Damn this island is cool
Trip Start
Mar 09, 2007
1
41
169
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Rapa Nui,
Chile
Friday, May 18, 2007
With the car we got to explore the other parts of the island. I have been dying to check out a few specific sights. One of them being Rano Karaku which is the quarry and birth place for all the Moai on the island. This place was fascinating. Moai are scattered all over the place, lots buried up to their necks and others only partially carven out of the stone wall. Its here that they carve all the Moai and then they get moved to other parts of the island to be placed on their on their Ahu (its still a mystery as to how they moved the Moai the far stretches and then how they placed them on their Ahu). The quarry is actually a crater, with Moai carved out of the rock of the crater on both the inside and the outside. On the inside is also a tiny lake (more like a large pond actually).
About half of the Moai on the island (887 Moais exist in total, some finished and some unfinished) still remain there in the quarry. Only about 50 have been restored on to their ahu. The others are either knocked over somewhere or were left in transit. I think the quarry is probably one of the most interesting spots. You can see the Moai in all different stages. Some are still just a huge square block, others have some features carved into them, while others are fully out of the quarry and either lying there or buried to some degree. Large stone heads are sticking out of the ground at various angles and depths. All of the Moai are different. Different faces, and sizes, some have ears and some don't, some have basic features and others are more complex.
The two other sights that we check out were the Tongariki and Anakena. Ahu Tongariki has the largest number of restored Moai, 15 in total. Its apparently a great spot to watch the sunrise, but in winter the sun gets blocked by a large hill, so it not so lucky for us. Tongariki sight was quite cool, its pretty amazing seeing all 15 lined up.
Ahu Anakena is actually on one of the two beaches on the island. The island is made up of all rocky and cliff lined shore. There are only two beaches, Anakena and Ovahe. Both are extremely small, but Ovahe is seriously tiny, it barely even exists. Anakena is pretty and has lots of palm trees surrounding it. The Moai here almost all have the extra stone Tophats (the separate stone piece that looks like a hat). The setting is really beautiful though because the Moai are set almost right on the beach and there are palm trees all around.
We tried making a sunrise the two mornings that we had a car. The first time we started out with a clear sky and then it clouded over before the sun even got close to rising, so that ruined that one. The 2nd day it was pouring out so we didn't even bother and went back to sleep. Bummer that we didn't get one it.
The weather has still not played along. Its still been raining. We did have one decent day where the sun showed a bit and at least it wasn't raining. It was this day that we went to another Ahu called Akivi to watch what we hoped would be a sunset. We hadn't had one yet. Things were looking good and the sky was semi clear on the horizon. But as time neared for the settling, some clouds rolled in and it started raining. We hopped back in the car to take cover. Luckily the rain stopped about 10minutes later and we were rewarded with not only a beautiful sunset but a rainbow as well. I took so many damn pictures during the whole thing its ridiculous. The colors of the sun setting on the Moai with the rainbow in the background was almost sensory overload. It was the only real sunset we had, but it was amazing at that and I'm glad we at least got one in.
We have been pretty much been busying ourselves with checking out sights. Today the weather was crappy, so we have been lounging around and doing some shopping. None of the stuff here really grabs me as worthy of buying, so I didn't buy anything. We leave tomorrow.
