Monday, 29 September 2014
I was supposed to have a half day tour today, and a half day tour tomorrow. At least, that was what was advertised in the tour I booked. I had the same guide as yesterday, Sofia. She told me that my half day tour for tomorrow will be this afternoon instead as there are no guides available tomorrow afternoon. Great. So now I have a full free day tomorrow and I have no idea what to do. Also, if I knew that you could do the entire island in 2 days, I would have most probably booked a tour for 4 days and 3 nights instead of 5 days and 4 nights. This is surely some kind of scam.
To make matters worse, when I went for lunch at the restaurant where I could use my voucher, they informed me that the restaurant would be closed tomorrow. I still had one free meal left and I was planning to use that tomorrow, as I fly off from Easter Island at 1.30 pm the day after tomorrow. I could of course forgo the one meal, but I am half Kottai (Sri Lankan, and it is a less kinder way of describing a miserly person, one who counts every penny) so I could not let it go, not when I had paid for it! So I ended up ordering food and taking it away, I did after all have a fridge and stove which I now know how to use, so I figured I could heat up the food and eat it tomorrow. But I was not happy about these turn of events.
Because I went to bed so early yesterday, I got up at 5 am this morning, and then I was so hungry but I had nothing to eat! Breakfast arrived at 8.30 am this morning, and this time I was ready with my hot water for coffee!
The tour started at 9 am this morning. We first went to a place called Orongo. But first some history. So after the social revolution which ended the moai period, there was about 100 years of tribal wars. Then came another period known as the 'Tangata Manu' or the 'birdman' era, in which there was a new political, spiritual and social order on the island. They believed in a God called Make-Make, the most important God in this new religious order. It probably originated from the birds coming to the island to nest in spring, and spring was symbolic of new beginnings where everything blossomed and grew, and so the people thought that birds were like gods, bringing with them the hope and abundance of spring.
There was an annual test or a competition to determine which leader of a tribe would rule the entire population. Each tribe would have to select a representative, known as a Hopu, who will have to compete in a Hunger Games like ritual. It involves climbing down a 300 metre cliff into shark infested waters, swim about 50 metres to a small island called Motu Nui, and find an egg from a 'manutara' which is the name of the Rapa Nui sea gull or sooty tern. There are no rules in this game, it is every man for himself. So for example, they most probably did not use ropes to climb down the cliff because the next person could cut the rope off and you would most likely fall 300 metres to your death. When an egg is found it has to be announced on the spot, making the finder a target because other contenders are allowed to steal the egg from the finder, using whatever means they could think of.
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