17 November 2021

Diary

Anakena

October 27th 2009

7.15am

Dawn is breaking and I can hear cockerels greeting the day. Some are close by, others are faraway snd beyond those there are no doubt others. There's no clear "cockadoodle-doo" - nothing musical like that, these rooster calls are pained and varied as if appealing to some unmerciful god.

Nearer are more melodic songs from small birds. How did they arrive -here - 2500 miles from anywhere else? There was so much  gorgeous birdsong down in Rano Kau crater  yesterday. I think that place would be a botanist's dream - a micro-climate in which plants have developed with minimal human interference.

Again - how did they get there? Those mighty thick reeds that proliferate in the centre of the crater lake or those ferns with their studded leaves. Was it microsorum parksii? Often used medicinally and in fact seen in other parts of Polynesia though here on Rapa Nui it only grows in Rano Kau crater.

9.30pm

I'm now in the Bar Tavake pub on the main drag of Hanga Roa - "drag" being the operative word because the waiter/waitress is six feet tall, built like a powerful rugby fly half but with long ginger hair, excessive make-up and a flowery Tahitian style dress. Never mind - it takes all sorts.

Today - great breakfast again. I photographed  it for Trip Advisor. I was determined to be much less energetic today but ended up doing plenty of walking. I hitch-hiked to the bay known as Anakena on the northeast side of the island. First a lift to a sort of ranch entrance with a Rapa Nui man in a flatbed Mitsubishi. He said it would take a further half hour to reach Anakena on foot but fortunately an old man with his grandson stopped and took me the rest of the way.- more like a good hour's walk I would say.

At Anakena I was at first the only person there, alone with the impressive ahu with its seven moai standing tall. Nearby there was a more primitive, bulkier moai statue on a separate "ahu" (stone platform). Then a New Zealand woman appeared. She had stopped earlier for me but I had declined the lift as she was heading for Ranu Rakuru - the great crater where 95% of the moai were carved. I was surprised at how little time she must have spent there.

Having clicked several pictures of the moai, I wandered over the headland towards the neighbouring sandy bay - Ovahe.

On the way I saw a horse's corpse rotting disgustingly and I made a stone cairn topped with a bleached bone. The cliffs down to Ovahe looked treacherous so I carefully negotiated the headland before descending. There are many hawks on Rapa Nui and for the second time I was "bombed" but I made it down to the beach safely. A sign said "No Swimming" but I stripped off and plunged in anyway.

Lovely, clear water and a pleasant temperature given the rising heat of the day. Little silver fishes surrounded me at one point and floating on my back  I felt happy and at peace with the world here on this island of secrets.

As I explore, I notice evidence of many other structures - perhaps villages and small field boundaries. What might at first appear as a pile of volcanic rubble is often the ruin of a Rapa Nui house - abandoned who knows when - perhaps two or three hundred years ago. It becomes clearer that although the "moai" are the archaeological headliners that have continued to intrigue the world, there is so much more to see here - to do with daily life and the struggle to simply survive.

Ovahe, Easter Island

26 comments:

  1. Your description of the server at the pub intrigued me. You know, in quite a few cultures, it is quite accepted that some people are "two spirited." Just this morning I was reading a blog post at https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/11/17/the-tribe-that-inspired-frida-kalho/
    that was talking about the Zapotec in Mexico who influenced Frida Kahlo so much. They think that there are three genders- male, female, and muxe which is someone who is born with male characteristics but who lives and dresses as a woman. They are considered good luck and there is no pressure for them to "pass."
    Interesting, no? Perhaps in the culture of Easter Island, there is a similar attitude.
    What an amazing journey that must have been for you. And I would have been pondering many of the same things you did.

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    1. You kind of pulled me up on that one Ms Moon and I thank you for it. In Polynesia, there has historically been a more fluid attitude to gender than in The West as Andrew's comment below reminds me.

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  2. Anonymous10:56 pm

    Trip Advisor was around in 2009. Interesting. Ovahe looks so nice and private. So fa'afafine are not just found in Samoa.

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    1. I believe that sense of a third gender once existed throughout Polynesia but western influence may have diminished acceptance of such people.

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  3. I love that you keep journal notes of your travels and the trip sounds like it was amazing.

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    1. It is not something I often did Nurse Lily.

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  4. These adventures were all new to you so you are impressed. You remember them for a long time. Interesting how you get a ride. people just stop and give you a ride.

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    1. You have to stick out your thumb to tell them you are looking for a ride Red.

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  5. My understanding is that Christian colonisers disrupted the previous acceptance of LGBTQ identifying people in the Pacific.
    In Australia's Tiwi islands the name is yimpininni.

    Easter Island sounds like a real adventure

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    1. Those Christian colonisers and missionaries have a lot to answer for. By the way I had never heard of the Tiwi Islands. Now I see that they sit close to Darwin.

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  6. How wonderful that you have visited Easter Island. An unforgettable experience, I imagine.

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    1. When I see small imitation moai heads in garden centres I feel uncomfortable.

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  7. Thank you for another great read to accompany my muesli.
    I don't think I would have dared go in the water where the sign said "no swimming"; there could have been undercurrents or other dangers waiting.

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    1. I looked at the water. It was quite shallow as it dipped out to sea and it was a calm day. I didn't swim far out. There was nobody else around.

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  8. I don't think that I was following your blog in 2009 but I have certainly read your posts from that time before now. Fascinating.

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    1. A very different kind of island from Lewis but all islands have a sense of being worlds in themselves.

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  9. It is intriguing how species such as birds and plants find their way to such far flung shores.

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  10. I like the idea of muxe and having two souls, something we see in our young people and we have to accept. The Moai are facing out to sea, I always love the way we look outward in death, our memorials strategically placed.

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    1. This is the thing Thelma. The moai all looked inland, not out to sea. The only moai that look seawards are those on the slopes of Ranu Rakuru crater. They were waiting to be transported to their permanent sites.

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  11. There can't be many people who have visited Easter Island, or even thought about doing so. Not your usual holiday destination.
    The photos of both beaches make me realise how desolate, and remote, the island is. Did you take any photos of whatever passes as "civilisation" - and I use the word in it's loosest sense!

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    1. Yes. I did take a few Carol. I might post them some time. Around 7,500 people live on Easter Island - mostly in the only noteworthy settlement - Hanga Roa. More than half the people are settlers from Chile.

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  12. So interesting...that was a trip of a lifetime. Thank you for sharing it with us.

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    1. You may be right Jennifer. "Trip of a lifetime". I am so glad that I went and lived to tell the tale.

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  13. I wonder how much tourist traffic is there these days?

    My guess as to your question of how the flora arrived is that it came in the form of seeds inside a constipated bird that made the 2500 mile flight before finding relief.

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  14. What an amazing trip. I love it that you had a drag queen waitress! What are the odds?! It's a good thing some poisonous sea snakes didn't rise out of the waves to nibble at your toes on that beach.

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