RAPA NUI - (PART III) - RANO RARAKU

MOAI SUPERMARKET - SEPTEMBER 2004


Like Thor Heyerdahl wrote «Rano Raraku remains one of the greatest and most curious monuments of mankind, a monument to the great lost unknown behind us...». There you may find at least three hundred ninety four moai that are in all stages of carving. A true moai supermarket...



"THE QUARRY - It was from this hill at Rano Raruku that all moai were carved. A path leads through the hundreds of moai"


"VIEW from Rano Raruku towards Ahu Tongariki, Poike Peninsula and the sea"




"TUTURI, the kneeling moai, was excavated by Thor Heyerdahl. Though very rare, it is not unique. This is the traditional pose for those giving an oral recitation or song"


"CARVED - First stage, carving on the rock"






"MOAI standing below their quarry sites waiting to be either finished or transported. Some others were abandoned haphazardly"

"EL GIGANTE - The largest statue carved is twenty meter long, but was not separated from rock..."


"CRATER - Fresh water lake at the Rano Raraku crater"


"MOAI SOUVENIR after lunch: chicken, rice and banana"




"AHU TONGARIKI - With its fifteen statues, Ahu Tongariki is the largest on the island, and certainly one of the most impressive. It was destroyed in 1960 by a tsunami that threw the moai more than 100 meters inland from their ahu, despite weighing several tons each. The site was reconstructed in recent years"


"AHU TE PITO TE KURA - MOAI - This is the biggest moai ever erected on an Ahu: ten meters high, with two meters long ears. According to some archaeologists, it was the last moai to be brought down"


"AHU TE PITO TE KURA - STONE - The name of the Ahu derives from this round and polished stone and means the navel of the world. According to the legend, it was Hotu Matua, first king of the Island that brought the stone with him in a canoe from Hiva. It's true that a compass seems disturbed when near the stone that probably has some magnetic field around..."


"AHU NAU NAU stands at Anakena and was restored in 1978. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs, so this is the only photo taken..."

RAPA NUI - (PART II) - MYSTERY ISLAND

MOAI - AUGUST 2004

Almost everything in Easter Island is involved in mystery and awe: the origins, the settlement, the population, the history, and the moai... After having strolled around Hanga Roa during the morning, we had a delicious Atum Tomero for lunch, and started the tour of the Island by visiting Puna Pau and Ahu Akivi in the afternoon!

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PUNA PAU

Puna Pau was the mine for the pukao. The pukao are cylindrical stone topknots or headdress for statues, made of red scoria.


"VIEW from Puna Pau towards Hanga Roa"



"PUKAO - The topknots of the moai were carved at Puna Pau, the mine for this kind of work. Several cylindrical pukao rest on the ground, probably on the site where they were awaiting transportation when the works mysteriously stopped"

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AHU AKIVI

The Ahu is a place of worship, called marae in other parts of Polynesia and heiau in Hawaii. These ceremonial shrines take many shapes, and not all had statues.


"THE GUIDE - Ahu Akivi is a superb site. The seven moai date from 1460 A.D. and face the sea. However, they are 2.5 km away from the shoreline, which may mean that they were facing an existing village, as almost all of the moai. These were restored by William Mulloy in 1960"


"MOAI - The seven moai of Ahu Akivi are very similar and seem to match the statistical average of the moai"



"NEW 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD - You may vote the Easter Island Moai for the New 7 Wonders of the World. They [were] announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07!!!"


"HUMAN MOAI"

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MANAVAI

Manavai were stone walled or sunken garden enclosures.


"SUNKEN GARDENS were an adaptation to an increasingly sterile land"

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AHU VAIHU

Next morning the wind was blowing high when we started an whole day tour of the Island; the rain would fall in the afternoon. First photos are from Ahu Vaihu.



"HANGA TEE BAY - Ahu Vaihu lies on a small bay named Hanga Tee"


"FALLEN MOAI - At the Vaihu platform there are eight fallen moai, with the heads facing the soil. It seems they are lying exactly the way they fell or were thrown down..."


"FALLEN PUKAO - Near the moai there are also eight topknots. It seems they were recovered from water and placed in dry land in 1986"

***

AKAHANGA

Akahanga is referred to as the platform of a king and is linked to the legend of the foundation of the island. According to the legend, Hotu Matu'a, the legendary founder of the island and first ariki and his family and followers came from Hiva.


