Traveling On

The entries on our recent South America trip have been revised and edited, and the photos have been added. Enjoy!

Último día

This morning we had a late start — 10:30 a.m. Of course, we were up much earlier than that, so after breakfast we took a walk around the neighborhood, just to enjoy the perfect summer weather before plunging back into the icebox. We were surprised to see so many people walking — obviously to work, by the way they were dressed — after 9 a.m. Bankers’ hours?

The bus drove us about an hour to a place just beyond the Santiago suburbs. Here we visited a very small winery. The vineyards are only a little over an acre, then there is land for the house, the winery itself, a few fruit trees, etc.

A wonderful glass of cold, fresh apricot juice welcomed us to the tastefully appointed winery, and one of the owners (the son of the founder) provided a detailed lecture about the grapes grown here (cabernet and carmenere), how an organic vineyard deals with pests (rented chickens and predator insects), types of fermentation, corks, etc., etc.

Of course, the lecture included generous tastings of various wines paired with traditional Chilean snack foods. Both snacks and wines were excellent. We also walked a bit in the vineyard and tasted the almost-ripe carmenere grapes.

 Our host explained that carmenere requires a longer growing season, which is why the wine has gotten a bad reputation. Carmenere grapes grown in France must be harvested before they are ready, and thus make poor wine. But in Chile the grapes can be grown to full ripeness and the wine is very good.

After the tour and lecture we were served lunch — a traditional Chilean “corn pie.” This is a casserole of meats and vegetables topped with a very sweet corn bread. It is baked in a pottery bowl, and quite delicious. Of course, there was wine with the meal.

By mid-afternoon we had returned to the hotel. An Asia-Pacific economic summit is being held here beginning tomorrow. Many representatives are already arriving, so the place is surrounded by uniformed police and not-so-plain-clothes security people are eyeing everyone in the lobby.

We shall miss the summit, however, as we shall soon be off to the airport and on our way home. But we did take time for one more walk around the neighborhood in the 80-degree weather. We have to enjoy it while we can, as the change will be abrupt!

In Flight Again

Rapa Nui to Santiago. It’s a long flight and took pretty much the whole day. The flight TO Easter Island was on a beautiful, brand new 787. The flight today FROM Easter Island was on a 777 that seemed to be overdue for overhaul. The entertainment system had no audio tracks and only two movies — one in Spanish, one in English. Food was a soggy sandwich. The reading lights didn’t work, either. Not the plane’s fault, but we were also surround by several families with tiny kids. One toddler was particularly loud. So not a pleasant flight.

We are in the same hotel in Santiago that we were in previously, and it’s very nice. Dinner this evening was “on our own,” but this is a very agreeable group, so we all went to the same restaurant together, along with Carolina, our tour director. By the time we finished, it was pretty much time to turn in.

Some observations: The food on this trip has been excellent! Also, we’ve never been on an OAT trip with so much included wine with meals. South America has a very highly developed wine culture, and that has been evident in our menus. We have tried to be healthy about our diet, but we have still eaten way more than we usually do at home. We have also spent many days like today on this itinerary, in airports and on planes. But South America is a huge continent, and the only way to see as much as we have in this span of time is to fly from place to place. These travel days are sort of a waste, but there really isn’t any other way to do it.

Island of Mysteries

Rapa Nui presents endless puzzles to the scholars who study it. This morning our mini-bus took us to Vinapu on the southwestern corner of the island (just off the approach end of runway 28 at the airport). Here there are two ahu very close to one another. They carbon date to almost exactly the same time of construction. Yet they are vastly different.

One is similar to most of the other ahu on the island. The other is made of different rock — hard basalt — which has been finely carved, the stones fitting together precisely, just like at Machu Pichu and other Inca sites in Peru. This discovery led Norwegian anthropologist, Thor Heyerdahl, to take his famous Kon-Tiki voyage in 1947 to “prove” that Polynesian people originated in South America.

Today, DNA testing has proved Heyerdahl wrong — Polynesians originated in Asia and sailed east. But this Inca-like construction still suggests that there may have been some contact with South America at some point in pre-history.

