Rocking in the New Year on Easter Island!

12.31.16

Rapa Nui - Easter Island - "the navel of the world"
Orongo and Rano Kao Volcano

WOW! And we haven't even begun to explore the island...
Here is the view from my hotel room's terrace:

We even have our very own moai stone sculptures alongside the hotel swimming pool:

The island was named Easter Island by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen when he discovered the island on Easter Sunday in 1722, but Rapa Nui (Big Island) is the Polynesian name preferred by the locals. Other theories refer to it as Te Pito o te henua (the navel of the world) or mata-ki-te-rangi (eyes that talk to the sky).

This volcanic island was formed by 3 extinct volcanoes that give the island its triangular shape. It is 2,200 miles off the coast of Chile; 2,000 miles east of Tahiti; and 4,300 miles southeast of Hawaii - making it the most isolated land in the world.

Until the 1960s, famine, smallpox, abductions, clan wars, tuberculosis and deforestation of the land resulted in over 97% of the population dead or relocated as slaves - leaving just 111 people living on Easter Island and only 36 of them with children. Today, there are about 3,000 inhabitants - 60% who are Rapa Nui - and languages spoken include Spanish and Rapa Nui.

Easter Island was annexed by Chile on September 9,1888 by Policarpo Toro. In 1966 the Rapanui were given Chilean citizenship, and on July 30,2007 a constitutional reform gave the island status as a special territory of Chile.

Our first adventure took us to the ceremonial village of Orongo and the Rano Kao Volcano - principal sites of the birdman cult, immortalized by the stone carvings of birdman images (half-man, half-bird) in rock. The Birdman Cult competition was established to help decide who would lead the Rapa Nui each year. Each year, one elder would make a bid for leadership and choose one of his champions to honor the God Make-Make, deity of fertility.

The chosen ones of the Birdman Cult would then dive down dangerous cliffs of Orongo, a village located meters away from the Volcano Rano Kau. They would then swim to the small island named Moto Nui and wait for the first manutara (sooty tern) egg of the season, swimming all the way back to Orongo with the egg safely secure in order to win the crown for his elder, who would then be considered the supreme ruler for one year, until the next competition. He also was compelled to shave his head and grow his nails in order to achieve a bird-like appearance.

Moto Nui

Small caves where families huddled for warmth & to escape the wind.

Rano Kao Volcano

A petroglyph of the birdman.

We ended 2016 and welcomed the new year with an amazing 9:30 PM dinner at U Bout du Monde Restaurant - again with delicious tenderloin and copious amounts of champagne and wine - followed by incredible fireworks and fantastic music. AWESOME!!!