Bucket List!  Rapa Nui or Easter Island with the Moai.

January 26

During the day we went to see the Moai …initially at Ahu Tahai, where we saw the original Man Bun

 

It was believed that the ancestral gods provided personal protection of lineage, territory and property during life as well as in the afterlife. The gods were thought to have brought the migrating birds to Rapa Nui, as well as the migrating fish. There are 887 Moai on Island, and the effort required to move them around the island is almost unimaginable. And, BTW, no one knows for sure why they built them; although most scholars suspect that they are representatives of deified ancestors. Next we were off to the Quarry, Rano Raraku, where we saw the amazing Moai in all their glory. How they moved these statues to the coast is a mystery, especially as they got larger as time progressed. There was an incomplete one that was estimated to be 70 feet long and weighing over 250 tons (photo is lower left).  It was still near where is was carved. It was almost as if the workers just left one day.

 

After Rano Raraku, we went to see one of the most famous groupings, Ahu Togariki. In a word, WOW!!! They had been largely destroyed in the 60’s during a cyclone and totally restored. One of our guides was the lead archaeologist for that project.  How cool is that?!!  He is currently making a documentary on the restoration which he previewed for us later that evening.  The Japanese government donated a crane, which made it all possible. Pretty great!

Then to lunch at Anakena Beach…good except the flies were as big as humming birds (very slight exaggeration).

 

January 27

We started out at Ahu Togariki to shoot sunrise with Jay Dickman, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer.   Can you imagine? I remember his iconic shot of the Killing Fields in El Salvador.     My photos were not as I had wished and there were tons of people there doing the same thing…made for a difficult shoot.

 

We had a rainbow over the Quarry (Rano Raraku) and there were wild horses wondering about. There are 3000 horses on Island, and 6000 people. You can’t own property unless you have Polynesian blood.

 

In the evening, we had Polynesian dancers from Rapa Nui. While the musicians and singers wore Hakus they didn’t really seem Hawaiian in dance, rather more like New Zealand. Very aggressive and hugely aerobic! Lots of feathers flying! One of the dancers was largely naked, save a bamboo codpiece!   Very fun to watch that guy, as well as watch the other people watching him! Towards the end of the performance, the dancers beckoned people from our group to the stage, and that is precisely why Ralph and I sat in the back.   We had been warned!

 

 

January 28^th

Prior to leaving for Samoa, we visited Orongo, most famous for being the ceremonial center of the Birdman Cult (Make-Make Cult). The village was used only a few weeks during the year and only at the beginning of spring. The Make-Make god was closely related to fertility, spring and migratory seabirds. Every year, the chiefs of different tribes competed to obtain the first egg of the Sooty Tern. The participants went down the cliff and swam to Motu Nui, sometimes staying there for days or weeks waiting for the arrival of the seabirds. The first person, or the chief he represented,  who returned to the village with the intact egg,  was named  Tangata-Manu (Birdman). The new Birdman was considered tapu, or sacred and lived in ceremonial seclusion for the following year, when a new Tangata-Manu would be named. The last contest occurred around 1867.

 

The photo below is from Rapa Nui, and it is reminiscent of the construction at Machu Picchu.  Makes you wonder!

 

 

Next to Samoa and Australia, followed (too closely!) by Cambodia (another bucket list destination).