The Rapa Nui adventure

Like every story, the one which I will tell you has also a beginning and an end. The beginning of mine was somewhere in the middle of the 90's. My uncle lives in the US and ones, coming back to Bulgaria, he brought me an American windsurf magazine. On the cover page was a photo of a few stone sculptures from the Easter island, and a windsurfer was ripping the Pacific ocean waters on the back. I was 14-15 years at that time. I barely can remember the article, it was some guy making promotion for Chiemsee. This magazine still lays in some of my boxes somewhere. For some reasons this magazine was always part of my life and always moved with me. Most likely this story wouldn't happen without this magazine.

I guess here I read for the first time about this little piece of land in the middle of the Pacific. The mystery of those Moai’s (statues) opened the bag with curiosity. The yearning to put my foot over there was born. I had a little globe and I remember looking at this isolated dot, somewhere on the underpart of it…thousands of miles away from the nearest land. In those years I didn't believe i would really be able to make it one day all the way to there. When the plane in Belgium took off half year ago, I didn't think about Rapa Nui neither. We were going on a trip in central America…Chile and Easter Island were mentioned as a ‘what if’. And here I am now. Packed like sardines in a can, 11 000 meters above the ocean, chasing the sunset with a big metal bird. Flying above those orange and reddish clouds, lit by the last sun rays. In my head it feels like complete chaos, the thoughts are flying around, banging into the walls. ‘What do we do first, do we have time to see it all, do I have chance to surf, would there be actually a wave to surf, do I see one of the caves…

above the pacific ocean and the clouds

The piece above I wrote in the plane, the wing of which we can see...But maybe should I start with a bit of boring facts.

The island was visited for the first time by Europeans in 1722. It happened to be Easter, when the dutch sailor Rogeveen passed by here. The crew encountered stone giants located all around the island and friendly natives.

50 years later the Spaniards throw the anchor too. They stuck a few crosses, the Spanish flag and announced the island as property of the Spanish king, naming it ‘ the island of Carlos’.

Another name the island has is Te pit o e henua…or something like that. My Polynesian is weak. But the translation is – the navel of the world.

In 1774 captain James Cook also sailed around here. He found all the statues laying down, and the natives seemed to be starving. Somewhere there in between these foreign encounters, something had happened on this mysterious island.

In 19^th century arrived a few Peruvian whalers and they kidnapped most of the population of the island. They were brought to Peru, and were enslaved. Some priest raised a voice against that and shortly the Rapa Nuians were embarked on a ship back to the island. Whoever didn't die on the journey home, brought diseases back to Rapa Nui. The small pox did the rest and only 111 people were left.

Nowadays Easter island is Chilean territory with special preferences. I have no idea what those preferences are, as the island depends a lot on the mainland.

It has the shape of triangle, the longest side is 20 km. The population is nearly 7000 people, and there is only one village – Hanga Roa, located on the southwest coast. There are 3600 km to South America and the same distance east is Polinesia. The closest piece of land is Pitcairn island – 2000 km. Another place with a funny story…but that tale is not for today.

According the legends, the natives were split in two tribes – long and short ears. The long ears enlarged their ears by putting shells and bones in it. They were the dominant and higher class. The short ears were lower cast and they were the ones to chisel the Moai. Someday, the misery arrived together with shortage of food. The long ears were taking the bigger share and I can image that the short ears weren't happy at all. One day the short ears had enough, they raised their fists, and ‘simply’, killed all the long ears. As there wasn't much food, it is a big chance they also ate them. The legend says, that they left only one long ear alive. The stoneware became part of the past. All the Moai were knocked down. This is how captain Cook found them.

We landed at 19:15 local time, it was an internal flight, there was no passport control. Only one happy labrador was sniffing the bags on the luggage lane. ( I have never seen unhappy labrador by the way) The locals were traveling with 5-6 boxes each, bringing goodies from Santiago.

