As far as I’m concerned, this is the most impressive attraction on Easter Island ... and there isn’t a giant stone head anywhere in sight.
The location of this stunning collision between the forces of nature is Orongo ceremonial village, a collection of 54 stone homes on the southwestern tip of the island. Perched on the edge of the Rano Kau volcano, it’s where the rituals of the Birdman cult were performed until Christian missionaries put a stop to them in the 1860s.
Tangata manu
As part of the cult — known as tangata manu in the Rapa Nui language — a competition was held every spring to see which young warrior could retrieve the first sooty tern egg of the season. This required a two-kilometre swim through rocky, shark-infested waters to reach Motu Nui, a small islet where the seagoing birds nested. The warrior lucky enough to find the first egg would then have to keep it intact through the return swim and the climb up the cliffs back to Orongo.
Fortunately, I don’t have anything quite that strenuous planned for my visit. My time here will be devoted to a little hiking, a little biking and a lot of relaxation, as I enjoy the fascinating, laid-back culture that has evolved on the world’s second-most isolated inhabited island.
Rapa Nui is a tiny speck — 24 km long by 12 km wide — in the middle of the Pacific, more than 3,500 km west of the Chilean mainland. Its closest neighbours live on Pitcairn Island, another 2,000 km to the west.
Cut off from the rest the world for most of its history, the civilization that evolved on Easter Island became one of the world’s most unique. Of course, one doesn’t have to be an anthropologist to figure that out ... all it takes is a glance at one of the island’s most-famous residents.
Rapa Nui is home to 887 moai — giant statues carved out of volcanic tuff between the 12th and 17th centuries. The moai were an elaborate form of ancestor worship, in which tribes honoured their deceased chiefs by erecting huge statues in their image. Although all were eventually toppled through war and social upheaval, many moai have recently been restored and returned to their ceremonial platforms, called ahu.
For my first couple of days here, I act as my own tour guide, pedalling my rented bike from one ahu to another. My base is a small guesthouse on the outskirts of Hanga Roa, where almost all of the island’s 4,500 residents live.
My first stop is Ahu Akivi, one of the few inland sites, where seven moai look out to sea. As with many of the attractions I visit on the island, I find myself completely alone, with the exception of a single cow munching indifferently on the grassy field in front of the giant statues.
I’ve seen plenty of pictures of Easter Island’s famous moai, but even so, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed in their presence. Because so little is known about them — no written records exist — their blank faces evoke a sense of mystery not unlike the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa.
A few of the mysteries are solved on my last day on Rapa Nui, as I join a tour to see the eastern half of the island. Together with visitors from Chile, Australia and Scotland, I climb into a minivan for a connect-the-dots expedition between all the sites I haven’t yet explored on my own.
Slave raids
Our guide Helen is a Rapa Nui native, descended from one of the 111 residents left on the island in 1877 after disease and slave raids had all but obliterated the local population. In her lilting accent, she proudly tells us how and why the statues were carved and explains the most likely theories about how they were moved, contemptuously dismissing notions that extraterrestrials were somehow involved.
As she guides us through the quarry at Rano Raraku, where all but a few of the moai were carved, it’s easy to see why the “spaceman” theories were once so popular. Here, hundreds of the giant heads poke out of the hillside at crazy angles, their featureless faces looking like otherworldly embellishments on the natural landscape. They just don’t seem to belong.
But that’s Easter Island in a nutshell. Sticking up out of the vast Pacific, cut off from the rest of civilization, this tiny tropical paradise truly feels like a place that’s not of this world.
IF YOU GO
To Easter Island
- LAN Chile is the only airline that flies into Hanga Roa’s Mataveri International Airport, with six 767 flights per week from Santiago. Flying time is about six hours.
- Because non-locals can’t own land on Rapa Nui, you won’t find any big-name hotels here. Instead, there are dozens of comfortable guest houses run by locals, ranging in price from $50 and up.
- The dining scene in Hanga Roa is excellent, with several restaurants specializing in locally caught seafood.
- Easter Island is a great place for active travellers, with hiking, biking, surfing and snorkelling all available.
stephen.ripley@sunmedia.ca
Get close to nature in St. KittsWith Suzuki wearing a VW hat, it’s time to aim low…
