"Birdman Challenge" - Easter Island Style

Saturday 6 January

First task of the day was to phone Colin’s Mum to wish her a Happy Brithday. It was lunch time in England, but luckily we caught her at home. Our good deed for the day over, we went to breakfast and caught the morning tour bus with a different lady guide, today taking us to explore the south-westerly peninsula, around Ranu Kau volcano.

Our first stop was in yet another field on the coast to see the body of the moai unearthed by Thor Heyerdal during his expedition in the 1980’s, which is believed to have had two heads – of which there is no sign now – and maybe connected with sacrifice or disabilty. It is one single stone standing in the field away from the Ahu and couple of other fallen moai.

We then went to see yet more moai, all of whom were all lying either on the Ahu or the field itself. For some people this was their first tour so some repetition of information was inevitable. The most interesting feature of this Ahu was that the back of the platform was built in the same style as those found in Peru (another factor disputing the heredity of the Rapu Nui). Instead of being built of black basalt cobbles, it was constructed of large basalt cut blocks, like paving slabs, all beautifully fitted together with hardly a crack between. The guide suggested that the people of this village must have been shown this style of building by a visitor to the island and then copied it, but the workmanship was excellent – and obviously undertaken by a practiced craftsman.

From here we went to Orongo, a National Park, that we had to pay a further US$10 each to enter. It is situated right at the end of the peninsula. We walked on the undulating track, along the top of sheer black cliffs, at least a couple of hundred metres high, looking out over the pounding sea below – reminding me of walking over the Seven Sisters on the south coast at home when the tide is in. There were no ropes or barriers to stop you going to the very edge of the cliffs, but the sheer drop down was enough to keep most of us back. A short distance along we could see three islands close the shore, a tall stack – Motu Kao Kao, a small round island – Motu Iti and a bigger island Motu Nui, in that order going from the cliffs out to sea. These islands were where the Birdman competitions used to take place between the late 16th century and 1865. Village chiefs and priests and their best warriors would all sing and dance their way to these cliffs in August each year (the beginning of spring) to watch for the first of the Manutara birds (a migratory bird) to return to these small islands. The chiefs would send their best warriors to the islands, climbing down the steep cliffs, with their raft on their back – a bit like a surf board made of reeds from the nearby volcanic crater – swim on the rafts to the islands to bring back the first egg. They had to take food and drink with them, as the warrior could have a wait of a few weeks. When the first egg was found, the victorious warrior would shout to his chief and begin the arduous return journey with the egg – probably tied to his forehead – which of course couldn’t be broken – to the mainland. The chief meanwhile would have his head and eyebrows shaved, ready to receive the egg. There would be religious ceremonies as the warrior reached land and presented the egg to the priest to be offered to their Make Make – a god - and parties, dancing and singing would continue for days. The chief would become King of the island for the following year, and with his priest would go to live at the quarry – these were the only two people allowed to live at the quarry. During his year here, only his priest was allowed to communicate with the King, but he governed the island from here. They received food from all the other tribes on the island. The King was the most important person on the island, and considered to have enormous “mana” or energy forces. The ceremonies ended in 1865 following the conversion to Catholicism of most of the tribes by the missionaries working on the island.

At this site we could also see the houses those taking part in these ceremonies each year would live in. Built of thin basalt bricks with a reed cement mortar, they were only a few feet high with the floor dug out inside to provide more height. There was a long terrace of these abodes, with tiny doors for entry and ventilation - keeping the heat in at night and keeping the bad spirits out. In 1975 William Malloy, an American archeologist, reconstructed these houses from the stones found on the site, and left one partially open so visitors could see how the important people lived during these few weeks.

It was also at this site that the first moai was carved as a prototype. Only 1.5 metres tal, made in white trachyte stone this moai was used as the template for all the larger moai carved later. Once several moai had been produced, this small version was brought back to Orongo and buried for hundreds of years. In 1865 a British expedition was given this proto-type moai by the local chief – probably in exchange for European goods – and it was taken back to Britain and is now housed in the British Museum.

Another interesting feature in this National Park were the petroglyphs – ancient carvings on stones - showing the “birdman” symbol, as well as faces, fish, birds and canoes. There are many petroglyphs around the island, but those here were on large boulders and still very clear, despite weathering. These stones were roped off, and only five people at a time were allowed to view them. They are teetering precariously on the top of the cliffs, but the local people do not seem worried that with further erosion they may tumble below.

We wandered on and up the track to the rim of the volcanic crater, where we could see the “kari kari”, a dip in the rim, where the warriors would have climbed down the cliffs for the birdman ceremonies - the shortest distance down although it was still more than one hundred metres of sheer cliff to the sea. The lagoon was covered in islands of reeds, not just round the edges like at yesterday’s crater. We saw where the stones to build the houses had been chiseled from the rocks at the top of the crater, and further round, a treacherous path down to the lagoon, which our guide told us, her mother, when she was young, had used to visit the lagoon to do the washing. It is now a very rough path full of stones and ruts that would prove no easy journey today. Around the edge of the lagoon lots of fruit trees and edible plants still grow in profusion, such as bananas, avocados, taro and paw paw.

By now it was nearly lunch time and the end of our tour, but the leader offered to take us to a typical café for a snack. This turned out to just at the top of the road leading from our hotel up to the main street. The speciality was a kind of pasty – both Colin and I chose tuna filling – which with a couple of beers was very satisfying after our morning’s activities. We had now completed the three tours that are offered to all visitors, and would have a free day tomorrow to explore on our own.

Next door to the café was an internet shop, and we went in, meaning to check our emails. Colin got speaking to the man there – his English was very good – and we explained the difficulties we had been having with the GPRS card. He told us he could connect us to his WIFI if we brought the laptop in, so that is what we decided to do. As he was just closing for the afternoon – now around 14.00 – we would return after 17.00 when he opened again. This gave me a couple of hours to catch up on some blogging and Colin to have a short nap. Back in the store the man did successfully connect us to WIFI, so hopefully, we will now have another alternative way of connecting to the internet and emails in South America. We checked and sent a couple of emails and Colin checked the football scores – FA Cup!!!! Luckily Arsenal had won.

We went back to the hotel and changed for dinner, deciding tonight to try a small bar/restaurant on the coast road, just along from our hotel. It appeared nothing more than a wooden shack with a large balcony, but always seems to have several people lounging on the balcony as we walked past, so figured it couldn’t be too bad. Colin ordered nuggets of chicken grilled on the barbeque with salad and while I chose raw marinated fish as starters. We both ordered a steak – rare – Colin’s coming with sweet potatoes, and mine with chips and salad – for main course. The steaks came up blue which was fine for me, but maybe a bit underdone for Colin. But it was a very enjoyable and relaxing meal and we sat in the evening sunshine – it was still very warm, even at 21.00 – supping beers and watching the multitude of surfers out in the waves after we had eaten. In fact there were so many people in the sea that quite often when there was a really big wave, many of the surfers seem to ride into each other in their desperation to keep upright on the curl.

We strolled back to the hotel where I continued blogging for a couple of hours before bedtime. This island is really relaxing and interesting – like so many of the other places we have visited – but it’s quite restrictive in that there is only one town to wander around in the evenings and although there are many restaurants, they all offer more or less the same menu. If you were here for longer than a week, you could become bored.