Chile and Easter Island October 28 to November 6

A trip to Easter Island in November prompted a quick, 4-day visit first to Chile, starting in Santiago at the end of October. Mónica hosted a dinner party for us, her son Ale (the photographer), his wife, Flaca (right), friends Fred (General Manger of 3M in Chile, shown at left), his wife Lana and their son Jake, plus two young ladies, Carmen and Jackie, from Nicaragua, who stayed with Mónica for a semester while studying in Chile.

Valentina (bottom left) is the newest family member, born September 13th. At six-weeks, she was the star of the evening. This was our first chance to see her since her birth.

Our stay in Santiago was only a couple of days, and we tried to quickly see some of our friends during a walk along the main avenue in Providencia. Along the way we stopped in to Gonzalo's chiropractic office (Gonzalo was Artie's Aikido Sensei), and he thankfully gave each of us treatments. After the red-eye overnight flight, this felt so good!

Next stop: Our beach house. We picked up John, Bobbi and Kristin at the airport on the way. We spent a couple of days at Mirasol, and then all headed off to Easter Island (5 days there for us, and 10 for them).

We were pleased with the changes that were made to our garden while we were away in the States.

		We visited a house of Pablo Neruda, famous Poet Laureate of Chile. It is located a half hour from our place, on the coast, and includes his unique treasures and personal collections from around the world.

We also did lots of exploring along the coast near our house, enjoying the surf and foot-paths along the rocks.

		Beautiful views everywhere!

Having fun on the hill-tops!

Kristin met with Claudia and Heins, friends she knew from her 4-month co-op internship in Chile in 2001.

Next stop: Easter Island!

A Web-based fact sheet tells us that Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is a small triangular multi-volcanoed island, roughly 14 miles long by seven miles wide and 69 square miles. It lies 2,400 miles west of the coast of Chile and 2,500 miles east of Tahiti. Its closest human neighbors are 1,400 miles to the west on Pitcairn Island. The 2500 permanent inhabitants have the honor of being the remotest population on the face of the Earth.

We flew out of Santiago early Sunday morning, November 2, with seats in adjoining rows. We eagerly monitored our progress during the 5-hour flight to the middle of nowhere (on map, Pateete is Tahiti).

		Once on the ground, Kristin's dream came true. She had been planning this trip since her first visit to Chile, 7 years earlier. Now the dream was reality.

We all got the traditional welcoming flowers, and later (at the Post Office) we got our Passports stamped.

Bobbi, the bird watcher in our group, helped us to appreciate the interesting birds we saw.

We were very pleased with our Hotel BB Tauraá. After touring, we enjoyed our afternoons sitting out on the terrace chatting with the other guests from around the world. Morning breakfasts became a fun gathering place.

We took two full-day tours with Yan, whose family descended from the original indigenous islanders. He explained the history, customs and theories about this unique island. Shown here sitting next to a fallen Moai (pronounced Mow-eye), he explained that all the sculptures were torn down during civil unrest centuries ago. Many have since been restored to vertical positions.

So, where do the Moais come from? From this quarry.		They were cut out of the side of this volcanic rock.
From a distance, the hillside looks strewn with boulders. Closer up you can see these are Moais that were on-route to their remote ending locations, but at some point just stayed where they are now.

Above is a closer view of the part of the quarry where several Moais were in the process of being carved. Below you can see a close-up of the head of a Moai, on its back, cut right into the side of the mountain, and in front of it, yet another partially finished one.

The carving with stone tools would eventually yield only a support for the spine of the Moai, at which point the Moai would be braced, cut from the mountain, and moved for polishing with pebbles and then placed where desired. Each tribe on the island tried to make larger Moais to honor their own leader and out-shine the others.

Each Moai is slightly different from the others, though all look similar. They are remarkable to see up-close.

		Margy is not actually "touching" the Moai, which is prohibited, since they are considered sacred. But you can see the size of them easily. The fenced-in Moai above is the only kneeling Moai we saw.

From up on the slope of this volcano the views are spectacular, aside from the awesome looking Moais all around.

Speaking of spectacular views, how about this coastline?

Several coastal coves had clusters of Moai, creating beautiful settings with dramatic backdrops. All but one cluster of Moais face inland. Kristin was certainly enjoying her adventure!

Head of fallen Moai in foreground of 15 Moais.		The 16th Moai?

The 15 Moai of Ahu Tongariki were toppled in the 15th Century, believed to be a result of tribal warfare. An earthquake and tsunami in May 1960 further scattered the statues and altars from their bases. An October 1992 agreement between Chile and the Moai Restoration Committee of Japan was initiated to restore these 15 Moai. The photo at right (displayed at the site) shows this effort. The project was completed in 1996, thanks to the cooperation of Chilean and Japanese archaeologists and the people of Easter Island.

We saw several large tortoises, perhaps 3 foot diameter, in the little village of Hanga Roa.

		A picturesque cove with a grand cave was the site of wall paintings from centuries ago. Amidst thunderous waves and blue sea we marveled at these ancient drawings.

We climbed into and walked through a couple of underground caves. Some of these were used by the native people to hide from slave ships intending to take people from the island.

Some Moai had carvings on their bodies and bases.		Stone cutting and fit were like Machu Pichu, Perú.

		Some of the Moai were quite unusual, like the one above. Others just had a captivating look about them. On one back street on the way to the local museum, we loved how bright the flowers were in front of one house.

We saw beautiful scenes and sunsets as we walked to seaside restaurants, which served the best fresh seafood.

From evening sunsets to daylight tours, from sea level to thousand foot high volcanic tops, we enjoyed it all.

What a great experience and wonderful time we shared with our dear friends John, Bobbi and Kristin!

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