Middle of Nowhere

For any of you who has or been tempted to say ´this is in the middle of nowhere´ about a place you have visited most likely you weren´t even close. Easter Island, Isla de Pascua, or Rapa Nui depending on your association is truly the Middle of Nowhere as eloquently expressed in the following quote:

¨If I climb to the highest point on Rapa Nui, the Maunga Terevaka, and look to the North, all I can see is the vast immensity of the ocean, but I know that the closest land is the Galapagos Islands, located 3800km away. I turn slightly and look to the West. Again, all I can see is ocean. This time, 4000km separate me from Tahiti and 2000km frm Pitcairn Island, the nearest land. I turn once more and face the South, where more then 5000km of water lie between the Antartic ice caps and me. Finally, I turn for the last time and face East, and now, stretching before me are 3700km of empitness before reaching the coast of Chile in South America.¨

Carlos Huber ¨Easter Island, Rapa Nui A Land of Rocky Dreams¨

We were incredibly lucky to be able to include Easter Island on our round-the-world ticket, because for the vast majority of travelers it is seriously off the beaten track. Easter Island is really famous for only one thing, the huge stone head statues called ´moai´that dot the landscape. Nobody is really sure why the people built them and why in such numbers. What they do know is that the building of the moai helped lead to their destruction. It is thought that the island was inhabited by two similar groups, the long ears and the short ears, both decendents from the original people who by some miracle found the island after theirs in Polynesia was wipped away by a tsunami. A competition built up between the two groups as well as on and off warfare that intensified as time went on. Eventually the building of the moai became an obsession that overtook other parts of life including agriculture. Eventually the long ears triumphed, which is only right, and tragically soon after the first Europeans arrived bringing with them all kinds of nasties that quickly wiped them all out. So what you see on the island today is the remains of a once powerfully unique society, which probably were the worlds greatest navigators.
The island is very small, only about 20km across at its widest with 3 extinct volcanos dominating the terrain. Their is only 2 real sand beaches with the remainder of the coastline being very dramatically rocky cliffs. Most of the island is also bare, as all the indenginous trees were cut down to aid in the movement of the moai from the quarry to the ceremonial platforms. The only trees now are introduced gum trees from Australia. We rented a jeep for a day to tour around the island in order to see all the moai in all their glory. They are truly bizaare, with varying facial expressions and sizes. Some are quite small wereas others are up to 10m high. Its still a mystery how the people managed to transport and then erect these statues with no mechanical tools. Its the same dilemna that has faced archaeologist in Egypt, trying to figure out how these seemingly unsophisticated people managed to do something us modernites can´t. The largest grouping of moai is 15 in number. They had been scattered inland by a tsunami in the 1970´s, but a Japanese crane company in exchange for the picture rights, were kind enough to put them back in place in 1997. So now 15 glorious moai line up next to each other right on the cliff overlooking the pounding Pacific waves.
Luckily for us, in addition to the ´normal´sites to see on the island, the Rapa Nui people were celebrating their 2 week long festival in which the new Queen of Rapa Nui is crowned. It´s a kind of ancient beauty pagaent. Basically a couple families get together and find their candidate and then the following 2 weeks is spent competing in various contests between the other families. They have swimming, stone carving, baking, island style sledding, banana carrying race, etc... All very authentic and great fun to watch and be a part of. The winning family has their candidate crowned Queen for the coming year.

We both feel truly lucky to been able to visit Easter Island, it is definitely a unique place with a lot of unanswered questions. Our next stop is back to Santiago then up over the mountains into Argentina.