Giant statues called moais are found dotted throughout Easter Island. They were built by the ancient people who lived on the island more than a thousand years ago, in a time period long forgotten, overseeing the ancient civilization that went extinct. The moais were mostly carved out of volcanic tufa, on the slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano. Grace, who was intrigued by a particular image of these gigantic moais since young, was very happy to have that image appear for real right in front of her very own eyes on the day we went to the Rano Raraku volcano.

The picture that captures the atmosphere of deep mystery

Hundreds of moai that were not transported to their altars still rest on the slopes of the volcano

Before reaching their altars, the moais face outward

 The Rano Raraku volcano

 Lichen growing on the moais

 If only the moais could store information of what they saw and heard over the centuries

 Looking more mysterious as the sun set

 There are 92 moais making their way from the volcano to an Ahu (ceremonial platform)

 It was probably because of in-fighting that these moais never made it to their final resting place

How did the ancient people transport them? Did they use ropes, sledges or wooden rollers to move these moais?

 The characteristic big and flared nose of a moai

An average moai weighs 12.5 tons and stands at 4.05 meters high

Photo taken from a higher slope

Some of the moais are still in the quarry niches, enabling researchers to understand and reconstruct the delicate process of carving used to make them.

 There are 397 moais still left in the Rano Raraku quarry

 Looking out to sea

 The image of the ancient islander’s ancestor

There were only a few people walking around the volcano, and some were friendly locals who greeted us Hola

The Ahu Tongariki (seen at a distance here) is just a few minutes by car from the Rano Raraku volcano

Moving from place to place, from country to country without a fixed itinerary and time restrictions has its advantages, but it can also add some stress as you would need to plan at the last-minute where you are going to sleep next and what are the things you could do at the next destination. While in Santiago de Chile, we spent the last few days frantically trying to find a hotel in the remote Easter Island that is not exorbitant (preferably below the US$1000/night charged by some) and has internet access. What’s more, many hotels don’t reply to emails promptly due to the instability of internet service on the island. So we tried calling up the short-listed places instead of waiting around for some emails that never arrived, but then Easter Island being Easter Island, being the most remote island in the whole planet, we even had problems calling Easter Island from our hotel.

So we went to several locutorios - shops that have phone booths - down the street from our hotel to try our luck at calling. The first few that we went to couldn’t connect to Easter Island; luckily one did and we could call the hotels. After a few phone calls with different people answering the phone and a day or two before flying, we confirmed our booking with the Easter Island hotel over the phone in a Chilean locutorio. This would turn out to be one of the most troublesome ways of booking our accommodation during our round-the-world adventure.

9 April 2008 - The day we arrived on Easter Island. Our ‘hotel’ is the Hotel Manutara, which is more like a guesthouse. One thing you must know is that standards in Easter Island are different from those in other developed parts of the world. While this hotel would have been a one-star in other developed countries, we would rate this a four-star by Rapa Nui standards.

During our first night and day at Hotel Manutara, we experienced our first-ever electric shocks from the running tap water. At first we thought it was our imagination, but then it became obvious they were electric shocks! The owner himself worked through the night to fix the electrical problem, so that’s commendable. We had just landed on Easter Island from Santiago at night, so we naturally weren’t pleased with not having running water to use. Luckily we brought along a few big bottles of mineral water in our luggage from Chile for unforeseen circumstances like this, and used them for brushing. (We would use mineral water for brushing everyday while there.)

Needless to say, we didn’t take a shower that night.

The room was spacious but sparsely furnished. There was a small TV hanging at an odd angle near the ceiling and none of the channels seemed to work, but that’s not a problem. Who comes to Easter Island to watch TV? Internet access in the room was via dial-up, and was one of the slowest on our whole trip. Every time we wanted to use the internet, we had to ask the owner to turn on his computer before we could use the internet.

