Easter Island 2

a moai not yet removed from the volcano quarry where it was made


Tongariki moais - 15 in total which have been re-erected


cave we clambered through

There are numerous underground caves near the west coast of the island, previously inhabited by the Rapa Nui, which can be seen from the remainder of many small walls left inside. There are still islanders today who remember times before the arrival of the first aeroplanes. They speak of being brought up in the caves, fetching water daily from the freshwater lake in the volcano crater. They have a history of being persecuted by the people who arrived after the explorers, including Peruvian slave traders who kidnapped many of them and later, a sheep farming company who took over the land surrounding Hanga Roa village, hemming the last of the population in. Many also died when smallpox and TB were brought to the island by continentals. In the 19^th century only 111 natives remained. Since 1963, when the island was granted freedom, the population has significantly recovered and modern day life on the island is different to how it was only a generation before. Three aeroplanes daily bring tourists with money to spend in the local community, on souvenirs of hand carved statues and shell necklaces and hiring either cars, scooters or quads to tour the sites. The younger Rapa Nui generation is split between those who remain and those who leave for the continent, although when asked most would admit to wanting to return to the island at some point. There is a strong connection with the ancestral history and culture and a pride in being part of the most isolated community on earth. We explore the caves, amazed at the fact we can walk 200 metres underground through pitch black tunnels. We head back to the pretty beach at Anakena for a last dip in the huge waves of the Pacific Ocean before cooking our last meal in the Mihinoa Camping Hostel and chatting with some fellow travellers who’ve just been to New Zealand and only had great things to say about it.

18.10.09 - 21.10.09 Easter Island (Rapa Nui) - 4,000km off the coast of Chile

The aeroplanes coming to Easter Island have to make a severe descent and be very harsh on the brakes when they land because of the short runway. It runs from one side of the island to the other but still seems much shorter than your average runway. We’re greeted with the customary fresh flower garland and, together with the very warm humidity, we realise we are indeed on a tropical South Pacific island. However, the surrounding landscape appears to be more reminiscent of Fife than Tahiti. The rolling green hills fall away to rocky beaches and there’s no real sign of any tropical vegetation, save for a few palm trees dotted here and there. In fact nettles grow aplenty, including bright purple thistles, which are really bizarre when you see them growing right next to a Moai statue, so many miles from their home country, Scotland.

The island is populated by almost 4,000 inhabitants plus about the same again in horses. They seem to be the preferred livestock, although we can’t work out what purpose they might serve. There are some cows, but no sheep. Kestrels have the skies pretty much to themselves. I’ve seen no evidence of any small furry creatures, like rabbits or rodents and, for some bizarre reason, there seem to be a lot of woodlice. Funny, seeing as one of the main historical issues of the island is that the natives completely deforested it, causing many problems to their sustainment. Nowadays, groves of eucalypts are flourishing along with generic deciduous and they’re attempting to re-introduce the Toromiro tree, which is currently extinct in the wild and was one of the species which suffered from the heavy handedness of the Rapa Nui.

We hire a Daihatsu Terios to tour the island for our 3 day stay and soon realise that the distances on the map are much shorter than they look. It’s possible to drive the full length of the island in just over 20 minutes- 20kms. We start out on the road to the eastern coast, which is a secondary road with many potholes. Greg’s driving gets increasingly more skilled as he becomes adept at navigating through them. We follow the morning tour bus as it makes it’s stops to view the toppled Moai and Ahu (platforms). We soon appreciate however that there are sites which the tour bus either can’t make it to or doesn’t have time on it’s schedule, so it is possible to be the only ones looking at these ancient monuments.

Rapa Nui was discovered by a group of Polynesian pioneers (possibly from the Marquesa Islands, 1,500km to the west) attempting to form a colony and harvest the land. It is unknown exactly when this was but it could’ve been any time from the 8^th century to the 14^th century AD. They developed into a strictly spiritual culture who built large stone statues, Moai, as gifts to appease their gods. As the years passed these Moai became larger in size, such were the workers pressed by the Akiri, or king of the island, to supersede the previous examples. Unfortunately, for the Rapa Nui, this stone carving culture became obsessive, to the detriment of all else on the island, including the population’s ability to feed itself. Logs were required for the gigantic statues to be rolled into position, so all the trees were cut down. Farmers were conscripted to join the ranks and help with the building, letting their crops go to waste and die, and the whole situation got to the point where it was critical that they alter the way they were living or they would not survive. A new idea came in the form of the Birdman cult, wherein, at the beginning of Spring, when the migratory Sooty Tern would come to nest on the tiny islands of the south coast, the strongest swimmers of each tribe on the island would have to attempt the harsh Pacific waters to collect the first egg of the season. This feat represented fertility for the coming season, and would determine who would be crowned Birdman for the next year, but again caused the virtual extinction of the birds on the island because of the destruction of their nests and their habitat. So, the essence of the Rapa Nui people was the lack of respect they had for the delicate ecosystem of their island and the mass destruction they caused of it. But, it can be said that the majority of the peoples believed that what they were doing would lead to problems, however, they were ruled by the Akiri who frightened them into expending all their energies in the quarries chipping and carving at the rock, to make the biggest Moai ever seen. He told them stories that every other land mass in the ocean had sunk due to lack of belief in the gods and, if they were not careful, their island would sink too. It must’ve been a strange feeling to think you were the only people in the world, not knowing whether anything else was beyond that endless horizon of nothingness.