Along with the puzzle of how more than 1,000 stone moai, each weighing many tons, were moved from the quarry to ahu platforms all over the island, the puzzle of the ahu at Vinapu remains a mystery.

The bus next took us to Orongo, high up on the edge of the Rano Kau volcano crater. The wind was crazy strong up there! Here are the partially reconstructed remains of the “Birdman” village. Stone houses here were used as a sort of monastery for Rapa Nui priests, except at the new year. Each spring the “manu tara” (the sooty tern, a migratory bird), would return to the tiny rock known as “moto nui,” just a mile off shore, and very visible from this high and windy peak.

This “Olympics” was devised as a peaceful competition to put an end to the tribal wars that ended the moai period.

When Ma-ke-Ma-ke, the creator god, sent the manu tara birds back to moto nui, champions of each of the 15 tribes would launch a competition to climb down the steep cliff face, swim the mile out to the islet, find one of the first eggs of the sooty tern, swim back, climb the cliff face, and deliver the egg, unbroken, to their chief.

The first champion to return an egg (or more likely, the only one to survive the climb, the  currents, the sharks, and the other competitors) would win for his tribal chief the right to reign as king over all of the tribes until the next year. He would win for himself seven carefully selected virgins and a year off from all labor and social obligations so that he might enjoy them.

Apparently the entire affair was devised as a very clever way to end the wars, to “democratically” elect a king each year, and to strengthen the gene pool by breeding very strong guys with hearty females. When Catholic missionaries arrived, they promptly put an end to it.

Artifacts at the Bishop Museum

 After leaving Orongo, the bus drove us to the “Bishop Museum,” a free exhibit that was fairly well done, containing the collection of a Catholic priest who served here in the 1930s and ‘40s. We had to rush through very quickly, because for some reason, it closes early on Wednesdays. A high point here is one of the few surviving eyes of the moai, which were usually made of white coral and black obsidian.

One of the last remaining eyes of the moai

Moai were carved and tranported to their ahu, but did not “come alive” until the eyes were added. The eyes were removed each evening, so that the moai could “sleep,” and then ritually returned each morning when the moai “awakened” for the day.

At Tahai, one of the few restored moai with replica eyes added, and with red hat, showing how they originally appeared.

We walked back through Tahai, another ahu-moai site near the sea. We also passed through the cemetery, which gave clear testimony to the cultural mixture of Rapa Nui myths and Catholicism.

After a bit of shopping and a snack in town, we returned to the hotel to change clothes, as the day was becoming hotter. We finally got around to enjoying our “welcome” drink. The hotel had provided a voucher for two free pisco sours when we checked in. We sat at the hotel restaurant enjoying the view of the sea as we drank those.

After finishing our free drinks, we walked up the road in the opposite direction of town to explore the fishermen’s bay. Along the way we passed an “ecolodge” hotel owned by a German company that is on disputed land. The Rapa Nui people claim that the land was acquired fraudulently, and protest by placing black flags around the property and spraying graffiti on the fences.

We returned to the hotel to enjoy a glass or two of wine before dinner. The news of record snow storms back home helps us to appreciate sunshine and temperatures in the high 70s. Dinner this evening is our “farewell” to Easter Island. It was served under a tent near the “sunset moai” at the southwest corner of the island

The kitchen is owned by a Rapa Nui woman whose father was given “the worst land on the island” by his family when he married. This was in the 1960s, before tourism was even considered. Then, in 1968, achaeologist William Malloy came and restored the ahu just down the hill and raised the fallen moai there. By the mid-1970s this was one of the most visited spots by tourists, and the business has flourished.

Most of the other group members had made reservations for a “cultural show” with music and dancing. We elected to skip it and returned to the hotel to get packed for tomorrow’s departure from the island.

Ahu and Moai

Rapa Nui runs on island time. Even the sunrise is late here. It’s raining, but warm. A large cruise ship is lingering just off shore, but we have seen no signs they are disembarking passengers. If they do, we hope to avoid large crowds of day-trippers on shore from the ship. If not, why sail all this way just to look at this island from off shore? But that appears to be what some do.

Breakfast isn’t served until 8 a.m. Breakfasts throughout this trip are very sweet. Not just the occasional Danish, but lots of sugared pastries of every sort. Today’s unique addition was a sort of pecan pie that Mary raved about, but which was all gone by the time I went back for a slice.