We would find plenty of creepy crawlies in the bathtub throughout the day every day, a few dead cockroaches in the corner of the ‘balcony’ door. We also saw a centipede on the floor once. Remember, this is Easter Island. Would we stay there again? Yes we would, because by the island’s standards, this would be considered a decent place to stay in.

In Hotel Manutara

This cafe serves the best empanadas we’ve ever eaten! They are deep-fried puffs filled with various fillings such as fish, cheese, mushrooms or beef. Yum!

We did our laundry here. It goes by weight, not per article basis.

One of the things to see on Isla de Pascua is the Te Pito O Te Henua, which is a perfectly rounded stone that the ancient Rapa Nui believed to be the navel or belly-button of the world. The word “pito” means navel, uterus, center, and “henua” means earth, universe, territory.

We drove to get to this site

 Someone fishing nearby

 Local kids trying to catch some fish too

 Here is the ancient magical place

 Looking at the round stone

1st April 2008 Tuesday:  On the same day we went to Torre Del Paine, we also went to the Cueva del Milodón Natural Monument which is situated along the flanks of the Cerro Benitez mountains. Now, it’s not the cave that’s “special”, but the”Milodon” thingy. In 1896, someone discovered bits of skin, bones and other fragments of something inside this cave. Apparently, these remains are dated from an era earlier than 10,000 BC, and are thought to be parts of the extinct giant ground sloth, which they called the Milodon (Genus Mylodon).

We have to admit we are very skeptical about this whole Milodon thing. Our guide said that the skin was quite well-preserved.Is it a fossil, we asked him. He said, ‘No, it is the real skin.’ Real skin found inside a cave that isn’t covered in snow or ice all year around? Seemed unusual. What’s more, it’s the only kind that is found in the whole world. The only one, a unique species. We never got the chance to see any of those fragments for some have been sent to the UK for study and others in a musuem somewhere in Chile.

A burning question: How did they come to the conclusion of it belonging to a giant sloth? We noticed a lot of gaps in this theory. Another thing: We had to pay entry fees to visit the small empty cave. Yes, it was where humans possibly inhabited 8000 years ago as some prehistoric tools were found there and so on, but the statue of the Milodon doesn’t justify the entry fees.

 The landscape around

 Limestone stalacites hanging from the roof of the cave

 A statue of the “Milodon”

Might as well take a photo with the “Milodon”

The caves are generally formed of limestone conglomerate, and are surrounded by moderately dense Nothofagus forest

1st April 2008 Tuesday: One unexpected highlight of visiting the Torre del Paine National Park was that we actually got to hold a piece of a glacier! And that glacier is the Glacier Grey. Glacier Grey is in the south end of the Southern Patagonia Ice Field. While in the Torre del Paine, we got quite some time to ourselves and we walked a short distance to the west side of the park to where we could see fragments of ice from Glacier Grey floating near to the shore!

 This is Grey Lake where Glacier Grey empties into

Glacier Grey coming into contact with the lake. Glacier Grey loses ice from its terminus as it enters the water, a process known as calving. Calving produces large free-floating chunks of ice.

 Look what’s there, a small iceberg which has broken off from the glacier 

The blue coloring is due to the ice’s absorption of red wavelengths of light and scattering of blue wavelengths of light as it is transmitted through the ice.

 Another blue iceberg that has broken off Glacier Grey. You can see the glacier behind.

 Pieces of ice coming onto shore

 Holding a piece of the ancient glacier!

 The ice is cold!

 Take the photo quickly, my hands are cold!

 This bird in the foreground kept hopping around the shore, trying to find food among rocks and pebbles

 Looks and feels cold, but the wind blowing towards us was actually quite warm

 Enjoying the moment

Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. Rising temperatures in the regions and around the world are contributing to the slow demise of glaciers worldwide.

Below are two satellite photos of part of Glacier Grey flowing into Grey Lake. The top photo was taken in 2007 and the bottom one was taken in 1986. See how much ice has melted in a span of 20 years from global warming. The observed retreat means that ice loss has been greater than ice replenishment. There is no easy and quick solution to global warming, but each of us can do our part to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.