A day at the Track

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I went out on an ATV tour today, just to get out of the house. It was great, even with no previous experience. The name of the place is Trail Tours. They provide everything, and I mean everything (except your underwear). All the gear, helmet, ATVs, guide and trails. I had Mike as my personal tour guide/instructor for the day. He was excellent, balancing my inexperience well with the conditions.

As this was a last minute thing, I wasn't able to find anyone to go with me this morning, but I will try to round up my former lunch buddies next month.

Here's me on the ATV at the end of the day.



Easter Island is under still construction, but the next one will be worth the wait.

Joe

Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 7

So this is when it really gets interesting. It is Saturday now, our second full day on the island. We arrived Thursday morning, settled in, walked through town, watched the sun set. Friday was a walk in the rain to the museum. Today, is our postponed tour of the island. There are a lot of pictures (to choose from and) to see. I am going to add a map so you can get a sense of where we are on the island. Click on the map to expand. Yellow markups highlights areas discussed.




SOUTH COAST
This is where I fell in love with the coast. The black rock with the blue water cascading into white over it was startling. I would go back just to see more of the coast, as shown in the next two photos.
The south coast of the island has numerous moai and ahu along it. Simply drive along and you will see toppled moai everywhere. A few of the sites have been developed, but not restored.


South coast with Rano Kau in the background.


A lone moai with the face visible.


The toppled moai in the foreground appears to be on a separate ahu that has eroded in to the ocean. Another ahu with toppled moai is in the background.


This image gives a good sense of scale, for this relatively small moai.


As the rain clouds came and went, we were treated to sun drenched slopes of Rano Kau like this.



RANO RARAKU (The Quarry)
This is the area where all the moai were carved. After the work here was completed the statues were moved up to a dozen or so kilometers away, all over the island. How is still a mystery, although there are several theories, none of them proven as far as I know.

Most of the pictures are in no particular order as there is no order to the quarry that I know of. There are two sides to the quarry though, an inside and an outside. Most of these are of the outside, as we could not make it all the way to the inside on this trip. We returned in a few days to revisit the inside.



Us at the quarry.


Our guide advised us that in general what you see above ground is about 1/3 of the total height, so double what you see and that is what is buried beneath the ground.


This is a picture of an incomplete moai. They were carved face up, right in the side of the mountain. The back acted like a keel on a boat and when the appropriate time came, the keel was chipped away and the statue was moved in to a vertical position. In this vertical position, the back was finished and probably some fine detail added. Remember, the eye sockets were not added until the moai was stood on the ahu, which helps identify moai abandoned along the road.






This is a very unique statue. It is (I believe) the only kneeling one on the island. This kneeling posture was a key for Thor Heyerdahl's conclusion that the original inhabitants were from South America, which we now know is incorrect. They are of Polynesian ancestry. It was Heyerdahl's expedition in the 1950s that uncovered and righted this statue.


Inside Rano Raraku. Those dots are moai buried in the ground.


Closeup of inside the quarry.


The gap from inside to outside.








Visible in this shot is the largest moai ever carved, El Gigante. Unfortunately, it never made it to the vertical, let alone on to an ahu. The moai is centered side to side and about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up the photo. It is about 70 feet tall, or 7 stories.












This pictures shows a moai with a carving of a boat on the front. Below the boat and buried is another carving of a turtle.


This is a sneak at our next stop, Tongariki, with 15 standing moai.



TONGARIKI
For me, Tongariki was the most memorable site we visited on Easter Island. I say site, as my most memorable experience is a hike we did three days later.

This is the ahu with the most standing moai, 15 in total. Not only was this site toppled by the inhabitants, but in the 20th century it was inundated by a tidal wave that picked up the multi ton moai and tossed them hundreds of meters (yards) inland. It was restored in the 1990s, supposedly in pay back for allowing one of the moai to travel to Japan. Major support for this restoration came from a Japanese crane company called Todano.

The size is truly impressive. Whereas my wife found the quarry the most fascinating place, it was Tongariki for me. From afar, or up close, it was always captivating. There will be more pictures from here later, when we return for a sunrise visit.



Us in front of Tongariki.




These portions of moai are behind and to the left of the ahu. I think these were moai from an earlier generation and may have been buried within the latest ahu (altar), whick was not uncommon apparently.

If I remember correctly there were three generations of moai, or at least two. The first being more short and wide, and the latter being taller and thinner. Perhaps, only possible after they aquired the skill to work with taller, thinner moai?






These are the topknots leftover after the restoration. I don't know why they were not placed on top of moai. Perhaps they could not determine whick topknot went with which moai.



