Day Four

June 7, 2017

Day Four: hiking and exploring

Today’s Count:
5.3 miles
12,500+ steps
30 floors

SUPERMARCADO: supermarket

The alarm was set for 8 AM, so that we could have time to grab breakfast, run to the store, and pick up the rental car by 9 AM. We we stopped at a small, but very modern Café for breakfast. I had a quiche dish that had shrimp inside while dad enjoyed a bread with a cheese center. Each of us got a coffee to wake up.

We headed through the park, where public wifi is available, and headed towards the first open supermacado, store, that we could find. We grabbed some bread, local chips, and waters to prepare us for lunch. Dad ran back outside to grab some fresh avocados from a local vendor.

Right next door, the woman who rented us the car last night, was opening the place up, and arranging for our Suzuki car with four wheel drive. I didn’t get to drive all day! Not because dad wasn’t letting me, but because it was a manual, and I don’t know how to drive that hoo ha.

Side note: dad wanted me to put in the blog somewhere about how “he hadn’t driven a stick in 10-20 years” and “was doing an amazing job”. Happy? In reality, he did do very well. The roads were narrow, many with gravel on them, and it rained sporadically today. Props to you!!

We didn’t have a plan to go off of. We knew what we wanted to see, and we knew the general direction, so we just set off and hoped for the best.

First stop? The coastline. The ocean is absolutely spectacular. The blue water bordering the deep black rocks with the blue sky in the background is impossible to truly describe.

The rocks on the beach were all formed by lava. They had small rivets, almost like pockets, on them and were of varying shades of black and gray. Dad said he saw a few black fish darting around in the smaller puddles near shore, but I never got a glance of them. I have yet to see any aquatic animal out here, and it’s slightly depressing. I was hoping to see a dolphin or whale at some point. I guess we are so far from everything, and with the lack of fish and coral surrounding the island, they have no need to be out here.

Our next destination was Rano Raruka, the quarry from which the island’s Moai were carved. Upon driving up, you see a few on the side of the road, face or back down, who had called to their death.

They never get old to see though. The big debate we had was why they fell. Why did some fall face first instead of back first? Why did they leave them if they didn’t break? Why did they leave them at all? Was it because they lost their sacredness from the touch of the ground? Why did some break? We sat and pondered this throughout the entire day, and we came up with our own theories. I’ll let you in on a few in a bit.

When you initially approach Rano Raruka, you see a few Moai here and there, but when you look up the mountain, you see the full extent. Twenty? Thirty? It felt like there was hundreds of them scattered across the hillside. It is hands down the biggest monument of the island in ancient times. It was used for religious purposes, and was a religious megalithism for the epicenter of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.

The closer and closer you got, the more and more Moai you saw. Dad and I were flabbergasted at the amount, let alone the sheer number that were standing.

We immediately headed towards the volcanic crater on the left side of the mountain. It was a short, six minute, uphill walk (so much easier today) to the center. The area was sectioned off and, you could only see a few Moai from afar. His crater, like Orongo, we assumed had freshwater that the natives once used.

Above: the small lake that was inside the crater. A few Moai sit off to the right hand side in the distance.

Above: Moai in the distance. They were far away and we were unable to get over to them.

Below: the area itself is quite dry. The island lacks deep soil, yet they consider themselves a farming community.
We stayed for only a quick minute before heading back down. The wind was atrocious in the small crater.

Next up, the big daddy Moai. Rano Raruka was slightly uphill, but well worth it. There was Moai at every turn! All the Moai had been excavated over the years, it’s been a while since the last one, and many of them were buried within the earth still. Dad assumed that a volcano erupted and buried many of them while they stood watch. Not a single Moai faced the quarry itself. They faced to the side of the quarry, or they faced downhill towards the ocean/land masses below.

Enough talk, enjoy the views.

Yes, I know, I’m quite the iPhone 7 photographer. Some of them were so big, it’s impossible to see it on the camera. The heads, not the bodies, the heads were up to ten to fifteen feet at times! Some, especially the one laying down and being carved from the side of the quarry, looked to be a good thirty feet in total!

The whole island has adorable paths set aside for the tourists. The paths are rocks, the quarry rocks, and are lined up ever so nicely with some small constructions of rocks on top. The entire pathway at Rano Raruka was a lined, rock path with heads everywhere!

Below: it’s a tad bit hard to tell, and we even had difficulties seeing it at first, but a Moai is being built right out of the quarry mountain side! If it weren’t for the “no climbing” signs, we may have missed this guy!

