Daily Travel Photo - Easter Island

I’ll be showing photos from Easter Island for quite a while. This was taken inside the Rano Raraku crater where most of the maoi were carved. Many horses on the island have become sick and died after eating the yellow flowers you can see in the photo.

Daily Travel Photo - Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

In the foreground is an horizontal maoi statue. It is believed that it was abandoned where it sits while it was in transport to a platform (ahu). In the background is Rano Raraku. This volcanic crater is where almost all the maoi of the island were quarried. The stone in the crater is a lighter tuff than the basalt found on most of the island. Most intact maoi are found in the quarry.

Daily Travel Photo - Rapa Nui

Maoi with topknot on Easter Island

Easter Island In The News

I noticed this bit in my RSS feed today: Easter Island Fights Prosperity.

Having been there just two months ago, and because its never in the news, I thought I’d chime in on the subject.

Go read the article first…

For a place so dependent on tourism, Easter Island does a very poor job of it. For starters, the Rapa Nui National Park which covers pretty much the entire island and is responsible for the protection and preservation of the maoi on the island is all but non existant. There is a small hut on one end of the island where there are few maoi. In there there is usually a ranger who will give you a map and you pay the equivalent of $10. That’s it. No where else on the island will you find rangers, interpretative centers, signs, anything.

Easter Island was a finalist (top 21) in the New Seven Wonders project. That should give you an idea as to where it sits on the heriarchy of world sites. Given its importance, its sort of sad to see how much effort the Chiliean government has put into it.

All of the maoi which are standing and not in the quarry, have been restored in the last 50 years. Everything in the photo I posted above was restored in the early 1990’s by a Japanese television network. They need cash to restore the hundres of maoi which have fallen or are broken around the island. Also, the maoi are made of a very soft volcanic tuff. Just because they are made of rock doesn’t mean they will last forever.

The article is also spot on with regards to how the people of Hanga Roa are all hustling to get the tourism dollar. There are no major hotels on the island. Everything is guest houses or hostel type accomodiations. Likewise, all the car rentals, restrauants, souviner stand, and tours are local operations.

Rapa Nui also probably has the least amount of ‘culture’ of all the polynesian countries I’ve visited (and I’ve pretty much been to them all now). This is not the fault of the people there as they were all but wiped out in the 19th Century. Also, even though they have the internet and cars on the island now, it is really a stretch to say that civilization has crept onto the island. It is still one of the most isolated spots on Earth, and it shows.

I can’t possibly see how a casino would proper on the island. Of the 50,000 or so visitors who come to the island, I’d guess almost 100% are there to see the maoi. It doesn’t attract the type who want to sit on the beach and drink fruity drinks all day long. I certainly don’t see anyone make the five hour flight (or much longer) to Easter Island to gamble.

The people on the island have a vested interest in the preservation of the maoi. The Chiliean government doesn’t seem to be interested in doing it. Development of tourism is probably the only way to both save the maoi and let the small population of the island make a living.

Wrap a Nui

I have about four hours till I get taken to the aiport to wait three more hours for my flight to Papeete.

Despite some early problems, I think this week has been a good start to my foreign adventures. I managed to get by in the most isolated place on Earth without knowing the language. If I can do that, I can probably do anything. I do need to take some time and learn more local phrases. My proficiency in Spanish is really sad. I’m going to buy a small French/English dictionary tomorrow in Papeete and hold on to it. My grasp of French seems better than Spanish, but its something I need to get in the habit of doing.

I also need to start booking a bit farther ahead for reservations. Thankfully, this is not the busy tourist season in the Pacific, but it would help greatly if I didn’t wait as long to get tickets.

I have about 3.5gb of photos and about 35min of video from the week. I’m shooting my photos in RAW, so each photo is about 15mb in size. I figure it’s best to shoot everything in RAW, burn to DVD and ship it home, that way I have the originals of everything. I’m just picking the best dozen or so from each site and putting them on Flickr. I was going to edit video today, but I had to check out of my room at noon. The time and facilities to edit video is turning out to be the biggest sitcking point so far.

The weather today is probably the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been here. The waves are huge, the wind is strong, and there is a constant drizzle. In the future, I’m not going to wait for perfect weather when shooting video. I’ll take reasonably good weather and maybe shoot another if conditions improve considerably.