"MOAI, SEA AND SKY"


"EARTH OVEN"

RAPA NUI - THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD

HANGA ROA - AUGUST 2004

Easter Island - Te Pito te Henua, the Navel of the World, 27º 9' South and 109º 26' West - always attracted me. First, it's an island, and the fact that I was born in an island - though I only lived there for five years - may explain the attraction; Secondly, it's the most remote island in the planet, and the idea that one is surrounded by a vast sea and that the closest inhabited land - Pitcairn, with a population of roughly fifty (50) people, descending from the Bounty mutineers - lies almost two thousand kilometres far away, makes some impact; Thirdly, the mystery of the Moai provides ample freedom for your imagination...

So, in August 2004, after reading the absolute must «An Uncommon Guide to Easter Island», by Georgia Lee (available at Amazon), we flew Lan Chile from Santiago to Hanga Roa. Five hours later we landed at the 2903 meter runway of the Mataveri Airport - which also serves as an alternate emergency landing site for the space shuttle!

Hanga Roa is the only village in the Island and is also where 3,304 of the 3,791 (2002 census) inhabitants of the Island live. It's an amazing and incredible experience...


"ARRIVAL TRANSFER - Flowers, bus, and on the way to the Hotel. The cell phones were working pretty well!"


"TAHA TAI HOTEL - Early next morning (7:00 a.m.) the wind was blowing, and everyone else at the Hotel was still asleep..."


"PRIVATE HOUSE at Atamu Tekena Avenue: all asleep..."


"EMPTY - No one was passing at Av. Atamu Tekena"



"LONELINESS - The huge head at Atamu Tekena had no company at all. Larger than the size of the Olmecs heads in Villahermosa, Mexico (I'll post on it at Blogtrotter Revival - The 80's), this modern sculpture lies on the way from the Taha Tai Hotel to the football field"



"AHU TAUTIRA - THE HANGA ROA MOAI. Carved in one piece from compressed volcanic ash, as all the other moai, this statue faces the football pitch. The average data for the moai are: Height: 4.05 meters; Width of base: 1.6 meters; Width of front: 1.48 meters; Depth of body at the mid-point: 92 centimetres; Total volume: 5.96 cubic meters; Height of centre of gravity: 1.36 meters; Total weight: 12.5 metric tons!"


"CALETA with Sea-Watching Moai. Very seldom the moai were facing the sea, but this one seems to have been erected there this way in the 1940's. It came from an Ahu to the north of the village area. The Caleta is a fishermen's pier, and used to have a fish market; a small beach and some restaurants are also nearby"



"MAIN ROADS - The intersection of Te Pito Te Henua with Policarpo Toro represents the heart of Hanga Roa, and is one of the spots to be used by any film director"


"SANTA CRUZ CATHOLIC CHURCH - Built between 1954 and 1964 at the top of Te Pito Te Henua, the main street in Hanga Roa, the little white-walled church somehow mixes the Lord and Tangata Manu, the mythical/mystical birdman of Rapa Nui. There are seven carved statues of angels standing side by side with the birdman, denoting the integration of local iconography into Christian belief. Sebastian Englert, a missionary who devoted years to registering and counting up the moai, is buried in the annex graveyard"



"THE NEW ARTISANS MARKET, just by the Church, is a good place to find souvenirs..."


"GROUP PHOTO near the Artisans Market - Another way to keep the memories"



"FLOWERS - Beautiful anywhere, either in the restaurant or in the trees"



"MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION - The most reliable does not depend on the gas station..."


"BANANA SUPERMARKET, just around the corner"


"SPIDER BANK - The Bank in Rapa Nui"


"SEA-WATCHING from a restaurant near Caleta, close to the ocean side pool. Restrooms are on the other side of the Atamu Tekena Avenue..."


"PORT - Rough Sea"


"LISBON - 8764 nautical miles"



"SEBASTIAN ENGLERT MUSEUM with a nice view to the Tahai cerimonial complex..."


"TAHAI - A single moai with topknot. The sunset did not help..."


"BOUILLABAISSE – We had a fantastic dinner at the Taverne du Pecheur, a restaurant near Caleta. Fresh lobster and fish; aioli; and Sauvignon Blanc! The owner, an Easter Islander, is married to a Frenchman from Normandy (a clone of Obelix, that the locals also name Vikingo, I read somewhere), who fortunately was absent, and lived for some time in Crans Montana. What an excitement for the Swiss in our group! When we left the restaurant, full moon was shinning"