This isolation also kept them safe however and it was only when explorers and missionaries came to the island in the 18^th century that a lot of the population was lost to smallpox and TB.

We can recognise most of the inhabitants of the island’s only village, Hanga Roa, as being directly descended from the Rapa Nui, from their facial features and habit of growing their fuzzy black hair very long. An official Rapa Nui language is still spoken and they take their cultural identity very seriously.

We are impressed by the Moai design, each one in it’s own way, different from the last, and also by the natural beauty of the island with it’s volcanic rock formations and crashing turquoise waves of the vast Pacific.

15.10.09 - 16.10.09 Santiago de Chile

images from the exhibition we visited- 'Inca' products and Catholicism issues.

great fountain at one of the city's parks

view of Santiago from the top of the funicular

Santiago is wealthy with trendsetters and well-dressed business people taking the lead. The city is built up but has also very successfully retained it’s green spaces, which are constantly patrolled by guards to prevent any undue behaviour. We become aware that the parks tend to generally be used by young couples smooching on benches, out of the condemning gaze of their parents most probably. The parks are very pretty, particularly the Santa Lucia city park which has a magnificent fountain and tower esplanade from where a great view of the city can be enjoyed. We also take a trip up the funicular railway to one of the city’s hills, upon which sits an immense statue to the Virgin Mary and an open air church with wooden pews, where a very atmospheric mass must take place every Sunday. There is much evidence of Catholicism still playing a very important part in peoples’ lives in Chile and, in fact, in all the South American countries we’ve visited. We take in a revealing exhibition at the contemporary wing of the Belles Artes Museo in which new South American painters addressed issues of sexuality alongside Catholicism, plus there was a display of Inca-related product packaging. In other words, the artist has collected as many product advertising using ‘Inca’ as a brand name to emphasise quality, which is highly amusing to us.

And this ends our South American adventure. We’re off to Easter Island tomorrow, leaving behind the Latin American peoples, histories and cultures we’ve encountered here, to taste some island living, then it’s on to the down under, English speaking nation of New Zealand!

14.10.09 La Serena

Nell, me and Tristan sitting on the beach at La Serena

La Serena sits on the Pacific coast, a colonial town with the traditional tree-lined boulevard down through the centre of town to the sea and a pretty Plaza des Armas. Our hotel is an eccentric blast from the past with furniture and fixtures from the 1950s, owned by a lovely 90 year old lady who sits placidly at the reception, chatting with her employees. The town itself is very quiet, apart from the packs of trendy school girls who always attempt a “Hello, how are you” to us, practising their English, through endless giggles.

Our tour’s nearly over and it’s only 7 hours to Santiago, our final stop.

12.10.09 - 13.10.09 San Pedro de Atacama (Atacama Desert) Chile

As soon as we cross the Chilean border we notice a difference in levels of wealth between the two countries, Bolivia and Chile. The Chilean road leading through the desert in front of us is fully tarmac, with painted lines and the occasional signpost, whereas the Bolivian roads we’ve just left were dirt tracks at the best of times. The Chilean border control officers are super smart in their co-ordinated uniforms and the border control building itself is contemporary in design and looks pretty much brand new. In comparison the Bolivian border office was a small hut in a dusty field where all the tour jeeps were parked up higgledy piggledy with tourists’ bags strewn all over the ground ready to be searched.
San Pedro is the first town reached after the Bolivia/ Chile border and reinforces the idea that we’ve arrived in a completely different country. In fact, Chile is what they call, the success story of South America. It is the most economically advanced, the most European in nature and, to follow suit, the most conservative of South American people live here. This is evidenced in San Pedro when we discover loud music and dancing are strictly prohibited here, even though it is one of the most popular tourist towns in the country, due to its location in the Atacama desert, within easy reach of the Bolivian Altiplano and the striking desert valleys of the Moon and Mars. It is entirely constructed in adobe brick, but not because this is the only material that can be afforded. The artisan community have preserved the original nature of the town and any new hotels or restaurants built must retain the same low rise design using adobe.
We have the opportunity to explore the mud hills of the Valley of Mars, just outside the town- bizarre formations which prove to be a fun mud playground, before heading off to our penultimate destination La Serena.