I’ll see you next time from French Polynesia!

Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live here

Yesterday (Thursday) I spent the better part of the day out and about taking photos and video of the places I couldn’t get to on Wednesday due to rain. I think you could easily see most of the sites on the island in one day if you got up early, and certainly in two. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to spend as much time here as I did. I spent most of the day at Rano Raraku, the quarry where all the maoi were created. Most of the maoi on the island seem to be here. If you’ve seen photos of big stone heads sitting on a hillside, this is where the photo was taken.

I had always just assumed that the maoi were made out of basalt, the volcanic rock that makes up most ocean islands and the bottom of the sea. It turns out that its not quite the case. There is a reason why all the maoi were carved from this particular volcano and not elsewhere on the island: the rock here is really a concrete mix of ash, basalt rubble and some other non-porus material I couldn’t figure out. Its must weaker than plain basalt, which is why they probably chose that spot to do all the carving: the rock was softer and it was easier. In climbing around, I had a piece of rock crumble in my hand as I was trying to get a grip. (the wall of the volcano crumbled, not a moai). It also explains why so many moai are in bad shape. If they were standing near the coast and they were hit by a tsunami, when they got knocked over the weight of the stone was probably enough to break it in two.

I’m sure someone else has done an analysis of the rock at Rano Raraku, but I found it interesting because I had never read about the rock composition anywhere else. Once I saw it up close with my own eyes, it all made sense.

There is another quarry on the island, Puna Pau, which was used specifically to make the red colored top-knot hats the moai sometimes wear. That quarry was chosen because of the color of the rock and doesn’t seem as weak as the rock at Rano Raraku.

One thing I thought of today is how much it would totally suck ass to live on Easter Island. Some people would like a house out in the middle of nowhere where you be secluded and have some privacy. This is a different ball game altogether. It’s not a matter of driving an hour or even two to get to the closest town. It is a minimum of a five hour commercial airline flight to anywhere. ANYWHERE. That is not an exaggeration in the slightest. There is not a spec of Earth within 1,000 miles, and civilization within 2,500. I’m sure the Chilean government has some sort of subsidy where goods are flown in on the regular LAN Chile flights, but for the most part, you’re trapped. Moreover, there is no real harbor here, so regular boats don’t come to the island. Most of the cars here are old and show it. I saw a pickup truck today where most of the body was gone save for the metal around the engine and the seats. I don’t think they have car inspections here….

Speaking of inspections, I’ve had dinner the last two evenings at a restaurant called Cafe Ra’a. It’s a nice place. The food is good, the presentation was far better than I expected, and the women who ran it seemed to take a great deal of pride in what they did. It was also a converted house. The kitchen was….the kitchen. The bathroom was…the bathroom, and the dining room was the living room. I only point this out because such a place could never exist in the US, because it would never pass inspection. (actually, they do exist illegally in New York, but that’s another post) That is not to say it was dirty or they handled food improperly, but they didn’t have the equipment set up in a way which is required by law. Having once tried to open an establishment that was to serve food, I’ve been through the stuff with the health department. Certainly, if a kitchen is good enough to feed a family, there is no reason why people shouldn’t have the choice to eat there as well. I’d love to see more small places like this in the US.

Also, the woman who served me (I was the only person in the place both nights) had a striking resemblance to Audrey Tatau, which isn’t too shabby. Too bad we didn’t speak the same language.

Life on Easter Island: The most isolated human settlement on Earth

Latitude: S 27.14295
Longitude: W 109.42414

The hard part for me on this leg of the trip has been the complete lack of mental stimulation. Very limited access to the internet, nothing whatsoever to read, no ability to talk to anyone in English, no TV, no radio . I have my computer in my room but its not connected. I have a ton of music with me, I can write blog posts, and I have been working on playing chess: the only game that comes pre installed on the Mac. (I think I’ve been learning pretty quick. I haven’t played in years, but some pretty embarrassing losses to the computer will get you up to speed in no time.)