We didn’t begin our day’s activities until 9. By mini-bus (there are only 8 of us now) we left the island’s only town, Hanga Roa, and drove along the south shore of the island. We had to drive around the south end of the airport, and learned that the airport is here today because, back in the 1980s, NASA needed emergency landing spots (TALs or “Transoceanic Abort Landing sites) for the space shuttle in case it needed to come down in a hurry. Easter Island was selected as one of those, so has a long runway with some of the most advanced navigation aids anywhere.

At one point we had to stop for a herd of horses in the road. Horses, cows, and chickens roam freely on the island. Horses and cows are branded, but it seems it would be inconvenient to have to go all over the island looking for your horse when you want to ride it to round up your cows.

First stop was a recently opened site that is a modern re-creation of what an ancient Rapa Nui village might have looked like. It is reconstructed from archaeological data. It seems that chickens might have lived better than people.

Part of this reconstruction has been left unfinished to show how the house was constructed.

To build a family home, rectangular volcanic stones were laid out in an long oval pattern. The stones had holes drilled in them into which pieces of cane were inserted. The cane was bent into an arch so that the other end could be inserted into a hole in a rock on the opposite side of the oval. Once a frame of arches was in place, grass thatch was placed over it.

The house was only for sleeping, and the doorway was very small (and always oriented to the village ahu (platform) and moai (the famous Easter Island “head” sculptures that sit on the ahu). Thus, the first thing one would see upon emerging from the sleeping hut in the morning would be the statues of the ancestors of your village chief, who had watched over and protected the village through the night (more on that in a bit).

Cooking pits always have 5 sides.

All other activities were outside, around the cooking pits. Then, as now, it seems that everything happens in the kitchen.

Chickens, on the other hand, roosted in long oval coops made of volcanic stone with rock slabs over the top. The stones retained heat to keep the chickens warm at night. Also, one had to constantly beware that the neighbors might come to steal your chickens. So after your chickens came home to roost at night, you would plug the wall with the “secret stone.” Our guide asked us to guess what stone could be pulled out of the wall, and we couldn’t find it. She did, and as soon as the stone was removed, about a half dozen noisy chickens came rushing out of the opening.

Next we went to an actual archaeological site where an ancient village has been uncovered. A heavy downpour of rain delayed our visit, but we eventually were able to get off the bus. Now that we had visualized what we were looking for, we could easily spot the foundations of houses and chicken coops on the ground.

Also there was a “cave” — actually a man-made cave from which volcanic rock had been quarried, but a place that had been inhabited. In old Rapa Nui society, the poorer classes could not afford houses, so lived in caves.

Of course, every village has an ahu and moai. Here, as everywhere, the moai have been toppled over on their faces. Easter Island suffered an environmental collapse about 250 years ago. Food became scarce, and tribes went to war against one another to steal whatever food could be found. In any raid on a neighboring village, the first step had to be toppling the guardians who protected it. So any moai found standing on an ahu on the island today are restorations. The moai here have not been restored.

We returned to the bus and moved on to Rano Raraku — the birthplace of the moai. This volcanic crater is the largest concentration of the soft stone that could be carved to create moai. When any of the tribes decided to erect a moai, they came here, to a community of skilled craftsmen, and negotiated to pay in food and livestock for a statue. The craftsmen would ask, “mo ai?” — “who do” you want to memorialize?

The environmental upheaval that brought about the collapse of Rapa Nui society occurred at the height of moai creation. So in this place there are dozens of moai, in various stages of creation, that were abandoned. This has given scholars their greatest insights into how the statues were created. Mudslides from earthquakes have buried many up to their necks, which led to the misunderstanding that these were only heads. But the full bodies are there, underground.

The Rano Raraku site is simply amazing, and we could easily have spent more time there. But a storm blew in off the ocean, and our tour continued in nasty wind and driving rain. A few turned back. Five of us did the whole tour, but the photos didn’t turn out very well.

