Sorry this post has taken a little longer to put up than the others.  After a day of touring I started my VERY long journey back to the Great White North.  Four flights and a couple of days later and I’m officially back in Chilliwack.  While I had good intentions of writing this while on the plane, I think I was subconsciously putting it off because I’m not ready for it to be over.  And writing about my final day on the island means this chapter is coming to a close.  That said, although this particular part of the journey may be over, I do plan on posting a few more posts in the next couple of weeks.  As I go through pictures and notebook and as I tell stories to family and friends and overall just reflect on this amazing journey, I’m sure there will be a few nuggets that I’ll want to share.  So stay tuned….

Ok, here goes.  The final morning on Easter Island started with a gorgeous pink sky, birds chirping and light rain falling.  These few days on the island have reminded me of life in Costa Rica in so many ways, and it’s really made me feel at home.  The sounds and the smells have made me sleep just as soundly as the rocking of the ship and I’m definitely going to miss both!  

From there, we moved around the crater’s edge to Orongo, the primary site for the birdman culture.  This was the place that Patricia was first called to back in 1976.  She told us the story of having just returned from working in the Atacama desert, and getting the phone call asking her to go to Easter Island for a 6 month contract.  Without even unpacking her bags, she and Claudio immediately set off immediately. The best part of it was that she was actually pregnant when she left for Rapa Nui!  She thought she’d go to the island, work for 6 months and be back to the mainland in time to have her baby.  That obviously didn’t happen and her mother sent her sister over to help her with the delivery (she then met a Rapa Nui man and stayed on the island herself).  Patricia had four children on that island, giving each of them a traditional Rapa Nui name, and to this day each of them identifies themselves as Rapa Nui. As we strolled along the edge of the crater she spoke about her kids growing up at this site, playing along side of the restoration project.  She would often assign them identification/classification jobs, so the kids grew up with this first hand knowledge of the island and its history as part of their every day lives.  What a childhood that must have been!  

As far as the history site goes, this is the site of the birdman culture.  When we think of Easter Island, we typically think of the giant stone heads and little else.  Ata has done a great job of helping us to see that there are two distinct chapters in Rapa Nui history.  The first chapter was one that was characterized by the Moai statues.  Each of the clans on the island had altars that represented their link between this world and the spiritual one.  However, as the generations passed there was a shift from spirituality to representing the power held by the elite (they termed it mana).  The Moai statues got larger and more numerous, the number of required workers grew, the strain on natural resources increased until the whole system reached a breaking point.  The birdman culture, which is often referred to as the second chapter, is seen as a response to this.  It was a way for the working class to rise up and take the power or the mana into their own hands, and in some ways it created a unique democratic-ish society. 

I can attest to the fact that the Moai statues are impressive and awe-inspiring.  If you wanted to introduce a new religion/way of operating, it would be pretty difficult to surpass the awesomeness of those statues, yet the village site at Orongo does just that.  Set on the edge of the crater, overlooking the ocean and three small islands full of nesting seabirds, it’s the perfect place to capture the imagination.  It was here at this village that the birdman culture was created. 

This morning started out with lots of rain and lots of horses.  It was that amazing tropical rain that you think is coming down heavily… until it comes down even harder.  Our timing was perfect though because the torrential downpour let up just as we were pulling into our first site.  The rain had the unexpected effect of drawing the island’s wild horses to the roadways to drink the water that was collecting there.  Ata wasn’t lying when he said there were likely 10,000 horses on the island… they were everywhere.  He said their numbers increase due to lack of predation, however they are kept in check by limited food resources, so it’s only the toughest horses that now make up the population.  Though I teach my students  about this type of scenario, I don’t often relate it to “domesticated” animals.  

I took the opportunity on this morning’s drive to ask Ata some questions about the tourism industry on the island.  I was interested to learn that only 40% of the park entrance fees are actually directed back into the park, the other 60% goes into Chile’s general fund for other park areas of the country.  This low amount is offset by two things; first, the great amount of pride the locals take in their island and secondly a forward thinking mayor.  Apparently the locals take a lot of the oneness of upkeep and maintenance on themselves.  In some ways, the whole island is like a reserve, so while in other areas upkeep inside a park border is done by staff, here it is done as part of their own property care.  The office of the mayor receives funds from the Chilean government for operation, and it sounds like he is willing to match funds for proposals put forward by young professionals on the island. 

In the last 10 years, there has also been an overhaul to the islands garbage procedures.  Prior to that it was primarily dumped in a heap and burned.  Today, there is an intensive recycling program in which every last possible recyclable piece is removed and compacted. Twice a year a 20 ton compacted pile is sent to the Chilean mainland and sold for processing into other goods. 

