The Moai of Rapa Nui

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is over 1,300 miles from any other settlement in the Pacific. The more than 900 moai statues were carved by the island people between 1250 and 1500 from the volcanic tuff. The carvings were of their ancestor gods and some say of political leaders, which they believed held the sacred spirits or mana. It was thought that the dead would provide everything that the living needed.

Our first siting of moai from the ship.

And a view of the ship from those same moai.

The statues are set on an “alter” called an ahu. To this day, the area within the ahu (which is ringed by stones) is considered sacred and not to be walked on. The majority of the moai standing today do not have the eyes remaining, which were made from white coral. Some of the more recent moai (as in ~1500) have a topknot made from red scoria from a different quarry on the island, which denoted an elevated status as chieftain like the one below. 

The moai were carved from the volcanic tuff (solidified ash) at the quarry Rana Raraku (the red star on the map above), where approximately half of the statues are still located. In the picture below you can see that some are still only partially carved in the rock and appear to be laying down as they were being carved.

The rest of moai were moved to all of the locations around the perimeter of the island facing inward from the sea that are shown on the map at the top of the post. It was quite a feat, as some weighed over 180,000 lbs.!

The island itself it very dry, and in the past water was very scarce until recently when they were able to access groundwater. There are theories that the deforestation of the island during the early days of settlement destabilized the ecosystem that was then further affected by the arrival of invasive species from the ships. The overall result was that there was a significant drop in the native population from ~15,000 to ~ 2,500 by the 1700’s. The population now is ~8,000.

As I’ve said, the Captain of our ship is a funny guy. I was trying to frame the “perfect” picture of the statues and through my lens finder I see this idiot jumping up and down in my frame. I’m thinking to myself what an a-hole! Still working on getting a great shot, all of a sudden someone gives me a big hug and guess what? Captain Carl was the dude trying to get my attention while visiting the island with some of the crew:) So I told him to make like a moai and he did his best – he just cracks me up :)))) I’m going to be so bummed when he leaves the ship in Papeete.

When we got back to the ship it was the White Night Party. It is held on the pool deck. First they introduce almost the entire crew who are waving the flags of their countries.

The passengers are encouraged to dress in white, the senior officers are serving the barbeque and the band is rocking!

There was a gorgeous sunset that night

And because this is still 3 for the road in spirit, Beau has been conditioning jogging with his aunt on her bicycle. I would have thought it that would be a train wreck but he is just a champ! Here is a picture of Beau from today, he will enter his first show in a couple of weeks :) We miss him so much!

Next stop, Pitcairn Island, where the Bounty, Fletcher Christian, and the mutiny crew made their home.