Sunday, 28 September 2014
Today I have a full day tour. Yesterday the lady at reception informed me that breakfast would be brought to my room. I requested that it be brought at 8.30 am as my tour starts at 9 am. It arrived at 8.40 am. And then there were coffee and sugar packets and fresh milk but no hot water. So I asked the guy at reception and he informed me that I had to boil my own water. So, in this cheapest hotel that I booked, I have my own kitchen, complete with a stove, a kettle, pots and pans and various utensils, all of which I ignored because I didn't think I would actually be using them. But now I had to boil my own water. I assumed the stove was electric, and there were some wires going on so I plugged it in and tried the stove. It didn't work. So I had to ask the guy at reception for help again and of course, to my embarrassment, he duly informed me that I didn't switch the gas on. And of course, I had to ask him what was the wire (that I so carefully remembered to plug in) for and he said it was for the fridge. This is typical me. Born without any common sense. And sometimes I just don't know when to shut up and figure things out by myself. The guy at reception must think I am either daft or a princess. I am neither. That morning I was just a girl in dire need of coffee with very little time left thanks to my breakfast arriving late. And of course, my pick up arrived at 9 am sharp so no coffee this morning!
Easter Island! So much history and mystery at one go. The first westerner to discover the island was Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutch explorer who landed on the island on Easter Sunday in 1722, hence the name Easter Island. It is the most isolated inhabited island in the world. It is part of what scientists call the Oceanic islands, which consists of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Easter Island is part of Polynesia, which includes Tahiti, New Zealand and Hawaii. So the language and a bit of the culture is similar among the natives in all these countries. Melanesia is from Samoa to Papua, Borneo and Indonesia.
In 1967, NASA wanted to construct an airstrip on the island for landing its spacecraft. They built the airstrip at their own cost, and perhaps a Concorde or two landed here, but thereafter they decided not to use the airstrip. So now Easter Island had its own state of the art airstrip built by NASA no less, and they constructed the Mataveri airport there, and Easter Island was on its way to becoming a tourist destination.
At this time, there are about 7,000 people living on the island, 3,000 of which are Rapa Nui descendants, but they are not pure Rapa Nui. At one point in the early 19th century the Rapa Nui population dropped to only about 110 people, due to an outbreak of small pox. This happened when in 1862, Peruvian slave traders captured people from the island to be made into slaves. There was a public outcry made by the bishop of Tahiti, and Peru rounded up the surviving islanders to return them to the island. A shipload headed back to the island, but smallpox broke out en route and only 15 arrived on the island, but they infected the people on the island with the result that only 110 people were left. The elders encouraged the younger generation to marry out of the population. For the women it was somewhat easier because whenever ships came to the island, they were ordered to be with the sailors and come back pregnant. For the men it was more difficult to marry out.
The island is shaped like a triangle, mainly due to the volcanic activity of 3 volcanoes on the island, which are now all extinct. It was extinct long before the first people came to Easter Island. The 3 volcanoes are Poike, Rano Kau and Terevaka. Terevaka is the biggest, highest and youngest volcano on the island. It is surprisingly a very safe island, free from earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and typhoons, and also free from ferocious or poisonous predators such as wild cats and snakes. There is only strong winds and heavy rain here, and no more.
So the legend is that there was a very prosperous nation living in an island called Hiva, to the West of Rapa Nui. However, this island suffered ongoing cataclysms that caused it to sink, slowly but surely. Scientists have not been able to find an island under the sea, and genetic testing showed that the Rapa Nui people are most closely related to the people of Tahiti, but there is no such island called Hiva there. So the people had to find another place to live. There was a prophet on the island, who had a dream about another island with fertile soil and abundant trees, perfect for the people to live in, and this prophet apparently also dreamed of how to get there.
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