Monday, 29 September 2014
Next stop was Rano Kau, one of the 3 extinct volcanoes. It has a large crater about 1 km wide, and because of its high walls, there is a sort of ecological green house going on in the crater, with lots of plants and trees growing there, including totora reeds, the very same in Lake Titicaca! So one question is, were the reeds brought from South America to Rapa Nui or vice versa? The scientists are still investigating this. Around the edges of the crater we saw some faded petroglyphs depicting the birdman.
Next we went to Ahu Vinapu, which had toppled moais. But here the attraction was not the moai but the ahu, which resembled Inca architecture, down to the trapezoid shape of some of the stone work. It was largely due to this that Thor Heyerdahl came up with the theory that the original settlers in Easter Island came from South America and not Polynesia. People did not take him seriously at first, until he built his famous raft named Kon-Tiki and sailed from South America to Easter Island. When his expedition was a success, people started taking his theory seriously, but DNA studies have proved him wrong. The Rapa Nui people are from Polynesia, most probably originating from Asia, rather than from South America.
So that meant that either the Rapa Nui people went to Peru and brought back some Inca knowledge with them to build their ahu, or some Incas arrived on Rapa Nui at some point and built the ahu for the Rapa Nui people. Or both the Rapa Nui people and the Incas developed the same kind of technology at some point. Nobody knows for sure.
The last place we went to was Ana Kai Tangata, where we saw some cave paintings of birds in flight.
The tour ended at about 12 pm, and the next tour only started at 3 pm. I asked to be dropped off in town as I wanted to have lunch with my free voucher. During the morning trip I had become friends with this guy, Tim from Canada and he wanted to have lunch so we went to the restaurant together. Tim is 35 and facing the same problems at work as I did before I quit. At this point I was thinking, is everyone in their mid 30s around the world facing the same problems in life? As it turned out, Tim and I had a lot in common besides work, he is a middle child like me and we had the same middle child syndrome issues. Finally! Someone who understands!
No comments:
Post a Comment