typical Altiplano scenery

one of the hundreds of pink, smelly flamingos

geysers and hot pools

After breakfast on the second day we journey out into the Altiplano which proves a much rougher ride in our 4x4s than the salt flats. There are no paved roads, only dirt tracks and some of the routes we take off road are evidently too much for our vehicle as we stall going up a deep sand hill and unfortunately the engine gives up. Our driver and his two driving buddies spend a good half hour investigating under the bonnet and, it turns out, one of the belts has gone. It’s lucky our drivers are trained mechanics because the umpteen times our truck fails, they always seem to be able to get it running again.

I have a day of firsts- my first view of an active volcano, spewing clouds of steam, and my first encounter with hundreds of pink flamingos on the Laguna Colorado.

They are elegant creatures gently stalking their way through the shallow waters, bending their long necks to feed. However they are smelly and the spongy ground around the edge of the lake seems to be made of a mixture of soft earth, sulphur and bird poo.

We visit a couple of other mineral rich lagunas before reaching our next accommodation, which, again is very basic. Now we are pretty desperate for a shower because the sandy plains we’re driving through throw up a lot of dust which gets through even the pollen filters in the car’s air vents, and we end up coated in the stuff.

The accommodation block is located on the banks of the Laguna Rojo (Red Lake) which gets its colour in fact from the red algae growing in it, not from any minerals present. We take a windy walk round the edge to a viewpoint, uncertain whether the white rocky formations on one side are, in fact, the remnants of a glacier. They certainly look like ice and its extremely cold- overnight temperatures can reach as low as -20 degrees Celsius.

The following day we continue on our epic road trip through the endless empty plains of the Altiplano, rising at an unsociable 4.30am, in order to make it to the Geysers of Tatio for sunrise.

As we get there the sun’s rays are slowly penetrating the volcanic hillsides but the temperature remains below freezing and I can’t remember the last time I was this cold. The geysers and bubbling sulphurous pools are very active at this time of day and the plumes of gas emitting from them catch the morning light giving the place a ghostly feel. We are free to wander between pools on narrow ledges and its only after we leave the area I find out the water can reach 85 degrees Celsius and it’s quite dangerous.

We stop at a hut for breakfast by the side of a lake with a hot springs pool in it, before heading to the Bolivian/ Chile border control and on to our next destination, San Pedro de Atacama (hot showers await!)

Bolivian Altiplano Road Trip 09.10.09 - 11.10.09

the Bolivian salt flats- a strange white environment

cactus on the 'coral' rock island

one of our 'scale' illusion photos

The Bolivian Aliplano (high plains) is an area of inland drainage, at an average altitude of 3,750m above sea level. Originally, in the Pleistocene epoch, the entire area was covered by a giant lake, the present remnants of which are the freshwater Lake Titicaca, the salt lake Poopo and the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats of Uyuni). The Altiplano is flanked by two Cordillera mountain ranges and, to the south lies the Atacama desert and to the east lies the Amazon rainforest. It is thought that the ranges on either side helped to trap the sediment of the lakes and form the unique, flat landscape of the Altiplano. The whole area is volcanically active with evidence from the immense variety of geological rock formations, mineral rich lake waters and hillsides containing a myriad of colours from the different stones.

We leave Uyuni in 4x4s for the 3 day salt flat/ Altiplano tour, first stop the bubbling salt water pools which replenish the white salt crystals covering the entire plain, through evaporation. The salt crunches like snow under our feet and, along with the vast sparkling whiteness, it’s reminiscent of a winter landscape, the main difference being the temperature. We stop next at a ‘coral’ rock island in the middle of the salt flats which is covered in cacti and the heat is almost unbearable. We notice the rock’s porous nature, which indeed is similar to underwater coral reef formations. It was indeed originally below the paleolake, centuries ago.

Our afternoon is taken up by creating weird and wonderful ’scale’ photos in the salt flats. The environment, because it’s so flat and pure white, is ideal for illusions of scale- ie; a plastic toy dinosaur positioned close to the camera lens can appear similar in height to a person positioned 10-15 feet away, if the angle of the lens is correct. Such fun!

Once we’ve exhausted pretty much all possibilities we head off to our accommodation in the Altiplano hillside. It’s very basic, electricity is only available for 2 hours in the evening and we have to share a dormitory which, in fact, is quite fun as we reminisce our times at school camp.