Alicia Hull vs Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

Do you remember that episode of the Simpsons Homer vs New York? Homer was really excited about going to the city and then lots of bad stuff happended and then he ended up hating it. That was what my first 2 days on Easter Island were like.

I arrived and was given a flower necklace from the lady at my hotel then spent the afternoon checking out the town and had some dinner. I rarely eat fish but on this one occasion, I had pasta with some fish in the sauce (thinking it would be ok having fish on an island). The next day I had to cancel my tour and I was so sick I spent the whole day either in my bed or in the bathroom. I loaded myself up with antibiotics determined to get better as soon as possible.

The next day feeling slightly more human I went to visit the museum. In the afternoon my plan was to rent a scooter and zoom around the island. On my way from the museum to the town a huge storm rolled in of the coast and I got soaked and had to run back to the hotel and hide in my room from the rain (the storm cut power out on the island for about 5 hours).

Well it sounds like a sorry tale but things did turn around for me.

After the storm cleared, I went to a traditional Rapa Nui dance performed by a local dance group called Kari Kari. It had the potential to be cheesy and touristy but it was fantastic. They had great costumes and music and performed several different traditional dances for us. All the dancers in the group were quite young and had so much energy they were really enjoying themselves.

















The next day was a beautiful day and I got to take my tour that I rescheduled from when I was sick. Wow what an amazing place! Our tour was great really informative about the culture and history of the local people. Lots of history of the moai (the big statues) and ahu (platforms).

















We visited several ahus which were platforms to which the statues were placed upon. Moai were errected on the ahus when a local cheif died and his body burried in the ahu. The statue was carved and errected on the ahu to represent the spirit of the cheif. The moai overlook villages. This means that ahus were built right on the coast line and the moai looking inland over the village, never out to sea.

All the moai on the island were toppled during wars on the island. We visited several platforms with the moai restored upright and also platforms where they are still toppled.

















We visited the volcano where all the moai were carved. From this volcano they were transported all around the island (how they were transported is one of the mysteries but there are several theories). The largest moai ever carved was 21 meters long but never made it out of the volcano and the longest carved and moved was 10m. There are several moai not completed lying around the volcano.

We also visited the only platform where the moai look out over the sea (this was to believed to be because they were overlooking an imigration voyage).

I kept bumping into this Japanese girl Rie who was staying in the room next to me in the hotel , she was very lovely and we had dinner together and spent the next morning on the same tour.

The next morning I took another tour to the village of Orongo, where the birdman cult resided. Basically after the wars when the moai were toppled. To find a new king a competition was developed which involved climbing down steep cliffs and retreiving an egg from a birdsnest on an nearby small island. The winner was declared king for the year.

After the tour it was off to the airport and back to Santiago. Well the first two days on easter island were a bit dissapointing but I was so glad that things picked up and I had a fantastic time in what is such a truely amazing place.