Our first stop of the day was Ranu Raraku, the quarry from which all of the 1000’s of statues on the island were carved.  At first I was disappointed to see a number of busses full of people pull up at the same time.  We’ve been completely spoiled and are often the only people at many of the sites that we’re visiting.  However, that changed when I found out that they are on a 34 day National Geographic world tour!  Hmmm, maybe I need to start saving up for this one…

The quarry was fascinating as there were statues in all stages of the carving process, many abandoned midway when the society that was working on them collapsed.  Ata described the process of carving the majority of the statues out of the mountainside from a standing position, using the removed fragments of rock to create a ramp on which to slide the near finished statue down to the base of the hill for final carving and then transport.  It’s believed that the carving process primarily occurred during the rainy months (june/july) because the moisture softened the rock and made it more flexible, which had two results.  It was easier to cut with their stone tools and the flexibility made it less likely to develop fractures during the carving process.  Experiments show that it likely took a few years for the carving process to be complete which is particularly impressive considering the number of statues on this island! 

As we passed one of the groups, Ata spoke to one of the guides leading the other Nat Geo group and it was at this point that we made the connection of who he was.  Yesterday he mentioned he had archeologist parents, but he didn’t tell us WHICH ones… turns out that he is the son of Claudio Cristino  and Patricia Vargas, who along with Edmundo Edwards make up the chief archeologists in the island’s history!  No wonder is so knowledgeable!  Imagine growing up in that household and the theories he must have heard!  When we gave him a hard time for not telling us, he said that he wanted to be judged by his own merit, not that of his parents (totally understandable), but now that we know, we’ve been privilege to a couple of “inside stories” that I was able to film and will use in my Ecotourism class.  

Our next stop was the site Tonariki.   Many years ago, this place was devastated by a tsunami that had tossed, broken and buried many of the statues.  In the 90’s, it was decided that this would be this would be the first site that would be completely restored and Claudio Cristino would be the one to head it up.  This was a tipping point on the island, and it was the restoration of this particular site that renewed the Rapa Nui people’s pride in their culture.  Interestingly enough, due to its proximity to the quarry, there is the belief that this particular altar may have been erected for the stoneworkers of the time and so it makes for an interesting cyclical comparison.  We spent about 30 minutes (again some of the only people there) wandering around, mostly in silence, absorbing the enormity of this place.  

Our final stop of the afternoon was pretty blew my mind.  Take all of the history and culture of the monuments that we’ve been visiting, add palm trees, white sand and clear blue pacific waters and you have paradise!  Yup, that was my afternoon.  Swimming in the shadow of these historic statues in a location that had been reserved for the kings or the heads of the clans.  I don’t quite know how I’m going to return to the real world! 

Fortunately I wrote most of the above post this afternoon before we went to dinner.  We’ve just come back from dinner with the one and only Patricia Vargas and I think my mind has officially been blown.  To sit there at dinner with THE person who is responsible for the archeological discoveries on the island and listen to her theories and explanations of the whole process was so incredibly special.  I’m not going to go into it here because I think I need to let the whole experience mellow in my brain a little bit before I write about it, but what I can say is that was probably one of the most memorable dinners I will ever eat!  And tomorrow morning I get to do it all over, as it will be Patricia who takes us out and explains the birdman culture to us.  Better go rest up so I’m fresh!  

Tepito o te Hanua - The Naval of the World 

If I was at all worried about not being able to fully appreciate Easter Island after the immenseness of Antarctica, today proved me wrong.  As we toured various archeological sites today I was amazed at just how complimentary the two locations were in terms of my Ecotourism course.   While Antarctica appealed to my passion for environmental and ecological topics, Easter Island is appealing to my imagination and my desire to understand other cultures.  I’m trying hard to soak it all in (I took 14 pages of notes!!) but there is still so much I have yet to learn!  I will try to keep this post a moderate length but I don’t even know where to start! 

I suppose I should start with last night.  I had zero expectation for New Years Eve as I was travelling by myself and was totally content to have a quiet evening appreciating my surroundings.  So it was a complete serendipity to have a fabulous evening with a couple of new friends from the ship.  There were two long tables laden with every type of seafood you could imagine, prepared in every way you could imagine.  The backdrop for this feast was a sunset over the pacific that were equal in beauty to those in Costa Rica.  The night finished off with a champagne toast and fireworks at midnight before heading to bed.  It was a perfect start to 2015.

Breakfast this morning started with a very good lesson.  We are currently on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1000’s of miles away from the nearest land, and while the island was once very prosperous and populated with countless seabirds, overexploitation lead to its collapse a few hundred years ago.  Since that time, production on the island has been limited and there is a high dependency on the daily flights from the mainland and weekly cargo ships to bring supplies. Because of this things can be quite expensive here (even just lunch here can cost $20+ for a basic sandwich).  Also, once something is gone, it’s gone until the next shipment.  For instance today Jackie ordered an egg for breakfast, but because of New Years celebrations there were no eggs.  Something we take for granted in Canada, and yet unavailable here until the next shipment comes from Chile. 

