Day 194: Leaving Easter Island

As my flight back to Lima was only in the late afternoon, I had plenty of time to see some more stuff on the island. In the morning, I did something very strange (for me, at least): I attended the Sunday morning mass at Hanga Roa's church.

What's special about this mass is that all the singing is done in the Rapa Nui language. Little as I may know about church chants, I believe they were not the typical songs you might hear in a German church, but actually songs from Rapa Nui. Also, instead of an organ, they had two guitar players and one accordion player sitting in the audience. So the musical part was definitely interesting, while I found the sermon to be too long and boring for my taste ;-)



After church, I went to the museum, the only place still missing on my mental list of things to see on Easter Island. They had a few interesting exhibits that were too small or delicate to show anywhere else on the island, like this wooden moai statue, called moai kava-kava:



They also pieced together coral fragments found during excavations to a complete moai eye:



Finally, they also had a few replicas of tablets covered in rongo rongo script. This script hasn't actually been deciphered, and the islanders' knowledge to read it was lost during the Peruvian slave raids: at one point, the slavers abducted all leaders and wise men, who then died because of the horrible working conditions in Peru. Thus, with a single slaver's ship, all knowledge of rongo rongo was wiped out. Because of the few remaining examples of rongo rongo writing, nobody has yet been able to figure out its meaning.

Day 193: Cycling Easter Island

For my last full day on Easter Island, I decided to rent a bicycle to visit all the places I hadn't seen so far, and revisit some of the more spectacular ones. The tour around the island was about fifty kilometers long. The first part, along the south coast, led me to several ahu with toppled moai...

...and along spectacular scenery with Pacific waves crashing onto the island:

At the end of the coastline, I revisited Ahu Tongariki with its 15 standing moai:

At this site, there are also a number of rock carvings which the tour a few days ago had failed to mention, mostly faces of a god, canoes, and fish:

After this, I had to get over a few kilometers of bumpy dirt road to get to Anakena beach on the north coast. With cars and buses passing from time to time and causing huge clouds of dust, this was not as much fun as it sounds. Anyway, the beach was as beautiful as I remembered, and Ahu Nau Nau was definitely worth looking at again.

Then, all that remained for me to do was to cycle back to the village. This part was really fun, because there was a steep climb up to around 200 meters of altitude, and then a long stretch of downhill that lasted almost to the hostel's door. Exhilarating!

In the evening, I went to look at another sunset, which turned out as beautiful as the day before :-)

Day 192: Sunken Moai

Being an island, Rapa Nui offers a number of possibilities for diving. I had read that there was an underwater moai at one of the dive spots - something I simply HAD to see. So this morning, I went diving. According to my guide, the visibility was bad today: only 30 meters. On good days, visibility could be as far as 70 meters, he said. Since I've never had visibility above twenty-something meters so far, I was perfectly satisfied with 30. The moai - a replica, to be sure - was impressive: just sitting there, gazing out into the sea, and slowly being populated by coral and other sea life. But, I'm almost sad to say, the real highlight of the dive were once again the animals. There were trumpet fish, a number of different moray eels and schools of little black fish with a bright white rim. And - what great luck - we also saw a big sea turtle. First, she was just relaxing on the ground, so we lay down in front of her to watch for a bit, and when we left, she also decided to go and swam away to the surface. What an amazing sight!

Later in the day, I went for another walk to the nearby archeological site of Vinapu. Besides the usual moai, the site had a very fine ahu that reminded me of Inca masonry:



Seems not only South Americans were fine masons ;-)

After the walk, I got back to the western coast of the island just in time to witness a beautiful sunset. Have a look:

Day 191: Hat Factory

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.

Day 190: Relaxing on Easter Island

I didn't do much today - except write far too long and detailed blog posts ;-)

In the afternoon, I wanted to go diving, but found out that there had been a fatal accident just before: a snorkeler had had his throat cut open by the blades of a boat's motor. So for the time being, no boat was allowed to leave the harbor.

Since my flight back to the continent is still some days away, the dive is only postponed, not canceled. For the snorkeler, however, all future plans have been canceled... Life is too short to waste!

Day 189: Moai Everywhere

What makes Easter island unique is its isolation and with it, the singular ways of worship that haven't been altered by outside influences. In Europe, a community of Easter Island's size would have built a church, and maybe a castle - but there are churches and castles all over Europe, so their feat wouldn't have been all that special. But no other community built moai to show veneration for their ancestors (although there are statues in some Polynesian cultures that look similar, but represent the god Tiki, once again confirming the Polynesian origin of the Rapa Nui). By the way, Rapa Nui is the native name for Easter Island, its inhabitants, and their language.

