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

One of our favorite moais is the Ahu Tongariki (below), which has the largest funeral platform in Rapa Nui. This ahu dates back to 900-1000 AD, so that makes it about 1000 years old. It is 200m long with 15 statues erected on the platform. When we saw these majestic 1000+ year-old ceremonial relics, we couldn’t help the oohs and the aahs. Most of the moai were destroyed in 1960 by a tsunami that scattered them up to 100 meters inland. Thanks to Japan’s contributions, they were reconstructed using complex computational models. If this wasn’t known to us, we wouldn’t have noticed they had been restored. We liked Ahu Tongariki so much that we drove past it several times to look at it and take pictures from different angles.

Ahu Tongariki with 15 Moai

Moai with their backs against the ocean

Scattered hats of the moai

Only they know the ancient history and culture of Rapa Nui

Just us and the magnificent archaeological site

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Imagine another place, another time

Keeping our distance away from the ahu and some ruins

A fallen moai at Ahu Tongariki - Note the sign that indicates we are not allowed to touch or step or climb onto any of these historical structures.

The fallen moai

The “Traveling Moai” at Ahu Tongariki - It was taken to the International Osaka fair in Japan for exhibition in exchange for Japan’s financing of the restoration project.

Ahu Tongariki and Traveling Moai

Volcano near Ahu Tongariki

Another volcanic hill

Every day, we made sure to have our lunch first before setting out for the day around Rapa Nui, as you can only find food near the little town of Hanga Roa. So if you intend to set off for the day in the morning before lunch, pack some sandwiches and water with you. One of our favorite driving routes is the paved road along one of the sides of the island where we could drive along the Pacific ocean. Although there were hardly any cars on the road, we drove slowly in the countryside. You never know when the horses or cows are crossing the road unattended!

View along the ocean drive

That’s Grace sitting (kinda) near the edge of the cliff

Gazing out to the far horizon from one of the world’s most isolated islands

Horses roaming freely all over the island

Remnants of ancient oval-shaped boathouses