I did rent a car today. The island is small, but not so small you could reasonably hike around it. I haven’t driven a stick in years, so it took a few minutes to get back into practice. It has been raining on and off since I’ve been here so I just did a lap around the island in the afternoon and got a few photos/clips when it wasn’t raining. This even after I had dinner, the skies suddenly seemed to clear up. There is little civilization here and given its location in the ocean, there is as close to zero light pollution as you will find anywhere on Earth. I can recognize few constellations however because I’m in the southern hemisphere.

The village of Hanga Roa is quaint to say the least. They have a church, school, etc. just like any small village has. Almost every building in town appears to be either a restaurant, souvenir shop, car rental, or guest house. I have literally seen only a handful of houses or storefronts that do not deal directly with tourism. I have read that the island gets 25% of its income from tourism. I have a hard time believing its that low. There must be transfer payments or ranching/farming from non-residents that is included to get that number. Everything here seems oriented around tourism. (the population of the island is about 3,500 and there are only 40,000 tourists a year that visit Easter Island.)

The island seems to have one leg in Polynesia and one in Latin America. Most of the residents are of polynesian origin, but a few are clearly from the mainland (aka, they’re white). Most signs are in Spanish, but some are in the local language and I have heard some people talk in what is definitely “not Spanish”. The signs in the bank were in Spanish, English, and Rapa Nui.

I’d say half of the tourists seem to be from Latin America, probably Chile. The other half are mostly from the US/UK with a few Japanese, French (from Tahiti), and “other” Europe. I encountered one guy the last two days at two separate maoi locations. He was Japanese with an older film camera and a tripod. He had the patience of Job. He sat with his camera pointed at one statue for the entire time I was there (about an hour). I don’t know if he ever took a photo. I think he was waiting for the clouds and the light to get just right.

My previous remark about the island being cheap should be stricken from the record. Its not. Not for Americans at least. I’m beginning to feel how much the dollar has gone down on this trip. I’m tempted to move a bunch of money into a foreign bank so I can hold it in Euros, just to avoid any further falls in the dollar.

If possible, someone please send me a recap of this week’s Heroes or a link where I can get episode recaps. I can’t get the viewer to work on the NBC web site.

Easter Island Wednesday

After spending most of yesterday fretting about my money situation, I got that resolved and managed to go see a few of the maoi that were within walking distance.

There is a lot I have to say about this place and I’m going to save most of it for video, but suffice it to say this little island may have the saddest history of any place on Earth. Its been several hundred years of one crappy thing after another happening to it, the list of which includes civil way, genocide, leporacy, smallpox, and slavery….and a serious lack of ATM machines.

Met several Brits yesteday. I seem to strike up conversations easier with them than I do other Americans. Most people view this as an extension of a trip to Latin America as opposed to me treating it as an extension of polynesia (which in reality, it is).

I’ll try to get at least one photo up later tonight or tomorrow morning.

There is a website which is taking votes on a list of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Easter Island is on the list of 24 finalists. I certainly think it’s more worthy than some of the stuff on the list. There are two months left to vote.

FYI: My vote is

• Great Pyramids in Egypt
• Great Wall of China
• Coliseum in Rome
• Angor Watt in Cambodia
• Easter Island
• Machu Picchu in Peru
• The Acropolis in Greece

My criteria:
I eliminated the Effiel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the staute of Christ the Redeemer at Rio, and the Statue of Liberity because they’re modern. They are iconic for sure, but if you include those, why not the CN Tower in Toronto or any number of other modern structures. Also, you run into the problem of new things constantly removing things from the list.

Neuschwanstein Castle is pretty, but is of no historical or cultural significance.

The Pyramid at Chichén Itzá….well, I don’t know why this pyramid gets mention over other ones in the region. I also doesn’t stick in my mind as something as significant as the others.

Kiyomizu Temple….never heard of it.

Timbuktu…..I think they added this just to throw a bone to Africa.

Alhambra…..again, pretty but there are lots of pretty castles.

Hagia Sophia….tempting, but why not the Golden Mosque in Jeuresalam or St. Peters in Rome?

The Kremlin…..not a wonder.

Stonehenge, The Taj Mahal, and Petra were all close. If any of them get voted in, I wouldn’t be suprised or upset.

With that, I’m off to go see stone heads.