The Big Read - Chile: The Easter Parade

31 March 2013 - 03:47 By Chris Moss
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The stone moai of Rapa Nui are as enigmatic as the islanders over whom they stand guard - and who share their tiny Pacific home with more and more visitors and outsiders, says Chris Moss

'Nine o'clock, bike to quarry" doesn't sound like the most promising excursion on the first day of a holiday, but on Rapa Nui - or Easter Island - it's a journey to the island's spiritual heart and to the source of all its troubles. The bike ride wasn't bad, either.

Despite mist on the hills and drizzle blown in on an untypical easterly, the even terrain, mellow landscape and fresh air made for a pleasant morning. After a rainy spring the grass was almost lime-green, and we were never far from the wild, rocky coastline.

I was following island-born Thomas Tuki, a guide at the Explora Posada de Mike Rapu hotel - a property tucked into a hillside and about as isolated as you can get on such a small island. That said, the name Rapa Nui actually means "Big Rapa", because the island is similar in shape to Rapa in the Bass Islands of French Polynesia. Tuki also called the island Te Pito o Te Henua, which is "navel of the world".

I asked him when I might see one of the moai - the human figures carved in rock for which the island is known. "They are all over," he said, as we cycled along an empty coast road. "Many have been restored and stood up, but there are lots of fallen moai, unfinished moai, broken moai."

The first we came across was face down, beside a trail that led from the quarry. Tuki explained it had been abandoned. "The ancestors believed the moai were moved by a magical spirit, so if the magic stopped working for a particular moai, that meant it was no good and fell down." This magic, or mana, resided in the spirits of past chiefs and respected ancestors, whose bones were buried in platforms beneath the moai.

I asked him how the huge, heavy-browed head had really been moved. "They dragged it along the ground," he said. "See how the track behind it is worn down?" Were they dragged, walked with ropes, rolled on logs? Tuki didn't know. No one does, really.

Further on, we came to one of Rapa Nui's most photographed spots: Ahu Tongariki, where 15 moai stand looking towards the quarry - which, in the mist, looked itself like a massive moai lying down.

The moai always face inland. "They protected the villages," said Tuki. "That's why they don't look out to sea." Bizarrely, we weren't going to visit the quarry this morning - it was too big a diversion, he said.

As we rode on, I saw thousands of large stones, mainly of the black, porous pyrite type common to volcanic islands. Tuki said these were the remains of houses, burial grounds, chicken coops, winter gardens. We also passed Catholic shrines, including a large cross decorated with carved fish.

I asked Tuki what his religion was and he pointed at the looming figures behind us. "That's my religion." He'd spent some time in Santiago, Chile, studying to be a guide, he said, but hated it.

"What was I to do there? Look around," he said, waving at the bare landscape, the sea beyond. "I knew nothing and no one in Santiago. It wasn't for me."

The feeling is not, however, mutual. More and more Santiaguinos and mainland Chileans are settling in Rapa Nui, drawn by the increase in visitor numbers and the opportunity to develop tourism-related businesses. Hundreds have arrived in the past decade.

 The island is only 22km long and half that wide, and has a population of about 5800, half of whom are Rapa Nui. To the chagrin of native-born islanders, the incomers insist on calling their home Isla de Pascua (Easter Island) - the name given to the island by a Dutch mariner, Jacob Roggeveen, in 1722 because he made landfall on Easter Sunday.

One islander told me she was neither a Chilean nor an Easter Islander. "I am a Rapa Nui. The Chileans deny their indigenous roots but we don't." Many Rapa Nui feel more bound to Polynesia. A Maori yacht from New Zealand had moored offshore during my visit; the sailors on board, like the Polynesians who had founded Rapa Nui, had navigated "the old way", I was told, using the stars and their instinctive knowledge of the sea.

My bike ride ended at a pretty beach called Anakena. The rain had, if anything, got worse, but I went for a swim in the warm waters. There was a platform of five more or less complete moai, and two fragments, on the dunes above the beach, and a single, particularly wide figure, standing in a loftier spot. All had their backs to me.

After a night at the Explora hotel, I moved to Hanga Roa, the main town, and into a hotel, also called Hanga Roa.

I was introduced here to another guide, Christopher Browder, an American married to a Rapa Nui, who dedicates his time to archaeological research.

He told me a story that serves as a parable for the islanders' relationship with outsiders. "The Peruvians and Chileans, among others, used to enslave the Rapa Nui. They'd take them away to work as labourers on the mainland. But if they got the chance, the enslaved would jump overboard and try to swim back.

Most of those who jumped perished. One woman was said to have jumped overboard with her baby, and started to swim back. But the baby died and the fish ate it. The woman arrived back on the island swimming with a baby's skull."

This horror story won't put tourists off. The island now attracts about 70000 visitors a year, compared with 12000 in 1993. They come for the mysteries.

In Hanga Roa's small museum, several were explored: UFO and New Age nonsense, the still undeciphered language of the Rapa Nui, the so-called birdman cult that replaced the moai at the end of the 17th century.

