Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is a Magical Place

by Melanie Votaw | Destinations, South America, Top Stories

The day I had to leave Rapa Nui, I teared up. I so wanted more time there. While the island is part of the country of Chile, it’s actually in Polynesia and is similar to Hawaii in that it’s tropical, very green, and filled with volcanos. Read also about the resort where I stayed – Nayara Hangaroa.

Rapa Nui is one of the world’s most remote inhabited islands, is in the Pacific Ocean, and is about five hours by air from Santiago, Chile. Of course, what distinguishes it from any other on the planet is its unique statues called Moai. Much about the history of the statues and the ancient people is unknown and mysterious.

There are about 900 Moai statues total located mostly around the coast of the island, and some are as tall as 33 feet. The belief is that each statue represents an important person from the past whose skeletons are buried underneath. The faces are called “Aringa Ora,” which means the “living faces of loved and revered ancestors.”

No one knows exactly how the Moai were made, and the statues are quite different from one location to another. Only some have pointy noses, for example, and some wear what appear to be hats made of a redder stone, although it’s believed that what looks like hats may actually represent long hair wrapped on the top of the head.

The Moai are all male, and the belief is that it would take five or six men about a year to finish carving a single statue. But then, it would need to be transported to its final location and lifted into a standing position. No one knows for sure how the people accomplished that without machinery.

The statues were made from the volcanic rocks that make up the island’s topography, but all of them were toppled over at some point during Rapa Nui’s history. At one time, the eyes of the statues were filled with white coral and a piece of black obsidian rock for the pupil. These were all destroyed, however. Only one has been reconstructed from pieces and is displayed in the island’s history museum.

Some believe the statues were toppled during a civil war, although one of my native guides doesn’t buy this theory because the Rapa Nui language doesn’t even have a word for “war” or “vengeance.” He believes they were toppled by another group arriving by ship with the aim of attacking.

American anthropologist William Mulloy was responsible for raising the funds to lift some of the Moai back to standing, and the people of the island are very grateful to him for this. It’s what made tourism possible, which boosted the economy, as there is almost no industry there.

Experts aren’t sure when the original inhabitants first settled on the island, but the evidence suggests it was around the year 1200. While theirs was a thriving culture, they suffered from over-forestation, followed by the introduction of European diseases and kidnapping as slaves. In 1877, there were barely more than 100 native inhabitants left, but modern DNA has made it possible to confirm that the people are indeed Polynesian.

Rapa Nui became known as Easter Island because the first Europeans arrived on Easter Sunday in 1722. When the native people who had no word for war approached the visitors, they began to touch the sailors out of curiosity.

This was disconcerting to the Christian Europeans, so to try to make the people stop, they fired their rifles into the air. But since the native people had never heard a gunshot, they didn’t know to be afraid. It was then that the sailors were ordered to shoot into the crowd, which resulted in the murder of about 12 islanders. When the people saw their kinsmen killed, they ran.

Later, when the people saw that their loved ones were stolen for slavery, some of them were able to hide within caves on the island. These stories are a sad testament to the horrors of exploration and colonization.

One of the most interesting ancient stories on the island has to do with the Orongo ceremonial village, which had a competition called the Tangata Manu. The men would compete to get the first Manutara bird (sooty tern) egg of spring. It was dangerous, as they had to climb down a cliff and swim in the strong currents among sharks to an islet where the birds nested. They would hide in caves there and wait for the birds to arrive.

The one who was lucky enough to retrieve the first egg from its nest had to then swim back to Rapa Nui without breaking the egg. The leader of his clan could then rule the island for a year until the following year’s competition.

When you visit Rapa Nui, there are many wonderful sites to see. The most famous Moai on the island are the 15 in a row near the ocean. These are the ones you usually see in photos. My favorite view of them, however, was from the Moai quarry (also one of my favorite spots), which is where they believe most, if not all, of the Moai were carved.

Today, it’s like a Moai graveyard with some standing and many on their backs or sides. Some of the statues in this location were also left unfinished, although no one knows for sure why. The 15 Moai are in the distance from the quarry, which overlooks them, making for a particularly beautiful view.

The visible part of the Moai statues end at the waist or top of the thighs, but there is one statue at the quarry with kneeling legs. The theory is that it was harder to transport a statue with legs, so perhaps they stopped carving them like that. Some of the Moai have nipples carved into their chests, and some also have tattoos carved on their backs or buttocks. Some statues also have hands with long fingers carved on their stomachs.

The other group of Moai that I loved the most was among many palm trees and sitting on a hill above a gorgeous beach. These had pointy noses, and many had the “hats” atop their heads.

Besides the Moai, there are some remains of stone home structures that were often built in the shape of a boat. Some of the ancient people also lived in caves where they could hide from intruders and maintain a small farm just outside the cave. The main crops were bananas, sweet potatoes, and sugarcane.

We were taken to one of these caves, which had the remains of a tree trunk in its roof that has been carbon dated and found to be 300,000 years old. They believe it ended up in the cave roof after a volcanic eruption.

There is also a huge and stunning volcanic crater that you absolutely must visit.

Rapa Nui, of course, also has civilization with an overall population of about 8,000 people. There is a small town with restaurants and shops, and there are hotels, as well as opportunities to go boating, diving, and surfing.

You will see wild horses and stray dogs all over the island. These animals are well cared for by the current residents, but I took some dog biscuits with me to feed them, as they’re quite friendly. One of the women I met at my resort fell in love with one of the dogs and considered transporting it to her midwestern home. But then, she realized it would be taken to a life spent indoors in a cold climate, so she concluded it was better off living freely on the island.

One of my guides told a great story that made all of us laugh. He said that the first axes on the island were made of stone because that’s what they had available. When they were first introduced in modern times to axes made of metal with wooden handles, they wanted to come up with a word in their native language for this item.

Since the axes they were given were made in Ohio and carved with “Made in Ohio” on the handles, the mayor decided to name them “oh-hee-oh.” To this day, or so our guide claimed, an axe is called an “oh-hee-oh.”

Rapa Nui is indeed a paradise with a profound and mystical history. I can’t stop thinking about the place, so I may have to return to experience it again. If you have the opportunity to go, don’t miss your chance. There’s nowhere else on earth like it.