I found accommodation from airbnb and the hosting lady was supposed to wait for us. It took 10 min before she showed up with a small board written my name on it. We introduced to each other, and by Polynesian tradition, she hang us a necklace made out of fresh flowers. After that we were brought to our bungalow. We were hungry and went immediately outside in hunt for food. The village is called Hanga Roa and it is the only settlement on the island. It is not big and our house was close to the center and the main street. The prices were like on an island – you pay also for the transport to here. Helen was trying very hard to find a vegetarian restaurant or empanadas, but I left my patience in the bungalow. I just walked in the first shop, bought bread, a can of fish, cucumber and said clearly that this will be the dinner for today.
The next morning we woke up early. It was dawn outside, the first light was coming in the sky, but the sun was still under the horizon. We had coffee in the common kitchen, where we found a guy from Santiago. He was staying in another bungalow. In total there were 6 little bungalows. The Chilean guy was already for a few days on the island and went diving every day. He was diving two times in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

The guy haven't seen anything else but the underwater world. Yet.

After breakfast we went to search information on how it is working with the Moai and the sightseeing, etc. The houses around us were all on one level, made out of wood, everywhere were growing palm trees, hibiscus and all kind of tropical flowers and trees. It is a very green island. The shops and the restaurants were all on the main street. The people were polite, smiling and if you walk in the shop, they were mainly happy just to say hello. Even if you didn’t buy anything, they would be very thankful that you made the efforts to enter their shop. That wasn't courtesy, that was the Polynesian mentality.

To enter the national park of Rapa Nui we needed to buy tickets. 54000 pesos, or 80 US dollars per person. That's a lot of money to me, but it was the only way to come close to these giant statues...

We paid in cash and hit the road to Orongo – ancient settlement located in the south west part of the island. To get there, we walked around the airport, passing it from the west side and started to climb up the crater of Rano Kau. It is 300 meters high and steep. Took more than a hour to get to the top. That was a crater of volcano, with diameter around 1 km. Maybe less. It was full with water and reed was freely growing. It looked like that 100 years ago, 500 and even 1500 years ago…

the crater of Rano Kao

We made a large carve, walking on the edge of the crater to reach the settlement. Approximately 50 “houses” made out of rocks, with entrances of 50x50 cm, so the person had to crawl in. I doubt a person could stand inside. We were not allowed to go closer to the houses, so I couldn’t have a look inside. Here was where the shamans, and the magicians of Rapa nui had been living. From here there was a beautiful view to Motu - some people are confusingly naming it island. It is little rock around a kilometer and a half offshore. Motu was from big importance for the rapanuians. At spring time, when the albatrosses came to lay eggs the islanders organized a competition. The bravest men ran down the cliffs (300 meters nearly vertical), swam to Motu, and once found an egg, swam back with it (without braking it) and climb the cliffs up. The first one back was named the birdman, shaved his head, painted it red, and he would be involved in ruling the island. Until the next spring.

house in Orongo

We made a walk around, it wasn't that much to see and started the walk back down. This time, before we reached the airport, we turned to the right. Walked one hour, along the runway then we reached Vinapu. A long time ago 7 moai were proudly standing here. Today, all that pride was gone. They were laying down, facing the grass and kissing the earth. Their hats were laying around the terrain.

We were tired, so we sat next to the entrance to take a break and have a little chat with the man who was controlling the tickets.

Ahu Vinapu

Went back the village, and after a few minutes walk on the road, a car came along. Both of us raised our thumbs up and the car stopped for us. It was a horse-farmer around 35 years, who gave us a lift to Hanga Roa. He had a piece of land and he was living out of it.

Next days we hired a scooter and we drove all around the island. First day we took the south east road. It rained during the night, the road was wet, full with pot holes and I needed to be careful. We stopped on a few places to have a look at the tipped over Moai which were laying down since many years, and probably will never got up again. 300 years ago they were standing and staring at the sea. (actually most of them are with the back to the ocean) Each sculpture has a name and it is made in the honour of one of the long ears. All of them were collapsed after the civil war and the long ears massacre, but in the last centuries some were lifted up again. We kept driving east and on our right side was the endless waters of the Pacific ocean….thousands of kilometers of nothing. All the way to Antarctica. On the left were green fields ending with little hills covered with trees. Somewhere there in front of us popped up 15 stone heads. We got closer and the whole picture was revealed. 15 Moais standing on a row, looking somewhere in land. 15 soldiers, lined up and ready to jump in the fight. 15 titans, protecting the coast of Rapa Nui. 200 meters away from them, the ocean was beating up the rocks on the beach. The motor bike was rowing, I have no idea if I made any sounds, but my mind was screaming: woooow!!!!!

