Easter Island (Isla de Pascua, Chile)

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Where am I?

Land, ho!

After our lengthiest stint at sea thus far, I woke up this morning with a wonder view of land outside my salt-crusted window.

I began the day with great enthusiasm to see the place that is the home of the moai, those large carved-stone heads found around the island. I’ve been fascinated by these mysterious carvings since I was a teenager. In the ’60s in San Diego where I grew up, all of the surfers wore miniature moai around their necks, suspended on a thin strip of leather. Over the years, I learned more about the moai. I mostly learned that we have much to learn about them. In fact, very little is actually known for sure.

The moai were built several hundred years ago by one or two tribes on this island in the South Pacific Ocean that is one of the most remote places on earth. The culture that built them had no commonly used written language and so the secrets of how and why they were made, how they were moved, and why they were moved to the places where they are now found is all just a mystery. Another reason why I had such a fascination for these treasures: I love a good mystery.

But before I could get ashore to get a good close look at the moai for the first (and likely last) time in my life, I had to board a tender. This turned out to be a much larger task than it may sound like.

Although we have used tenders to get ashore in other ports (like Fuerte Amador and the San Blas Islands) today’s tender ride was a bit different owing to our location. There is one tender port on Easter Island and it is on the west side. As it turns out on this day, the west side had the choppiest water. The ship’s staff started tender operations at around 8:30am but the going was slow. The tender launch “deck” attached to the ship and the tenders themselves would often be riding and falling in the rough water at different heights. The swell would raise and lower the tender while the bigger, heavier ship would bob up and down at a different rate. The net result was that each passage from the ship onto the tender had to be timed to a point where the two platforms aligned long enough for a person to step across. You can imagine how slow it would be to put 60-80 visitors on a tender! People who had ship-purchased tours that were scheduled to depart at 10:00am found themself still waiting to board a tender at 1:30pm.

My tour was to leave at 1:30pm and it was also delayed, but only by about 30 minutes. This came at the expense of other passengers who wanted to go ashore and had been waiting to do so, but had not bought a tour from EXC, Holland America’s shore excursion extension. I felt bad for them, but I was very happy to be assured that I would be going ashore to see those iconic heads.

And so my tour began. We headed out to a beautiful park that overlooked the ocean (actually, much of Easter Island overlooks the ocean) and where a few of these amazing statues stand. You can see that not all of them are intact. Time and the elements have taken their toll on many of these monuments.

This park also has one moai that has been fully restored to the condition that is believed it would have appeared centuries ago. It is the only moai to have the eyes inserted and to have the “hat” placed on top of the head. Other than this example, the most restoral work done on any of the other moai has been to stand them up again, sometimes on a new foundation.

After visiting this park, our tour guide took us to the mountain that has the quarry where all of the moai were carved. This turned out to be a place that is as interesting as the standing moai themselves.

Here you can see two unfinished moai still lying in the stone, unextracted yet nearly ready to go.

There are also many standing moai, already finished and ready to be moved to their designated locations. But, where might those locations be? And who designated where they were to be placed? And why?

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It was a bit of a strenuous walk from the entrance to the quarry, then up the hill to where the exposed work could be seen, then around and down other moai already standing and waiting. Still waiting. I must confess that at the end of that “trail of discovery” I was a bit winded, but it was worth it to see how these giants were made and to see them in state, all finished up with nowhere to go.

As mysterious as “why” these heavy stone heads were made are the questions “where?” and “how?” Where were the final destinations for these monsters, and how would they get to those destinations? Our guide says that the traditional explanation for how the moai got from the quarry to where they stand now is that “they walked.” Well, if they did walk, how did they know where to go? Why are they where we find them today?

The truth is that nobody knows the truth. We don’t know how these rock statues weighing tons were moved down the hill and into places around the island. Personally, I like to think that they did walk there. That story beats the UFO theory, IMHO.

Our penultimate stop was at a place with 15 moai all standing in a row. And, that row contains the tallest of the moai on the island. Its name is Paro and it’s over 30 feet high and weighs in at more than 85 tons! Kinda reminds me of Ron Upson. (Hi, Ron!)

Our final stop was at a beach famed for its pink sand. I looked at it. It didn’t seem very pink to me. Therefore, I have no photos of it to share with you.

Originally, the “All Onboard” was to be at 4:30pm. When our tour arrived back at the tender dock in town it was 6:30pm. Due to all of the delays with the tendering process, the Captain decided to delay our departure in an effort to allow everybody to go ashore that wanted to. In spite of that departure time change, some did not get to go Ashore. I’m so very happy that I wasn’t one of them!

What is it?

OK, our last terrycloth guest to make an appearance looked like this:

Many of you said it looked like a ray, a sting ray, a manta, or a mantaray. Nobody guessed that it was the B-2 stealth bomber, which it isn’t. True enough, it’s a ray!

Ready for another one? OK, I’ll do a couple more, but I’ve been warned that the assortment of animals is near an end and that I’ll be seeing some old friends soon. So, enjoy this while it lasts. Ok, here’s your towel pal for the day:

What is it? Post in the “Reply” area at the bottom of this post, or just send me a message. You know how.

Where am I headed now?

Now that we are leaving Rapa Nui (Easter Island) I’m so happy to have fulfilled a nearly life-long dream. I’ve seen the moai, up close and personal. As we sail off to our next adventure, I take with me some wonderful memories.

I’m looking at two days at sea, and then a very brief visit to Pitcairn Island or Mutiny on the Bounty fame. BTW, that is also the onboard movie this evening. I understand that we will not get to go ashore (the Captain fears another Easter Island tender fiasco) but a handful of the natives (many descended from Fletcher Christian) will come about to entertain us and sell us soiree wares.

So, for now, farewell!