But, of course, it is the monolithic moai themselves - elegant and aloof, ancient but modernistic in form - that pull in the tourists. The moai have been studied from every angle, including underground, yet remain enigmatic.

After chatting, by turns, to Rapa Nui and Chilean immigrants - both of whom had both positive and less positive things to say about each other ("The Rapa Nui are lazy/overpaid/limited by traditions", "Chileans are ignorant/exploitative/intrusive") - I started to ponder other anthropological curiosities: how does Chile's Latin American culture mix with Rapa Nui culture?

What about the island's gene pool: how Rapa Nui are the Rapa Nui if their population fell to 111 in 1877? The museum ignored these mysteries.

At last, Browder took me to the quarry. Here were all the brochure images: buried moai, leaning moai, massive moai, unfinished moai. It was a stirring place, even if the force of the monolithic guardians has been worn down by overexposure in the media and, at a deeper level, the fact that they are no longer able to protect their descendants.

"The islanders need to work together, ignoring old tribal conflicts and who has 'royal blood'," said Browder. "Recycling needs to be improved. There needs to be better preservation of the land and monuments." He pointed to the introduced pigeons, which are eroding the moai with their droppings.

In the evening, I stood on the hotel terrace and looked at the ocean, with a drink in my hand. Beyond the turquoise waves rolling onto the black rocks, there was nothing between me and Japan or Chile but the vast and empty sea. A little speck of rock and a massive, fluid ocean: these are the key ingredients of the spell the island casts.

Protecting this sense of remoteness will be the most difficult challenge. "Immigration control and a cap on tourism are essential," Browder had said. "The islanders know this. But they face a government that, in response, chose to cancel many foreign visas while letting Chileans come and go as they please."

Chile, like all Latin American nations, looks outwards - especially to Europe and the US - for its economic and cultural models.

Polynesia has its cardinal points in New Zealand, Hawaii and Rapa Nui. For centuries, the Rapa Nui, isolated from the rest of the world, never looked anywhere but upwards - to the stars.

But they, and their Chilean governors, may have to learn a final lesson from the moai, and face inwards, to protect the locals, and their heritage, from those tourist dollars.

Quick Facts

. Get to the moai - in the quarry and at the platforms - in the morning or late afternoon, before or after the minibus groups and when the light is conducive to photography.

. Use Rapa Nui for the island and its people, not Easter Island(er); learn a few words of Rapa Nui - it will be greatly appreciated.

. There's a $60 fee for entrance to the National Park (including the quarry), valid for five days. Most tours will include this in the price but if you are travelling independently, there's a park booth in the arrivals section of the airport which will sell you the entrance ticket. Once you've paid for the museum (a must-see), you should be able to make at least one return visit without paying again.

. Rapa Nui is expensive: a coffee and cake can cost around R112 . Consider this when planning as all-inclusive accommodation can be good value.

. Get beyond the moai. Do the Terevaka volcano half-day trek; visit Anakena beach, the Te Pito o Te Henua (magnetic rock), Rano Kau - Orongo (the birdman village), the Ahu Te Pahu and Ana Kakenga Caves and Ahu Akivi (the only platform looking towards the ocean). Boat tours (such as those by Motu Tours, www.motutours.com ) go around the birdman islets and other locations.

. There is great scuba diving and snorkelling when conditions are right. The water is often incredibly clear and many fish are endemic. A respected dive firm is the Explora partner Mike Rapu ( www.mikerapu.cl ).

Getting there

LAN ( www.lan.com ) flies from Santiago to Mataveri International airport on Rapa Nui . Some LAN flights continue to Tahiti, so you can arrive via Australasia too.

Where to stay

. Explora Posada de Mike Rapu: 8km from Hanga Roa, the main town, with high design and environmental standards, a great restaurant, a pool, sea views and excellent guides. Three-night stays, including all meals, tours and park entrance, cost from R41 000 for two ( www.explora.com ).

. Gomero: Friendly, with plain rooms, tropical gardens and a pool. Doubles from R1 400, including breakfast ( www.hotelgomero.com ).

. Taha Tai: Reliable, good-value, locally managed hotel close to the centre of Hanga Roa, with standard rooms and bungalows. Doubles from R1 800 ( www.hoteltahatai.cl ).

Where to eat and drink

There are lots of restaurants and cafés in Hanga Roa, but prices can be exorbitant. Food is simple: fish dishes and ceviches are especially good.

For fine dining, visit the Explora hotel (above). For lunches and good-value dinners, try La Kaleta (www.lakaletarestaurant.com) in the wharf, and try Te Ra'ai (www.teraai.cl) to combine dinner with a typical music and dance show.

What to avoid

. Get your guide to check the authenticity of any wood or stone moai statuettes and art objects; many items use industrial stone (usually bright white) or imported cheap wood.

. If you're travelling independently, watch out for rogue taxi tours; these can be expensive and the guide may know nothing at all about the island's history or geography.

. The Toroko discotheque: this is for locals only. Even resident Chileans are not always made welcome.

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