Ahu Tongariki

We parked the bike and walked in. These Moai were standing on a huge platform – Ahu, they were tall, around 6-7 meters, maybe a bit more. The heads of the statues were 3-4 stories above us. Only one had the red hat on top of his head. The rest of the hats were laying around.

Ahu Tongariki was the name of these 15 giants. They were collapsed shortly after all long ears were slaughtered. Then a tsunami in 1960 swept them inland. In the 90s some Japanese organization came and restored them. The largest Moai among those is 86 000 kilograms. How the Rapanuians erased it from the ground…must have been a tough job. We sat again on the scooter and went on. The road slowly turned north, right of us was the Poike peninsula – the most eastern part of the island. Somewhere there was a cave, in which the ancient villagers used to lock up girls before they got married. They stayed in the dark for weeks or months, until their skin became pale.

In about a few kilometers the road started to turn west. Here were some caves, petroglyphs and collapsed Moai. There was a stone full with holes. According the sign next to it, it was used to blow out one of the wholes, making some sound. Blessing the sailors for good fishing days.

We passed the Ovahe bay, and reached Anakena. The only white sanded beach over here. The legend says, that on this beach Hotu Matua landed. That used to be the king of Rapa Nui...legend told by rapanuians. Years ago this child of the nature got in his canoe and set the sails. He started somewhere in Polynesia. The trend winds and the currents brought him to Rapa Nui. He and his sailor mates were the first settlers of the island. On the beach of Anakena they constructed their houses and started a new life.

On the east side of the beach were standing 5 Moai and a bit up of them was another one. In his book “Akhu Akhu” Heyerdal tells us that during his stay on the island, in the 50s' he asked the locals if they can erect one of the statues. This thing weight tonnes…to lift it up, they started to stick little rocks under it. Stone by stone until they made a huge pile. Every time they lift it a bit with some poles and ropes and were sticking stones under it. The Moai laying horizontally was than laying tilted on the pile of rocks. The head went up, the downpart was still staying down. By the end with the help of few ropes and two wooden poles, they slowly pulled the Moai close to the Akhu (the platform) and erected it. That was made with 12 men and they needed 18 days to rise the Moai.

Ovens and petrogliphs could be found around too.

I threw off my clothes and jumped in the water. It was around 20 degrees, crystal clean water, the ocean floor was soft white sand. Small waves were breaking on the beach, around the rocks on the right side of the beach were swimming fishes with all kinds of shapes and colors.

Hotu Matua and his gang were having a good time over here I believe.

From here we took another road, crossing the island in the middle. We went 200-300 meters above the sea level and discovered the view for millions…wherever I looked, behind the green hills and fields was ocean…thousands miles of deep and unrestrained ocean.

pokaos laying in the ground

From up there we went down to Puna Pao – a hole with reddish rock, where the short eared Rapanuians were carving the so called pokao - the hats. They used to put those hats on the head of Moai. Initially the Moai didn't have hats. Pokao symbolized the power and the strength of the person for whom the Moai is. Another theory says it is symbolizing the colour of the hair and. Apparently red hair was common between Rapanuians. No one knows for sure. Those hats are up to 12 tons. How they rolled it and put it on the head of the Moai, is another mystery. On the ground around were laying two dozens of the pokaos, barried half way in the ground. We dedicated one day to the northwest part of the island. Here the asphalt turned into dirt road, and we reached a place, which name I can't remember anymore. But even if I did remember, I wouldn't be able to write it correctly. We left the motor bike and carried on by walk, to reach a cave with opening as large as person can go in. We walked in and after 50 meters we were standing into a ‘window’ overlooking the pacific ocean. Somewhere under us, 100 meters down, the waves were breaking on the rocks.

view from the "window"

The island has many of those underground caves and tunnels, many of them are hidden or forgotten. The natives used them as hiding places or shelters. Here they hid the women and kids when the Europeans arrived, here they kept family treasures, relics, and the location of the entrances was given over from father to son. We walked back and jump on the motor again to reach some dirt tracks until we were lost. It was raining the night before, the roads were muddy, full with potholes and puddles. We couldn't kill ourselves but the bike was drifting in the mud as crazy…never the less that was just a scooter. I know one thing for sure. If that would be my own bike, I would never ride it as I did.

