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.