In the same area, many more were carved into the mountain wall itself, on their backs, and then just left. Dad’s guess was that they just gave up due to the move of Catholicism brought to the island. They began to ditch their ways and convert to new ideas and religious beliefs. My idea was that they started, weren’t happy with it, or saw that it was too big, and just left it. I also thought that they wanted them to stay there, on their backs and all.

Whatever the reason, it was incredible! If they carved them on their back, why would they leave the fallen ones who didn’t break? If they knew how to pick them up, why not pick them all up? Dad mentioned it might be easier to pick them up when they are high on the hillside because of the momentum when they turned them. Neither of us, nor much of history, knows why either.

The two guys above were astronomical in size. The one on the backside, closer to the quarry wall, was a solid forty feet long!

Below: a Moai, but of a different sort. This Moai had arms in the front, almost interlocking hands with itself, and it had feet that it was perched on in the back. In a way, it looked as if it was seated and praying, but still not looking at the quarry itself, more looking towards the side. This one was very different in comparison to the others we have seen.

Also notice how he is looking off in the distance of the quarry, and not the quarry itself. That was another thing we found truly strange. Why are none of them facing the area where they originated from?

We followed the path to both the crater and mountain side before loading up again. Neither of us wanted to leave because of the sheer amount and beauty of the Moai.

We headed black to our little Suzuki, and continued driving around the island. Finally, we arrived at the world famous, picturesque Ahu Tangariki! This monumental, sacred Ahu is placed right along the coastline and consisted of fifteen different sized Moai. Only one Moai had a hat, but we saw pieces of reddish stone off to the side, that was sectioned off, that resembled more hats.

Apparently, the magnificent fifteen were knocked down a total of two times before being restored by a committee from the island and Japan. The first falling was due to island warfare, and the second falling was an earthquake that caused a tsunami. When the Japanese felt the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, they reached out to help the Rapanui fix the damage. You could tell some of the damage done to the Moai, especially because they let you walk full circle around them. Some of the backs had more damage than the fronts, showing that many of them fell backwards despite the ocean being behind them. These were the few that actually faced the quarry. Again, why only these few?

I could not get enough photos of these guys! They were ginormous, in perfect condition, and in the middle of nowhere. The best part was that you could see the quarry and Rano Raruka in the distance, the same way you could see them in the distance from Rano Raruka.

Out here, it seems like the skies are always bright blue and the clouds are always perfect. I wouldn’t say everything was perfectly green all the time, probably due to the fact that it’s winter, but most of the vegetation had color to it and limited amounts of it were truly winter dead.

After spending a chunk of time at Ahu Tangariki, we finally loaded back up and continued our journey around the island. The entire island could be driven in probably two hours or less.

We found a small stop next to the road, Pu O Hiro. A rock that housed the ability to make a sound when blown into in a special way. Pu O Hiro means “Hiro’s Trumpet”. There were a few holes on the rock, but nothing resembling the ability to make noise from. The thing that made me truly believe that was the fact that it was crazy windy out and not a single sound or whistle was coming from the rock.

Drive, look, stop. That was most of the day.

Papa Vaka came up next. Out of everything we’ve seen on the island so far, this had to be the biggest “disappointment”. There was a lack of signage, therefore we had no clue what we were looking at besides the original sign and one other explanatory sign that seem to still be upheld. There was a random dog there, and it is literally in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t look like a car had stopped for days to visit what was there. The only thing that you could truly see was one petroglyph on one rock. There were multiple flat rock areas, but the petroglyphs did not show, and/or they were removed and refurbished somewhere else. We found out a lot of the Moai, if not all of them, have been refurbished.

Papa Mango was the most predominant area of petroglyphs and featured a shark and fish carved into its rock.

We could tell there were petroglyphs within the remaining unnamed rocks, but it was hard to tell exactly what they were and their true significance to the Moai and Rapanui people. It was actually quite sad to see that in area was so unkept compared to the other places on the island. As I said earlier, this was only one of the true disappointing spots on the island. I would’ve loved to of seen it’s full potential in the explanation of what it was in significance to the island.

We had a quick stop at Te Pito Kura before heading over to Anakena beach. It almost looked man-made in the respect that it had a random patch of sand against the grassy and mountainous surrounding area. The sand, while not stark white like in Mexico, was still light enough to resemble a picturesque beach. There was a slight uphill walk to get to The top of the beach area that overlooks the ocean. Was a tougher walking boots, but we made it. We walked over to the small, in relation to some of the other, Ahu that were on the beach.