So today, I joined a tour to learn more about the moai. All the moai have been erected on platforms called ahu, close to villages, and facing their village. So what did the moai symbolize?

Initially I thought of the moai as protectors from the dangers of the sea - something I read seemed to imply this meaning. But then it doesn't make sense that they should face away from the coast, towards villages. Luckily, our guide solved the mystery for me. Apparently, the Rapa Nui believed in mana, a spiritual quality associated with influence and authority. The moai were erected to represent specific ancestors who had possessed lots of mana. Through the moai, and more specifically their eyes, this power was believed to be transferred to the villagers.

With this interpretation, the toppling of the moai also makes sense: in the 17th century, clans started fighting each other, probably because of overpopulation and the resulting scarcity of resources. Clan members would then sneak into an enemy's village and secretly topple the moai, thereby severely damaging the other clan's mana. Within less than 100 years, there wasn't a single moai left standing on the entire island. Nowadays, there are efforts to restore many moai back to standing status. In the village Akahanga (or more precisely its ruins), the moai were purposely left lying down:



I found the toppled moai almost more impressive than the re-erected ones - a vivid proof of what humans are capable of, both in building and in destroying them.

In Akahanga, the remains of the village itself can also be seen. The shape of the houses was the same as in Orongo, but here only the foundations remain. Walls and roof were made of vegetal material that has long since decayed.



You can also see the patio of rounded stones in front of the house. Since the houses were only used for sleeping, this was where most of village life took place.

The second site we visited was Ahu Tongariki, with 15 moai the largest restored site on the island.



One of the fifteen has a red stone on the head, called pukao. This symbolizes hair pulled into a topknot. According to the old beliefs, mana accumulated in the hair. Therefore, people didn't cut their hair and often wore it as a topknot (to have it out of the way, I presume). They also dyed their hair using red clay, thus the red color of the pukao. A moai with a pukao therefore represents an especially potent moai. Several more of the moai at Ahu Tongariki had pukao, but since the archeologists couldn't figure out which pukao belonged on which moai, they didn't restore them to their former positions.

Our next stop was Rano Raraku, the moai quarry and factory. Here, the moai were cut out of volcanic stone and then carved with their individual faces. Many also had carved decorations on their backs, almost all of which are no longer visible today.



There are hundreds of unfinished moai at Rano Raraku. Unfinished moai are easily recognizable because the eyes were only finalized once the moai was in place at its final destination. The eyes were made from coral and gave the moai a rather stern look. However, the eyes have only been restored on one single moai: at Tahai, which I visited two days ago.



New moai were ordered by a village when an important person died. They were paid for with chickens, being a symbol of power and wealth, and other foods. The carvers worked on a moai as long as food was coming - and this may have been a major reason why there are so many unfinished moai in the quarry. The entire carving and transportation process may have taken well over a year.



Today, many of the moai in the quarry are half buried. This way, the decorations on their backs have been protected from erosion, something archeologists are very happy about.

The quarry is located on the slopes of a volcanic crater. Although not as spectacular as Rano Kau, the crater is much more accessible. The crater lake is one of only three lakes on the island. Since there are no streams, it is one of only three sources of fresh water for animals! Therefore it is only logical that herds of wild horses are roaming around the lake's shore:



Our final stop for the day was Ahu Nau Nau, whose moai are the best preserved ones on the island.



Why are they so well-preserved? Because after having been toppled, they had been covered by the fine sands of Anakena beach, protecting them from wind and salt spray.

Day 188: Orongo

Today I hiked up to the Rano Kau crater to see one of the two main attractions on Easter Island: the ceremonial village of Orongo.

There are a few things to see on the way up. First, the cave Ana Kai Tangata. From the cave entrance, there is a beautiful view of the impossibly blue Pacific and the rocky shore:

Inside, there are some cave paintings showing mainly birds, no doubt related to the birdman cult (see below):

Further up, there are great views into the inside of the Rano Kau crater from its rim:

The crater offers an environment that protects plants from the wind and salt spray prevalent on most of the island. To give native plants a safe space to recover, nobody is allowed to descend into the crater.

