It is believed that the island's Polynesian inhabitants arrived on Easter Island sometime near 1200 AD. The name 'Easter Island ' came from the day of discovery on Easter Sunday by the first European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on April 5th, 1722. The island's official Spanish name is Isla de Pascua, which translates to Easter Island.
The afternoon we arrived, and to stretch our legs, we hiked up an extinct volcano to see the crater and visit the historic remains of the town of Orongo.
Kevin and I decided to take the road back down and after about an hour, the heavens opened. We hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck and couldn't have gotten any wetter if we had tried. We stayed in the capital Hanga Roa which is more like a small town than a city.
There are over 900 Moai on the island, but only a quarter of the statues were installed and many are still in the quarry where they were carved. Most have been "toppled down" i.e. pushed over and face planted into the ground during many conflicts between various indigenous tribes. A few Ahu's or platforms have now been restored. The following day, our host took us on a tour to a cave and to the historic site of Ahu Akivi to see 7 Moai, each one is 16ft/4.8m high. Moai statues were considered by the early people of Rapa Nui as their ancestors that were believed to be the reincarnation of important kings or leaders of their clans. The Moais were erected to protect and bring prosperity to their clan and village. Ahu Akivi is also known as a celestial observatory that was set up around the 16th century. They directly face sunset during the spring equinox and have their backs to the sunrise during the autumn equinox.
The red stone used to carve the Pukao, the hat/hair seen on some of the Moai.
On our last day, we did a full day tour of the island seeing many historic sites where Moai had been pushed over,
The quarry where the statues had been carved
and finally to the restored platform of 15 Moai at Tongariki. Each statue is at least 9m tall and all were swept 200m inland by the tsunami created by the 1960 Chilean earthquake - the largest on record at a magnitude 9.5. All the moai here face sunset during Summer Solstice.
We visited a number of other places on the island but for me, seeing the Moai was magical.
It was interesting to hear the stories and history, especially from a local and descendant of one of the 12 clans.
The quarry where the statues had been carved
and finally to the restored platform of 15 Moai at Tongariki. Each statue is at least 9m tall and all were swept 200m inland by the tsunami created by the 1960 Chilean earthquake - the largest on record at a magnitude 9.5. All the moai here face sunset during Summer Solstice.
We visited a number of other places on the island but for me, seeing the Moai was magical.
It was interesting to hear the stories and history, especially from a local and descendant of one of the 12 clans.
We then headed back to Santiago to spend a few more days exploring the city before saying goodbye to Chile and starting the long drive on winding roads across the Andes and into Argentina on New Year's eve.
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