After some time of wandering in the forests, we ended up again on the asphalt road. I turned left, to reach another cave. That one was huge, easy could collect 500 people in it. The water after rain was draining in, so the lowest parts was used as reservoir.

Just five minutes away was another monument – Ahu Akhivi – 7 moai looking towards the sunset. The only moai which are facing to the ocean actually. Another legend says, that the island appeared in the dream of Hoti Matuas shaman. So 7 youngsters were sent in the ocean to search for that island. It seems that they never returned. Not a surprise I guess. But Hatu Matua didn't give up and took it all under his arms. He set sails and went on a search for the island. And he found it.

the 7 young sailors

We drove also to Rano Raraku – the place where the Moai were carved. It was good light for photos, but the guy at the en didn't let us in. They were about to close. We couldn't do much about it, so we drove on. Helen was the driver, I sat behind her. We went to Tongariki and then we took towards Anakena beach. Crossing the Poike peninsula I met the biggest question mark since we were here. Naked man was piling up rocks, next to the road. He only had a piece of cloth around his junks and a necklace from bones, that was it. It was some native going back to the roots. Why he was piling those rocks was unknown to me. There was nothing there.

this photo was taken from the back of motor bike...it looks funny from my eyes, but the guy has his reasons. Nothing offensive!

I really wanted to capture the sunrise at AhuTongariki – the 15 moai. I am totally not a person who is active in dawn so I was postponing it all the time. But in Friday we were supposed to return the scooter, so that was the last option. I got up at 6:30am filled up a bottle with coffee and shoot myself out. Tongariki is 45 min on bike. It was full moon, but the Moon was nearly gone and the light wasn't enough. The light of the scooter wasn't shining more than 3 meters in front. The road was wet, many potholes. but despite of that I was driving fast, only thinking about the warm coffee under the seat. I left the village, turned left and went on the coastal road. The wind was blowing from the side, it started to rain, me on the scooter…wonderful. I was swearing the fate, screaming to the rain and hating everything around. But my right wrist was holding the throttle down. I had a poncho, which, after 6 months of travel through forests, rains, muds and jungles, was looking like colander. I felt my trousers sticking wet to my legs. I arrived at Tongariki and of course, the rain just stopped. The light started to brake the darkness and I realized that the photo I want will not happen. Clouds were covering the entire sky. Anyway I drove all the way in the rain, decided to drink my coffee and wait a bit. Around 8:30 the sun showed up behind one of the clouds above Poike peninsula. The beautiful morning colours which I was hoping for had a day off. The camera was wet, the glass of the lens was covered with water, I was wet... I released a long curse over the life, the universe and everything. You can not imagine what relieve can give cursing. It doesn't change anything, but feels better. I repeated it few times, changing the order of the words of blessing, involved some human parts and relatives...and I drove away.

tongariki by sunrise

Had a breakfast with Helen and we went towards Rano Raraku. This time the entrance wasn't a problem. The day was in front of us. Here, we climbed a little volcano, whose crater was full with water and reed. From this reed the natives used to make canoes to go fishing in the ocean. Everywhere around were laying Moai half or completely finished. Rano Raraku was the cradle of those stone creatures. Here is, where they were born. The moai was first carved in the rock, then cut off, dragged to the place and erected on its ahu. After the short ears killed all the long ears, they abounded Moai carving. Their unfinished work stays and awaits to be done…

arriving to Rano Rarako...