The village Orongo was built on the rim of the crater, right into the slim space between the crater and the Pacific. Orongo was never intended to be inhabited permanently, only for a few weeks each year for the birdman competition Tangata Manu. The competition worked like this: each year in spring, one representative from each clan would climb down from Orongo into the Pacific, swim to a tiny nearby island, find the first egg of a certain migratory bird, and return it safely to Orongo. Whoever returned first was given all sorts of privileges for the year, and his clan gained the right to collect wild bird eggs. To give you an idea how lethal the competition was, this is the cliff the participants had to climb down and up again:

This cult was fairly recent (it ended only in the 19th century), and came after the veneration of ancestors through moai statues. Interestingly enough, the rise of this cult coincided with another set of events on the island: overpopulation, conflicts between clans, and deforestation. Without trees, there were no means to build new fishing boats, and possibly also no means to transport moai statues from the quarry to their destination. Is it really a coincidence that, with the loss of fishing as a reliable food source, a cult arises that focuses on migratory birds and their eggs?

Like most houses on Easter Island, the houses in Orongo were shaped like upturned boats. Because of the strong winds on top of the cliff, the usual building materials didn't suffice, and so stone slabs were used instead. This is a partially reconstructed house that reveals the construction method:

And this is how the finished houses looked like:

At the topmost point of Orongo, there is an area with many petroglyphs - drawings etched in stone - showing the bird central to the cult:

The visitor center has a photograph comparing the state of the petroglyphs now and a hundred years ago. If the rate of decay continues, they will have vanished completely within maybe 300 years. Just imagine - any historic structure of a similar material that is older than a few hundred years may have been covered with drawings, and we will never know about it.

On my way back down, I took a detour to see this moai at Hanga Roa's harbor:

Photographing moai in the evening proves to be a difficult task, at least on this side of the island ;-)

Day 187: Easter Island

My flight arrived at 6:30 am, in pitch black darkness. An hour later, through immigration and baggage claim, it was still pitch black. Half an hour later, while I was well on my way to the hostel, it finally started getting lighter. What a difference to Peru, where I got used to the sun rising well before six. Time zones are funny inventions, especially when stuff like this happens: Easter Island (Chile) is in the same time zone as Lima (Peru), even though it is 3500 km to the west of it.

One of the first things I saw then, walking to my hostel, was a man on a horse, galloping along the main street. What a weird sight, especially coming from from the traffic mayhem in Lima! Easter island, with its single village Hanga Roa and around 4000 inhabits, is quite the opposite to the frenzied multi-million people city.

Looking at the names of streets and places on the island, I noticed how similar they are to terms used by the Maori in New Zealand. Whoever postulated the (now outdated) theory that Easter Island settlers had come from South America had clearly never had any contact with a Polynesian language.

In the afternoon, I went for a walk to the north of the village. I wasn't expecting anything spectacular, but the island held two nice surprises for me. First was the shoreline: its ragged stones, and the waves constantly crashing on them were a really beautiful sight.



And then, in the distance, I spotted something that looked strangely out of place, somehow like... statues. As I came closer, a sign indicated that this was indeed the archeological site of Tahai. The site has three platforms, called ahu, with restored moai standing on them. The two smaller ahu have one moai each, and the biggest one has five:



Here are the five a little more up close - aren't they fascinating?

Day 167: To Arequipa, Peru

I got up early today to make sure I could complete the nine-hour journey from Arica to Arequipa in daylight. When I arrived at the international bus terminal in Arica, I was surprised to find out that the buses to Peru didn't even have fixed departure times - they just filled up bus after bus with people, departing as soon as the bus was full. In the case of my bus, this took about ten minutes. Of course, these buses don't go all the way to Arequipa. About 60 km from Arica, just across the border, is Tacna. Apparently, chilenos frequently make the journey there for cheap shopping and medical treatment. Even knowing this beforehand, I was still impressed by how quickly the buses filled up.

On the way to the border I realized that this stretch is, as far as I know, the exact location where Bolivia is trying to gain a corridor for access to the Pacific. Seeing the busloads of chilenos going shopping in Peru and the efficiency of the border crossing, I don't think this is ever going to happen...

In Tacna, I found out that Peruvian time is two full hours behind Chilean time - what a nice surprise, gaining two hours just like that ;-) I then boarded the earliest bus to Arequipa.

The most interesting occurrence during the bus ride were the stops. At every stop, at least ten food vendors entered the bus, loudly praising their wares and trying to keep out of the way of everybody wanting to get on or off the bus. The offered everything from soft drinks to sweets, snacks and hearty meals, and each stop brought different foods. Judging by the smell, most of it must have been delicious - next time I'll try some :-)

Day 166: Relaxing in Arica

I couldn't be bothered to exert myself today... at all. So I just stayed put and enjoyed reading April fool's jokes in the newspapers ;-)

More news tomorrow, when I'm leaving Chile to go to Peru!

