Sunday, 28 September 2014
We had lunch in Rano Raraku, which is an extinct volcano, and after lunch I walked up to the crater where there was a beautiful lagoon. After lunch we proceeded to Ahu Tongariki, where the biggest ahu is, which holds 15 moais. In 1960, a massive earthquake hit Valdivia, a city in Chile, it is the biggest recorded earthquake in the history of the world, measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale. The earthquake triggered 3 tsunamis, one of which was a 30 meter high wave, which unfortunately hit this part of Easter Island (otherwise Easter Island is out of the danger zone), toppling over all of the 15 moais, as well as shattering the ahu that they were on. A group of Japanese scientists very kindly helped to restore the moais, but they were unable to put the pukau back on the moais, because the pukau and the moai were made to balance perfectly, and once the pukau was toppled over the equilibrium of the moai was forever lost.
Here we also saw a rock carving of 2 turtles. The people used to believe that turtles were good navigators of the sea, and sometimes when they were out fishing at sea they would eat turtle meat to survive, so turtles were seen as good luck to the ancient people, hence the carvings of turtles on the rock. We also saw a strange moai here, one with short fingers. Moais used to be carved with long fingers, symbolizing the long fingernails that the noble / ruling class used to have to show the common people that they did no work. But this moai had short fingers, and some people believed that it is a child. But that does not fit into the belief that moais were made after great, powerful, wise and noble men; a child cannot be those. What it could be was a dwarf, because of the problem with in-breeding on the island, there could have been various genetic disorders. And the moais were made after men who were revered for their spiritual or intellectual superiority, not their physical form, so this moai could have been a dwarf.
After this we went to Te Pito Kura. Here we saw the largest erected moai that stands outside the quarry, known as Paro. It is 9.8 tall and weighs about 74 tonnes. But now he is toppled over and lays face down. Researches believe he fell while being erected, as the finishing touches were never made to his eye sockets. However, the largest moai to have fallen while being erected is found in Ahu Hanga Te Tenga, and he is 9.94 metres tall. The smallest erected moai is near Poike, it is about 1.13 metres tall.
In Te Pito Kura we also saw a magnetic rock, round in shape and believed to have healing energy. Scientists have said that it is normal to find magnetic rocks, what is unusual is its round shape. When a compass is put on the rock, it doesn't work, proving that it really is a magnetic rock.
The last place we visited was a beach called Anakena. It was apparently the very shore that Hotu Matu'a and his people landed on when they first arrived on the island after 4 months of being on the sea and nearly starving to death. Here there were some moais a distance away from the beach.
The tour ended at about 5 pm and I returned to the hotel to write my blog, but for some strange reason I developed a nagging head ache that just wouldn't go away. My panadols were in my big bag back in Santiago, so I had no choice but to ask the hotel staff for panadol, which she very kindly gave to me for free, but it wasn't as good as panadols because my head ache didn't go away, with the result that I went to lie down at about 7.30 pm and didn't get up until 5 am the next morning!
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