At 9:30 we left for the days adventures and drove first to Vinapu, a ceremonial site with monolithic stonework reminiscent of the Inca civilization in Peru.  The 7 min drive to the other side of the island was a quiet one with the only other cars on the road being the little Jimny 4x4 driven by tourists (these must be the rental cars of Latin America as they were all over CR as well).  Our guide, Ata, provides us a very interesting perspective on what we are seeing.  He is a local of the island and grew up with parents who were both archeologists.  He is doing an excellent job of balancing what the archeologists assume from their findings (and all of their competing opinions) with the oral history of the native Rapa Nui people of the island.  Other features of interest at this site were the remains of some “top knots” red stones hats that were placed on some of the statues, and the only stone carving in the shape of a woman on the entire island.  You could also see the extreme difference in the flora on this side of the island as it’s exposed to much stronger winds and harsher weather.  Vegetation was limited to grasses, thistles, a plant that looked like Labrador tea (I’ll have to figure out what it is tomorrow) and Guyaba.  I’m used to Guyaba growing in trees 15-20ft tall, but the tallest of these was about 3 feet tall, with fruit no bigger than my thumb.  A perfect example of the harshness of this island that the Rapa Nui had to deal with once the protection afforded by trees disappeared a few hundred years ago.  

Our next stop was Akahana, a site by the sea containing the remains of three different altars and a small cave dwelling.  There were also circles of rock that can be seen all over the island, including in front of my cabina at the hotel.  Ata calls them greenhouses as they help plants to grow.  Basically they are one-foot high structures that protect seedlings from the direct strength of the wind and the evaporation that it causes.  By the time the plant has grown as tall as the brim, it is an established plant and better at withstanding the elements.  Ata explains that this structure mimics the calderas of the volcanoes on the island where the same increase in plant growth can be seen in the protected areas.  There appeared to be an old road running through the area, which Ata explained was the old highway.  Between 1992-1997 as the Rapa Nui people were reclaiming their identity and pride in their heritage, they recognized that having a road running right through a historical site wasn’t ideal.  So during that time they moved the island’s main highway away from any alters and allowed the old one to return to its original state.  

As we drove south to our third site, I asked Ata about the number of archeological sites on the island… there are 30,000!!! Very impressive for an island of only 177 square kilometers!  There are 100’s of statues, and a 1000+ alters, all in different levels of repair.  This basically meant that as we drove through the countryside, the majority of the rocks that we could see actually had archeological significance.  And believe me, there are a TON of rocks scattered in the fields.  There is history on this island EVERY direction that you look.  I also realized just how fortunate we were to have Ata as our guide when Deb commented, “oh that’s a pretty house” and Ata replied, “That’s my uncle’s house”.  As I said above, I much prefer having a local who is directly tied to this are as our guide. 

Our final stop of the morning was at a single statue on a piece of private property.  The notable thing about this statue, wasn’t the statue but it’s surroundings.  Behind the statue (but hidden by trees) there was a disco that was still going strong from the festivities of the night before. This provided a bit of an odd contrast as we took pictures of this ancient statue while listening to reggatone in the background. 

Now I’m not usually one to write about food or take pictures of food, but I’m going to bring up food for the second time in this post.  I ordered Rapa Nui Ceviche for lunch and it was probably one of the best meals I have ever had.  Unlike Ceviche that I’ve had in past, the locals do not marinate the fish in lemon juice in ordered to “cook” it.  Instead it is added last minute (along with the onion, cilantro etc) as more of a marinade or dressing. So essentially, it ends up being a fusion of tuna sashimi and ceviche, two of my favorite foods in one!  I don’t think I every want to come home. 

Our first stop after lunch was my favorite.  It was been fascinating to see the alters and statues in person, however, the caves of Sector Ana Te Pahu were a great surprise.  After the last volcanic eruption that occurred between two and three thousand years ago, 300+ lava tube caves formed an extensive network in this sector of the island.  In some cases there was a large opening to the cave where the tube had collapsed, and these large openings ended up being “greenhouse” areas.  In other places the opening to the cave was the size of a manhole and offered more protection to the Rapa Nui who would have lived there.  We spent some time walking through a three hundred meter section of one cave, learning about cooking, water collection etc in the cave system, as well as the religious experience had by sensory deprivation in the darkest sections of the cave.  

Our second to last stop of the day was Ahu a Kivi, also known as the 7 explorers.  This was the first alter to be restored on the island and is unique because it is the only one in which the Moai are looking out to see rather than looking inland.  There are a number of different explanations for this, one of which is that they represent 7 stars that might have lead the original explorers to the island. 

Our final stop of the day was Panu Pau, the red scoria quarry where the hats or top knots were carved from.  The small hike to the top provided views down in to the quarry, where these large round cylinders were in various stages of being cut out, stopped by the collapse of the society that was excavating them.  It also offered views of the town, two of the three volcanoes and a number 80+ cinder cones that cover the island.  All around you are reminded of this island's volcanic origins! 

Well that's all for tonight!  I wish I could have uploaded more pictures but each one is taking at minimum 10 minutes to load and I need to go to sleep!