Easter Island

Not an easy place to get to!

By Guest Contributor Andre Neyrey

This is another big one on most people's bucket list and certainly was one on ours. What we didn't know what it has been said that tenders from large cruise ships have a 50% chance of making it to sea. The "bay" is met with thrashing waves and can only hold one tender at a time. So we boarded our tender and sat and sat and sat bobbing around in the ocean with our friend Colette needing to lay down and Sam fanning her because of sea sickness and all of us sick from the heat of the tender with no open windows. A sweatbox, rolling around in the sea waiting our turn to get into the shore. But we made it!

Once again Sam found us an incredible guide who was from the island and according to his boss "knows every rock". We spent most of the morning exploring the areas where most of the Moai statues are located and where the bird man challenge happened.

They are really spread out all over the island (I think about 800) but the main two places we focused on was the quarry where they actually carved them before rolling them down the hill to transport. Once they arrived where they were going to be placed they were stood up. The quarry walk started with the Trail of the Moais which was a trail of broken Moais that must have been lost in transit by breaking. They are scattered all down the hill to the water and main road.

We saw as we climbed up the mountain that they were not only carved in place but some had been left carved but still attached to the quarry.

On the way up there were many heads sticking out the ground. They were actually buried over time but as high as they stuck out they were still another 2/3's buried. Probably another 20-30 feet below ground.

Then we went to Tongariki which has the biggest concentration of upright Moais. There was a big tsunami from a very old earthquake that washed these down and moved them. In the 90's the Japanese paid to have them restored and put back on the base they had built. It was amazing to think how they got them up on the pedestal originally with no cranes or how they even moved them all over the island in the 1400s and 1500's. They even put these hair sculptures (top knot) on the top after.

The next stop after a quick lunch where our friend Erik wasn't feeling so great from the intense humidity and heat was the volcano that held the bird man challenge. Sam asked our guide if he was on the island when Matt Lauer came for his 2005 segment "Where in the World is Matt Lauer" for the TODAY Show and he was and he remembered. Apparently Elon Musk also went by private plane for a romantic getaway with Amber Heard in 2017 as told in the news...but according to our guide he never left the airport!

After the Moais period was the BIrd Man Challenge time. After all the tribal warfare and lack of resources almost wiped them out they decided to hold this to elect a new leader of the island every year.

The purpose of the birdman contest was to obtain the first egg of the season from the offshore islet Motu Nui. Contestants descended the sheer cliffs of Orongo and swam to Motu Nui where they awaited the coming of the birds. All the tribes would send a representative to be the leader and a representative to do the challenge. They would train and live on these little flat structures built into the hill and train for months. The challenge was to climb out the volcano and then down the steep cliff to the water and swim to another little island. That island was known as the place where these birds would migrate and lay eggs. Once they saw the birds coming to the island they would build a sort of raft to swim to swim over. They would have to live in caves until the birds mated and laid eggs. The first person (if they didn't get eaten by sharks) to find an egg, strap in their head and swim back would be the winner. That tribe would then have the leader of the whole island for a year.

The walk was hard and took about an hour and Sam was ready to kill the guide who was made aware of her physical restraints and yet failed to tell her that 20 feet from the parking lot she could have poked her head around and see the inside the of the crater.

The drive back to the ship was filled with passing wild horses, cows and sheep just laying around the side of the roads looking for shade.

The island is really beautiful and mysterious AND super hot since there is no pollution so dress appropriately if you go!

Since we missed Lima Peru - we had an overnight in Hanga Roa aka Easter Island and after the nightmare of the tender to the ship the day before we opted for staying on board day 2. We came/saw and conquered Easter Island! Bucket list check!