Day 165: Lauca National Park

My main reason for visiting
Arica was the nearby Lauca national park, so today I joined a tour to visit. All the travel guides say that a one-day tour is not to be recommended, as going from 0 to 4500m of altitude in roughly four hours can lead to altitude sickness. Since there were no other tours available, I did it anyway - and had no problems at all. I guess I'm still acclimatized from spending several weeks in Bolivia :-)

One of our first stops was a valley where hundreds of candelabra cactuses grow. Similar to many other types of cactus, these grow at approximately 1 cm per year. A cactus that is 3 meters high - the average height in the valley, I'd guess - is therefore 300 years old!

Next was a mirador offering a view of Putre and the volcano at its side. Chile's north is so sparsely populated that a village with 2000 inhabitants gets to be the region's capital...

A little further, we stopped at Cotacotani lakes, a group of nice little ponds below snow-capped mountains:

The wildlife viewing opportunities throughout the tour were great. This was the first day that I saw all four types of camelids inhabiting South America: alpacas, llamas, guanacos and vicuñas. These are alpacas:

And these are llamas in front of lake Chungará, at 4500m above sea level:

I also saw non-mammals like this small lizard which was about 10 cm long:

The changes in landscape during the tour were amazing. Arica was pure desert, then came a fertile valley nestled within desert hills, and then with increasing altitude there were increasingly more and bigger plants to be seen. Just the opposite of what you'd expect in Europe, isn't it?

Day 164: Arica

There is not much to do in Arica, except for surfing. Since I can't surf - I want to learn, but in a place where lessons are a wee bit cheaper than in Chile - all there was left to do was wander around the city.

The entire area in northern Chile claims various superlatives related to aridity. Arica, for example, claims to be the world's driest city, with 0.03mm of annual rainfall. Sure enough, outside the park with its watered plants there is little to no green, and the hills outside the city are pure red-brown desert.

In the center of Arica, I found an interesting church. It has been designed by Gustave Eiffel. Since he apparently couldn't be bothered to travel to South America, the entire thing was pre-built in Paris and then shipped to Arica. Another thing that makes the church special is that it is made from steel - think about it, how many metal churches have you seen?



The church's outside is nice, but I thought the steel decorations in the interior were even more interesting:



After visiting the church, I went to climb the huge rock towering over the city, El Morro.



At the top, I found out that the entire thing is a big memorial to the Pacific war, complete with old cannons standing around and a monument to the unknown soldier - interestingly enough, erected by and with a dedication from dictator Pinochet. Anyway, the views over the city were grand, but with a cloudy sky the pictures turned out too dull for publication ;-)

On my way down, I visited the in-situ museum Colon 10. Its name comes from its street address, and it is in-situ because it was erected on the exact same spot where some archeological remains were found. When the owner, wanting to build a new hotel, discovered human remains below the floor, he called in the university's archeologists. After some inspection, they declared that the findings were too fragile to be transferred to a museum, hence the decision to create a museum on the spot.

The site seems to have been a burial place some 4000 years ago, possibly in use for centuries. What the museum exhibits are around 50 human skeletons, in the exact same positions as they have been found, with only the covering layers of floor and sand removed.



I found it fascinating to see an archeological site in almost its original state. Museum displays, while often excellent, do remove the context and place the exhibits into a somewhat sterile atmosphere. So this museum offered a very welcome new perspective on archeology :-)

Day 163: Pukara de Quitor

On my last day in San Pedro de Atacama, I did a small hike. About 3 km from the village, there are the partly restored remains of an old mountain fortress, the Pukara de Quitor.

I had already seen a pukara in Argentina. The main difference between the two is their use of construction materials. While the stones in Argentina were a light grey, the stones available near San Pedro are red:



This overview of the pukara shows the side from which the fortress could be accessed; all other sides of the hill were a lot steeper than that.



On one of the steep sides, there were two indigenous faces carved into the stone. As the park surrounding them was opened only recently, I'm not quite sure how old the carvings actually are; but impressive nonetheless!



Close to the pukara, another path led up to a mirador. Halfway up, it offered views of these fantastic red hills:



And from the top, there was a wonderful view of San Pedro. From this perspective it suddenly became clear to me why San Pedro was originally chosen as a settlement: it is an oasis!



Back in San Pedro, I visited the archeological museum. Due to the aridity in the region, many artefacts are preserved perfectly. The museum therefore has exhibits that would have decayed in many other parts of the world, for example baskets woven from plant fiber.

What I found quite surprising was that many of the museum's exhibits were related to the production, storage and consumption of hallucinogenic substances. Apparently, the usage of drugs, at least for spiritual purposes, was very common. This picture shows a sample of the instruments: a pestle for production, and a tablet from where the drugs were inhaled via a pipe.



I wonder if drug use was as widespread in ancient European cultures?