Today I took a big 18 km walk to visit the hat factory and some other places. When the lady in my hostel first mentioned a hat factory to me, I thought of an actual working place where people manufacture hats as tourist souvenirs. Only much later I made the connection: the hats she was talking about were the pukao that some moai have on their heads! Being made from a differently colored stone than the moai themselves, they were made in a different quarry. The name of that quarry is Puna Pau, and similar to the moai quarry Rano Raraku, many unfinished items were were found lying around here. Some of these pukao had elaborate carvings all around:
The next sight on my hike was Ahu Akivi, a platform with seven moai on it. Apparently, these seven are believed to represent the seven explorers who found the island before the first group of settlers arrived.
Ahu Tepeu, my next stop, was thought to have been an important aristocratic village. The foundations of the houses found there were rather large, one was an impressive 40 meters long. The moai remain toppled over at this site, but they must have been big - this face alone is taller than me:
On this picture, you can also see very nicely the different types of stones. The moai were made from a yellowish stone that was exclusively used for moai, the headdresses were red scoria, and the platforms and houses were built out of ordinary black volcanic rock.
Being an island of volcanic origin, there are of course many caves to explore. As they were used as shelter in times of war, many of them have modified entrances - they were artificially narrowed to have more control over who enters a cave. Good thing my phone has a flashlight, or else I wouldn't have been able to explore any of the caves!
In the evening, I went to a rather touristic "cultural ballet", as they called it. Really, it was a folkloric show presenting traditional songs and dance. Apart from the show being rather short, I thought it was pretty good - a nice way to complement my grasp of Rapa Nui culture.
The next sight on my hike was Ahu Akivi, a platform with seven moai on it. Apparently, these seven are believed to represent the seven explorers who found the island before the first group of settlers arrived.
Ahu Tepeu, my next stop, was thought to have been an important aristocratic village. The foundations of the houses found there were rather large, one was an impressive 40 meters long. The moai remain toppled over at this site, but they must have been big - this face alone is taller than me:
On this picture, you can also see very nicely the different types of stones. The moai were made from a yellowish stone that was exclusively used for moai, the headdresses were red scoria, and the platforms and houses were built out of ordinary black volcanic rock.
Being an island of volcanic origin, there are of course many caves to explore. As they were used as shelter in times of war, many of them have modified entrances - they were artificially narrowed to have more control over who enters a cave. Good thing my phone has a flashlight, or else I wouldn't have been able to explore any of the caves!
In the evening, I went to a rather touristic "cultural ballet", as they called it. Really, it was a folkloric show presenting traditional songs and dance. Apart from the show being rather short, I thought it was pretty good - a nice way to complement my grasp of Rapa Nui culture.