When the first Europeans reached the island and saw the moai, they asked how the statues got from the quarry to the various  ahu around the island. The native elders replied, “they walked.” The Europeans laughed. Now research indicates that the reply might not have been so far fetched. One theory is that the statues were erected at this location and then rocked back and forth with ropes to move them along the path. If this was, indeed, how it was done, then they would have certainly appeared to be “walking.”

At this site there is also a very unique moai of completely different style. One theory is that this statue represents a kneeling priest, rather than a king or chief.

Lunch was scheduled at Rano Raraku, but since we rushed through it on account of the weather, the catering truck had not yet arrived. We went on to Tongeriki which is very nearby, just at the bottom of the crater near the sea. This site has an unusually large ahu that was restored in the 1950s, but then destroyed in a tsunami. It was restored once again, but since records of the original archaeological findings were lost, the restoration is not historically correct. Nevertheless, it’s an impressive row of 15 moai.

The schedule showed a “box lunch” for today, but when we returned to Rano Raraku we found a picnic shelter in which tables were set with tableclothes, china and silverware. Heated serving pans were keeping warm a meal of roasted chicken, rice, and salad. There was also a fruit jell-o for dessert. Not exactly PB&J in a box.

After eating we continued on to Anakena on the northeast coast of the island. Here was another ahu — in fact, two — with 6 restored moai on one, and a seventh on the other. These were very near the sea, with a beautiful white sand beach nearby. Had it been a warm and sunny day, we’d have probably taken a dip in the ocean. As it was, we just waded in up to our knees or so. The water was quite warm, but rather turbid.

It was about 3:30 p.m. when we returned to the hotel to enjoy hot showers and a couple glasses of wine before going to dinner with the group. This was a dinner on our own, but the tour leader offered to make a reservation for all of us at a place she knew to be good. It was.

Rapa Nui

Before the sun was up in Santiago we had already finished a quick breakfast and were on the way to the airport in the dark. Isla de Pascua (Easter Island, aka Rapa Nui) is officially part of Chile — has been since 1888.

But going there requires filling out special forms and going through immigration, much as one would for an international flight. Also, there are strict restrictions on what can be brought back to mainland Chile from the island. It’s sort of an independent, dependent, possession of Chile.

Rapa Nui is not close by. The flight took almost 5 hours and we are two time zones removed from Santiago. In fact, we’re a long way from anywhere. This island is the most remote places on earth, thousands of miles from any other populated point of land. Tahiti is another five hour flight farther west. Hawaii is six hours northwest. There is literally nothing but ocean for more than 1,200 miles in any direction.

View from the road in front of our hotel.

Nevertheless, it is a very popular destination, especially during the Chilean summer holiday. We expected to be on a small plane, but it was a big 787-9 and it was full. Fewer than 8,000 people live here, and less than one third of those are native Rapa Nui. But more than 90,000 tourists visit each year. Yet, the airport is very small — and the only terminal I’ve ever seen with a thatched roof.

I made an impression upon arrival. There is only one luggage belt, one of those in a long U shape. Several suitcases managed to fall off the belt into the middle of the U, and one was mine. So I had to jump over the belt to get it. I also handed over a bag for a young woman who was trying to figure out how she would get to hers. Then I had to jump back over the belt once again. I’m not sure if the crowd was impressed that an old man could be that agile, or aghast that an old man thought he could manage such a thing.

There is only one town on the island and it is very rustic. The streets are paved, sort of, but you wouldn’t want to drive too fast as they are very bumpy. Many homes and shops appear to be constructed of plywood or corrugated steel. Few buildings really look permanent. But our hotel is an exception and is quite nice.

After checking in, our local guide took us to Ahu a Kivi, one of the national park sites, so that we could see 7 of the oldest Moai — the stone statues, or “heads” for which the island is famous. We next drove to one of the stone quarries from which parts of the statues were carved.

And we visited another, single Moai which served as an astronomical observatory.

On the way back into town we visited a rather unique Catholic church (the only church of any kind we’ve seen so far), and visited an “Artesan [sic] Market,” though it was really just a lot of bunch of souvenir stalls, all with the same junk.

Church exterior

A very Polynesian Virgin Mary

Baptismal font and paschal candle

The group met once again to go to our “welcome dinner” and it was one of the best meals we’ve had on the trip — excellent fish and seafood. Then we walked the 6 or 7 blocks back to the hotel along the seacoast. Some were complaining about the heat and humidity, but after reading the Minnesota weather report, we think it’s pretty nice.

Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a small city in Indiana, but it is named after a large seaport city in Chile (long story, Google it if interested). Our group took a 2 hour bus ride to Valparaiso today. This is the closest port to Santiago, second largest port in the country, and in a sense, the co-capital of Chile, as the congress (House of Deputies and Senate) meets there, rather than in Santiago (another long story going back to the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990).

Like Punta Arenas, which we visited earlier, Valparaiso was an extremely prosperous and cosmopolitan city in the 1800s. And for the same reasons as Punta Arenas, that prosperity ended abruptly in 1914 because of the opening of the Panama Canal and the outbreak of World War I. Owners could no longer afford to maintain grand old buildings, so they fell into disrepair. And homeowners too poor to afford paint used whatever discarded marine paints they could salvage from the harbor, making for a mosaic of bright colors.

Poverty sometimes helps preserve antiques, simply because people can’t afford to replace them with new things. In the same way, the charming old buildings of Valparaiso were not knocked down for new high-rises (and some cases in which the new and the old came together are almost comically bad architecture). The old buildings are now rapidly becoming a tourist mecca, with old houses converted to shops and restaurants.

The main square is dominated by the headquarters of the “Armada de Chile.” Chile has a very long coastline — well over 2,600 miles of it — so the navy is its largest military force. Other buildings, such as the Ministry of Arts and Culture, and several banks, are also here. But a brief walk up hill soon gets one into neighborhoods that are just being renovated for tourists after a century of neglect.

One problem is that many properties are being bought by wealthy absentee owners who only use them as vacation homes a few weeks a year. This has made it difficult to generate a sense of community.

The area is full of winding, dead-end streets that end in painted pedestrian stairways, and colorful murals cover the walls of many buildings. The murals are mostly not graffiti, but the work of paid artists.

Because people came here from many places around the world, we saw both Anglican and Lutheran churches, in addition to the usual Catholic churches. The Anglican church no longer functions, but the building maintained and the pipe organ used for occasional recitals. It was not open at the time of our visit. The Lutheran church was having a service in Spanish on this Sunday morning. We stepped in for just a moment during the sermon. There were about 25 people worshiping, so lots of empty pews.

After taking in the scenery we were picked up by a number of cars operated as “collectivas.” Many streets are too narrow and winding for a bus, so these cars drive circuits through the neighborhoods. People flag them down, and if there is room, the driver will pick them up. The cars are small, so the maximum is four passengers at a time. Each person pays 400 Pesos (about 60 cents U.S.) to ride for a block or for the entire route — same price no matter the distance. Great for getting your groceries up the steep hill.

At the top of the hill we were welcomed to the home of the owner of one of the collectivas. The homes in this area are brand new, because the entire neighborhood was wiped out by wildfire in 2014. The home was very nice, and the family served a hearty chicken dinner that would be a typical Sunday noon meal in many Chilean homes. For dessert we were served a “tres leches” (three milks) cake and lucuma-flavored ice cream. We don’t recall experiencing the lucuma fruit elsewhere.

View of the city from the home of our hosts.

The meal ended with yet another South American cocktail which is unique to Chile. Called a “terremoto” (earthquake) it is mostly cheap white wine called Pepeno (sold in big plastic jugs) mixed with Grenadine and pineapple ice cream. It was pretty good, but we all decided it wouldn’t take too many of them to make a person collapse, which probably accounts for the name.

After being driven back down the hill by one of our hosts, we bid farewell to four members of our group who are staying for several more days on their own in Valparaiso. Then it was back on the bus for the return to the hotel, where we bid farewell to eight others who are not able to take the post-trip to Easter Island. Their planes leave this evening for return to the U.S. The remaining eight of us and our same tour leader will fly to Rapa Nui early tomorrow.

A Valparaiso bar using clever marketing to Gringos.

Mary and I walked to the shopping mall, but wound up making only one very small purchase. Later we walked the neighborhood, thinking about the possibility of a drink. But very few places are open on a Sunday evening, and we decided just to return to the hotel to get packed and to bed in anticipation of our early morning departure.