Day 2 Rapa Nui

Day two of searching for all the Moai had us on a different part of the island. We first visited a beach with several Moai reinstalled on their Ahu platform. The beach was mostly deserted at that time and we did a little exploring to see a cave and an old anchor left from the 18th century when the island was being visited regularly by those looking to earn a profit usually at the expense of the native people.

We then visited the quarry for the red rock “top knots” for the Moai. These hat-like toppers represented the hair worn long and in a knot in top of the head. The quarry was in a totally different part of the island than the Moai quarry so with great effort the people would roll the huge top knots to where they were needed and then somehow hoist them to the top of the Moai—all people labor, as the largest animal on the island was the chicken.

We also saw the seven seekers that legend says the king sent to find Rapa Nui. These seven were memorialized as Moai and are the only ones who face the ocean, looking toward where they came from. All the others face their communities.

We were dropped off for lunch and then things got a little weird. In our last footprint we mentioned that our guide was a little “off.” We were supposed to meet him at 2:45 pm. We messaged at 2:30 pm where to meet us. Then at 3 pm we messaged that we were walking to a site since we hadn’t heard from him. Then by 3:45 pm we figured something must have happened and messaged that we hoped he was ok and that we were done for the day.

Two hours after he was supposed to pick us up he messaged that he was sorry, had an accident and his phone wasn’t working….we said we were done for the day and then received about a dozen messages from him wanting to come meet with us. Awkward…it’s kind of a bummer because we had enjoyed yesterday, but it just got too weird. Oh well, we felt like we got to see enough and that what we learned was good information, but we could do without all the constant “theories,” and odd philosophical statements.Leer más