned restoring our island paradise so we ate another delicious fish entree at another open air waterfront restaurant. We dined while watching surfers battle huge waves. Being an isolated island fresh fish is expected. Though we didn’t realize how fresh. On exiting we saw a guy arrive in an SUV and pull out two big Tuna from the trunk. That is fresh!

Back at our cabana, we decided to take a walk to the seashore and stroll Ana Kai Tangata. It turns out to be several parallel lava tube caves emptying into the ocean. Beautiful!