ANAKENA
This is Anakena Beach on the north coast. The rain was threatening again, hence the gray clouds. Legend has it that the discoverer of Rapa NUI, Hotu Matu'a, landed here. It makes sense, since this about the only place you can access the island from the ocean without coming up to a wall of volcanic rock. Better pictures will follow on another day.



This is the moai that Thor Heyerdahl had the residents stand back up during his expedition in the 1950s. It was his book about this trip, Aku Aku, that inspired my wife, as a school child, to want to go to Easter Island. Although some of his original concepts about Easter Island and the inhabitants origins have now been proven wrong (genetic testing), I find it commendable that he took the chance and started the discussion through this expedition and his book.


This is another ahu at Anakena with several moai on it. This is the back of the ahu, facing the ocean. If you look closely you can see the face of a moai used as a stone in the ahu wall (under the third statue from the right.) It is thought that the ahu where normally oriented so that the moai faced the people in the village, and hence normally had there backs to the ocean.


The same ahu from the other side.


A closeup of one of the moai. This shows the topknot (red hat on top of the moai) very well.



The end, of this day at least.


Added August 22, 2009

I failed to add that we also went to see one of the shows this night. We had planned on going Monday or Tuesday, but ran in to some other guests after dinner and accompanied them to the show.

Matatua is one of four(?) shows on the island, all somewhat similar. Local music and dancing. It was very enjoyable.

Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 5 (and 6)

FIRST DAY ON EASTER ISLAND

We arrived around 10 AM on Thursday morning, slightly ahead of schedule. It was a warm and sunny morning and after passing through customs and screening, we were greeted by the driver sent by our host. As we drove back to our accommodations we had an introductory tour of Hanga Roa, the only town on the island.

We arrived at Te'ora, our home for the next week. Due to our late booking, we had to change rooms while we were there, so eventually we stayed in all three official rooms. The first was Te'ora Ra'a an upper floor room with a balcony.





Te'ora is the number one rated specialty lodging on Easter Island according to Travelocity. We both loved it. Sharon, the owner, is exceptional, very informative with her arrival briefing and any other special arrangements that you want to make (car rentals, laundry (with charge), tours etc.) With the included kitchenettes, we were able to save considerable money by having all but one of our breakfasts there, as well as a couple of lunches. This is not a hotel, but a more like staying at someone’s house. It is next to the ocean and a few blocks from the main street, so you get to hear the ocean lull you to sleep. I would definitely recommend it for anyone going to Easter Island and looking for a comfortable and clean place to stay.

The picture below is the "house" dog, Michigan. He is very friendly, as are all the dogs on Easter Island. He accompanied us on our first big hike of 14 km to the top of Rano Kau (later) and around town several times. If you are thinking about going to Easter Island, you should be aware that there are dogs everywhere. They are all very friendly to humans, but once in a while territories are fiercely defended against other dogs. Michigan had to detour around one such territory on our hike to Rano Kau.


So, after our briefing and some lunch , we relaxed a bit, took a shower and then went exploring. This was the first mohai we saw. It is 5 minutes down the road from Te'ora, beside the small fishing harbour.



We were also treated to two large sea turtles at the harbour, one of which is shown below. They were pointed out by one of the locals, who knew we would be happy to see them. We saw them again later that evening and then not again until our last day. For scale, this guy is about 4-5 feet across. Pretty impressive.



That evening, around 5:30, we walked to Tahai, a fully restored site just north of town. It is a very large site, probably the most impressive from a building point of view. Not shown in these photos is a very large ramp leading down in to the ocean, between the two ahu.



This photo shows the most northly ahu with a single large mohai on it. You can see the scale by looking at the person in front of the mohai. This is also the only mohai with eyes placed in it. Apparently several other mohai had new coral eyes created for them in the recent past, but the residents asked for them to be removed, as they were uncomfortable(?) with them. The result is that this is the only one with eyes. The eye sockets were only carved once the mohai was stood on the ahu, which has helped them in identifying toppled mohai.



This is a picture of the entire site, and again, for scale, look carefully at the people on the right side.



This is our first sunset on Easter Island, Thursday, June 18, 2009.

So, I am throwing in day 6 here because there are only three pictures, and the second one below shows why. It rained all afternoon, quite hard at times, but fortunately, after we made it back to the room. We were supposed to do a several hour tour, but the four other people agreed with the guide that waiting for better weather made sense (and it did.) So we ended up walking up to the museum, a good half hour walk out of town, in the rain. It is an interesting place and probably useful to go there prior to touring the island in order to get a sense of what you are seeing. The small admission charge is well worth it. Oh yea, we were accompanied on the entire walk, by a local dog that adopted us for the day. He even waited out in the rain while we visited the museum. I thought we had a picture of him, but I was wrong.

View from Te'ora without rain.


View from Te'ora with rain.