Just Chillaxing: Rapa Nui

Day six on Rapa Nui began with a swift walk into town to try and catch the Sunday service at the Catholic church. It was recommended to us by various different sources as an unmissable event combining catholic symbolism with the ancient beliefs of the Rapa Nui people. Unfortunately we were a little late and when we arrived we found the place totally packed out. The doors were crammed with camera toting tourists. We did manage to hear the last hymn though, and this really was stunningly beautiful, featuring lovely Polynesian style harmonies. We vowed to try and get their earlier on our last day the following Sunday.

Clair nipped inside at the end and snapped some piccies of various wood carvings inside the church which exhibit the sometimes strange looking combinations of belief systems.

You can see here the combination of the bird-man (Tangata Manu) cult and more traditional catholic themes.

This large clam shell contained water that worshippers doused themselves with when leaving the church.

The town church featuring Rapa Nui symbols on the outside too. We did notice that even some of the more rough and ready Rapa Nui citizens crossed themselves when they passed outside the church on sundays.

Clairy spotted this magnificent Avocado tree near the church as well. It was absolutely stuffed full of them. Sadly for us they were all out of reach.

We then decided we would head out for a walk to one of the nearer Moai sights that we hadn't yet visited known as Ahu Vinapu. It was about 4km away on the far side of the island past the airport runway. Clairy snapped this piccy of a huge flower as we got underway. It was as big as my head!

This little modern sculpture greets you when you get off the plane at the airport.

We think this is one of the reed canoes that the poor chaps who had to swim out to Motu Nui might have been clinging on to.

After a thoroughly pleasant walk of about an hour and a half (going our usual lazy pace) we reached Ahu Vinapu. There were two Ahu altars which once both supported Moai, but they have all been toppled and now lie face down. Some of them have broken into several pieces. According to the lonely planet, 18th and 19th century accounts suggest that not all the Moai were overturned simultaneously, but that all had been toppled by the mid 19th century. There is also evidence that they were toppled using different methods. Some had their foundations dug out, whilst others may have been pulled down with ropes.

Something that was of interest was the quality of the brickwork on one side of the ahu. The motarless tightly hewn nature looked very similar to some of the craftsmanship we saw at Machu Picchu and was present at other Inca sites.

This slightly worn but still recognisable Moai was perched nearby.

I found a massive patch of clovers and felt sure I would locate one of the four-leaved variety due to the magical feel of the location, but sadly didn't.

Clairy...eating a tasty carrot. Part of our attempt to stop eating quite so much white bread and fried pasty-style empanadas, that were abundant on the island. She's much better at it than I am (she even seems to enjoy the healthy food...strange).

I like how these lichen covered rocks sat together.

The ahu from behind. Its amazing how much the light changes the look of everything from one picture in cloud...

..to the next in the bright sunshine. Here you can see the three fallen Moai behind and a couple of their red stone top-knots in front.

Another top-knot with the slot clearly visible where it would have fitted on to the top of the Moai. It also has some symbols carved into it.

This unusual column standing in front of the ahu, is actually a headless Moai with short legs. It resembles pre-Inca column statues found in the Andes. Originally this would have been part of a 2 headed Moai between whose heads ran a wooden platform on which islanders corpses were placed. When they were desicrated they were finally buried.

Another top-knot and a gorgeous view of the south coast stretching off into the distance.

On the way back we came across various pairs of these birds of prey that we had spotted a few days ago in the Rano Raraku carpark. They let us get quite close to them...

...before heading off into the sky. Their supreme gliding skills on the strong winds kept making me think of my radio controlled gliders back home. I'm looking forward to building some that look like birdies! What a geek.

Clairy loved the texture the compacted mud had made on the track on the way back.

And the track was covered in Obsidian deposits. Pretty harsh for car tires we thought as it is pretty much just volcanic glass lying all over the place.

One of the reasons our walk always take so long is that we quite often end up stopping to do totally ludicrous things that make us laugh hysterically. The pictures below are a prime example of this. I noticed whilst we had stopped for a swift drink of water that Clair's shadow looked a little bit like the birdman motif. Naturally she had to try and make it more convincing.

The more she tried, the less it looked like it. Particularly this hunchback version.

If anyone had seen us doing this, I'm sure they would have thought we had something against people with physical deformities. We haven't by the way.

This was probably the best effort, but it is still rubbish. She's never going to make the grade for those Indian shadow puppet shows she likes.

Eventually when we got things under control we even managed to take quite a nice piccy of ourselves (with the runway in the background...nice).

Although it all went downhill again when Clairy insisted on a picture holding this mahoosive palm leaf which she then proceeded to drop on her foot and was suprised at just how much it hurt!

A little shack on a hill that Clairy spotted coming back through the Manavai on our way home. She reckoned it would have had a beautiful view of the ocean.

When we got back we found that yet again our Chilean friends were still around. They hadn't managed to get on to the flight back to Santiago again as it was full again. It was a bonus for us having them still there as yet again (it was becoming a bit of a theme) they were up for a bit of sesh. This time as the weather was a bit nastier we made a racket in the campsite's shared kitchen.

It did seem a bit harsh though as although its obviously definitely a perk getting free flights from work, the fact that you are always on standby means that if the flights are all full you have to give yourself a load of extra time just in case you can't get back. Also Juan told us that if it you are not able to get a flight back in time to start work on standby then you just have to pay for it yourself!

Here's Clairy and Tania. Barely a word of shared language between them, but getting on like a house on fire.

Daniella, Angelo and Francisco.

The whole crew. From left to right; Juan, Daniella, Angelo, Francisco, Rodrigo, Tania and Clairy.

And somehow we just knew what was coming.

With a strange sense of inevitability the night ended with Francisco feeling the need to get his kit off. Fortunately I wasn't quite so gone on this time and could supervise.