South America- Day 24- Easter Island/Santiago

Our last morning in Easter came too soon! We were up early this morning for our last tour with Paul to hit two of the bigger sites: Ahu Tongariki and Rano Raraku. The sunrise at Tongariki is supposed to be awesome, so we headed there first. The picture perfect postcard shot with the colors behind the moai only occurs in summer due to the movement of the sun. We had a great sunrise, with bits of the color peaking over and terrific light cast on the seven moai. We stayed there for some time watching the light play differently and walking around the site. In addition to the main ahu, there are some rock carvings including of birdmen, turtles, boats etc. Away from the water, there is a wall running around the site which is how far the tidal wave from bolivia's earthquake threw the moai from the waters edge.

 

Where you come into the site, there are a few topknots to the side. It turns out a Japanese crane company wanted to sponsor the restoration of this site. Chile insisted that all funds and work go through them so they gave the funds but the crane was only used at the end for photo opps. Unfortunately it sounds like it was a bit mismanaged and funding ran out so only one of the topknots ended up on the moai and the rest remain on the ground. Additionally Paul said that there were some inconsistencies with how an archaeological dig should have gone. It sounds like funding has decreased sibstantially since everything has to go through the chilean government and it isn't known for its great management.

Next we headed nearby to Rano Raraku which is basically the moai factory. All but 11 were made here in this remarkable mountain side spot. They carved them out of the stone here, then slid them down the side, to closer to the bottom where there was a hole carved that the moai would slide into and become upright before beginning their walk. All across the mountain there are moai in various stages of creation. This is where the misconception that Easter Island has big heads comes from. Moai are more than this but there are some on the hillside that appear to be only heads as the holes their bodies are in have filled in over the years so you can no longer see the rest of them. Two other cool things-- where the moai are carved there are two eyes overlooking the site. The thought is that until they had their own mana and opened their eyes, these would watch over the carvings and protect them. The other cool fact is that there is a moai that is 67 feet tall that is on its back on the mountain since they hadn't finished it yet.

After walking around this part of the site overlooking the ocean and Tongariki, we walked around to the interior of the canyon which has a lake of sorts and you can see more moai on the interior. Unfortunately you can't walk around as much inside anymore as some people were abusing the privilege, but it was beautiful. We had been kind of laughing about the beware wild horses signs on our hike and at the sites since we had seen a lot of them grazing, but amazingly as we were walking down the path to exit the site, one started galloping after us. We stepped to the side but were close enough that the horse stopped well short of the gate-- guess it was time to go if the horses were chasing us out!

Quick stop at the post office to get Easter Island passport stamps, even though were in the same country they have a tourist one, then to the airport. Said goodbye to Paul then flew back to the continent leaving the Easter adventure behind. So incredible and especially fun to think it's the most remote airport in the world! Landed that night since we lost time coming back east, checked in, had dinner and prepped for our Valparaiso day trip.