Anakena housed an Ahu that was composed of seven Moai. Many of these Moai looked less restored and left to more of their original form. As you can tell in the picture, the last Moai was extremely destroyed from either weather or warfare on the island. For the most part, you can tell which Moai were restored and where they were restored. The color differentiation, as well as the slight crack in the stone, shows a significant difference to Moai that had no issues in the past.

There was also a freestanding Moai at Anakena beach was only a few hundred feet away from the Ahu. From the pictures you can see that the majority of the area was grasslands as opposed to the true “beach” that they claim Anakena to be. The rest of the beaches or swimming areas around the island are predominantly rocky areas, and the rocky areas are extremely slippery and dangerous. Dad slipped the other day. I laughed. It wasn’t a fall fall though, I’m not that horrible.

Any who, it has been a long day, and we decided it might be best to go home, shower, and take a nap before our big dinner and traditional dance tonight.

We had seen advertisements about a traditional dance with a dinner on multiple signs and pamphlets throughout the island. I’ve always enjoyed watching the traditional dances of specific areas, so I took it upon myself to go ahead and book us for night of adventure.

The bus pick us up at around 7:30 PM, and took us on a bus filled with other tourists to the dance hall area. The dance and dinner area was called Te Ra’ai, and it wasn’t too far from where we were staying. Most of the tourists on the bus, all actually, were Spanish speaking, and I tried my best to communicate. I wouldn’t say I’m doing too bad with communication. I gesture as much as I can, and I stick in a Spanish word wherever I deem necessary. All in all, I’ve had multiple conversations with multiple people and I’ve done pretty well.

As soon as we arrived, dad and I were the first off the bus. We walked towards the center dance area, and a girl painted our faces with tribal symbols from volcanic clay. At first, the clay was very light, and I didn’t think it would show up, but as it dried it became darker and darker, in the aspect of white against skin tone. The locals pulled the look off the best with their tan skin.

Dad and I looked pretty scary after our face painting.

The dinner was traditional, but had quite a bit of variety. There was a cheese and chicken soup (soupa) to start off with, and it was amazing! When we sat, we learned the words for red and white wine in Rapa Nui. Red wine is udi udi, and white wine is tea tea. I had a little bit of udi udi and some vai, water. Meat wise, they had everything you could want: pork, beef, fish (pescado), and chicken (pollo), all accompanied with rice, mashed potatoes, salads (ensaladas), vegetables, and delicious sauces to pair it off with. The meal itself was muy delicioso!

The udi udi was called Santa Emiliana, and I had had it the previous night at the hotel bar. It is definitely one I will have to order if Spec’s doesn’t carry it.

We toasted in Rap Nui and Spanish, and dug into our food. The table we were at had a family of 5, all older than me, who I tried to hold a conversation with, strictly in Spanish. I did pretty well, and I heard dad mention to someone that I’ve never met a stranger. We were seated next to a woman, Deb, from Oregon who informed us about her travels and reasoning behind her extended trip. She had been all over South America on a group travel before venturing off by herself to Easter Island.

After dinner, they rounded up the guests, and we headed to a show room to watch the traditional dance and hoko (similar to the haka of Hawaii). The outfits were beautiful, and the dancing was choreographed perfectly to the music. The musicians played the ukulele, guitar, drums, and even hit two stones together at one point.
The main speaker was trilingual, and he did a wonderful job of explaining everything in both Spanish and English, so that the whole crowd knew what was going on. He talked about the outfits they wore, the reasons for the dance, and even a bit of history of the island and the people.

His daughter was the first one on stage, and she modeled the outfit for us while he explained the details of it. That’s them below.

While we were eating dinner, I saw a portrait on the wall of a woman in full Rapa Nui traditional garb. It turns out that she is a local, and she was going to dance in the show. She had skin almost as light as mine, and blonde hair. To me, I would have never taken her as a local. All the locals I’ve seen are very tan and dark haired. I was told that most Rapa Nui locals are not 100%, but half European of some sort.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend going to the show and dinner! It was entertaining and interactive! I got to get up on stage and dance and take pictures with the performers at the end, for free!

During the dance, one of the men (with the large tattoo on his chest) pretended to strike me across the head with a stick. He even moved my hair with it! Had it been years ago, and I didn’t know the people, I would be pretty scared! Almost pee my pants scared! Let’s just be glad it was a reinactment!

Check out some of the clips below of the show!