on the outisde of the crater

We saw a rock with 3 faces on it, which could be finished and raised on some ahu. In another world, maybe. The climb on the green hill, covered with stone heads, staring at nowhere was like walking in a holy land. It was like a sanctuary, but instead of tombs and crosses, huge garden gnomes were sticking out. I sat on the fence and looked at one 5 meters head and I forgot about the world around. Helen took me out of my hypnosis, asking me to carry on. We passed the crater on the east side, from where we could overlook Tongariki. Rano Raraku was the last open museum to see from National Park of Rapa Nui. After a two hours walk we went again towards Anakena, to have a last visit. We passed the 15immortal warriors, we crossed Poike, we passed by the “trumpet” – the whistle stone, we went on to Anakena, where we parked the scooter and took by foot a little dirt road south of the beach. Few hundred meters down was a pick-up truck parked and a few guys were having a fire and grilling something. We walked few meters away from them, and one shouted “ hola amigo, come to eat fish!” I felt uncomfortable at first, but the guy was insisting. We approached them and I saw that they had a fish 70-80 cm long on the grill. Two guys 35-40 years of age, from Santiago de Chile and the guy who invited us - an islander around his 50’s. We were tearing the fish with fingers, right from the BBQ. They had also baked bread and some chilean red wine. Can't remember the name of the fish, but it was really good. The hosts name was…let’s call him Juan. He had a farm, few animals and some fruit trees. Sometimes he went fishing. Once a week he would make a BBQ with friends. He was his own boss and he was enjoying life as much as he could. The fish was plenty and he wanted to share it. The life is beautiful.

I think the photo says enough

It happened to re-encounter with Juan two more times in the next two days. Accidentally on the street. Every time we stopped and had a little chat, as if we knew each other from years.

We finished the fish, thanked them, said good bye and hit the road again. This time across the island, I saw a little hill and had the irresistible urge to climb it. I stopped the bike and I told Helen that I was going up. It was impulsive and I didn't have a plan. Helen left me with my craziness and went for a ride.

There wasn't a path, only bush and weed, growing up to my chest. I went straight on, going through rocks, and wild growing bushes. I reached the base of the hill, here started the climb. I was trying to avoid the steeper parts, but some areas was probably 60 degrees and I was crawling, holding myself for rocks, grass or whatever I can. One wrong step would give me lots of pain. It took 30-40 min to get to the top. It turned out that this is volcano and there was crater on the other side. I had my phone in the pocket, I turned on the GPS to see how high I am. It was 300 metres above sea level. Poike was north of me, the pacific was behind it. East of me was also the ocean. I looked to the west – even more ocean. South were some hills…I bet, behind them was also ocean. Somewhere was a little mountain 500 meters high. The highest point on Isla de Pascua. I went down very careful and Helen was waiting for me. We came back in the village and went to the beach with the hope for a clean sky and a beautiful sunset. Well...this didn't happen on that way!
Anyway, It was time to return the scooter and the rest of the day we used to wander around the main street , trying to find Wi-Fi – there wasn't internet in the bungalow, but few places in Hanga Roa were offering free Wi-Fi (with expensive coffee or juice).

In Saturday it was raining almost the whole day. We used it to relax, buy some more souvenirs and in the afternoon, between the rainy clouds we sat in front of the bungalow to enjoy the ocean view we had. Suddenly on the horizon appeared a grey military ship. Not many boats are passing in this part of the ocean. That was the boat, which delivers ones a month food and other goodies to the island. There is no harbor (very little sort of bay for fishing boats only), so they need to use rafts to unload the cargo. If it happened to be a bad weather, the ship has to anchor or cruise around until the ocean calms down,s o the rafts can go out and unload. A helicopter went there and back. That was to take some people I guess.

the bay of Hanga Roa

The day was gone, followed by the night, and after it, arrived the Sunday.

The end of this story was on his way. I used the morning to walk down to Tahai – the Moai on the end of Hanga Roa, to have a look for a last time. I can't say I was sad, but I definitely would be able to stay another week. Many people told me that a few days were enough for this place. We spend six day, I couldn't walk all the way to the end of Poike, neither to walk all the north coast, where are laying down a few more Moai and many caves. We were tired after six months of travelling and were choosing easier treks. I doubt that there would be another time, but half a year ago, I wasn't expecting to end up here as well. Life is full with surprises. Another dream came true, so lucky am I.

We said good bye to the stone colosses, to the friendly islanders, and went into the airplane.