Easter Island: day 2

Today started with my alarm going off just before 7:00 am to go on a full day tour of the island, staring with sunrise at Ahu Tongariki. This spot has fifteen moai, the most on any platform on the island. On May 22, 1960 the planet's largest earthquake ever measured struck the southern Chilean city of Valdivia, triggering a tsunami which knocked the fifteen moai over and carried them across a large field. There they remained until a team of Japanese came to restore them in the 1990s.

 

The tallest moai here is not the tallest moai but it is the heaviest one ever successfully erected, weighing in at eighty eight metric tons.

 

Sunrise was mellow and lovely. Our guide had brought us to the perfect spot from which to snap our photos. As the sun began to rise, the twenty odd people waiting directly in front of the statues all scrambled over to where we were to see the moai silhouetted.

 

We lingered as long as we could before moving on to see the ruins at Akahanga. Several moai once stood on the platform here but all are currently knocked over. In fact, every standing moai on the island has been knocked over at one point or another, whether intentionally by a warring tribe or through simple age and neglect.

 

The moai didn't just build themselves as we saw at Rano Raraku, the quarry where the Rapa Nui carved each moai. There were dozens of moai, all in different stages of completion, which gave you an idea of the process. In some cases, it looks like the moai are rising out of the ground like carrots!

 

The largest moai ever carved is 21 meters, causing experts to wonder how the Rapa Nui would have transported and erected it.

 

Behind the quarry is another crater, this one with domestic horses galloping and running around. There are signs everywhere telling people where they can and cannot go, yet the horses have free reign. Mini Bear follows the rules even if the horses don't.

 

From here, we returned to Ahu Tongariki to take the ever popular jumping photos.

 

And then, of course, we let our imaginations go and took scores of silly photos. I managed to keep my injuries to a minimum during my head stand session. Of course, there is no photo of my successful head stand!

 

The landscape was sparse and beautiful as we drove to check out a perfectly smooth rock that is said to have strong magnetic properties.

 

Our last stop for the day was the beach. This is where kings and chiefs who traveled to Rapa Nui would arrive. White sands, palm trees, this is what you imagine when you think about the Pacific islands. In fact, the palm trees were imported as they are not naturally occurring here, but who cares. The water was cooling and the sun was shining.