Christophe, the French guide recommended to me by a friend, picked us up at 10 for our first tour. Crossing the whole island, skipping all the places tourists would stop first, we headed straight to Anakena, the beach on he North side, where, between the Tahitian palm trees, our first seven Moais were standing on a restored platform. Looking inland to protect it, they were already diverse enough for us to learn about their main characteristics: the black stone from the platform, the dark yellow one that makes their bodies and heads, and the dark red of their hats and hair-dos, the Pukau. Following the coast to the South, we then saw the majestuous Fifteen on their very large platform, surrounded by other, non-restored fragments of Moais. As of 1860, none of them were standing, thrown down by possible tsunamis or enemy tribes during wars. Interesting petroglyphs on their backs showed more connections to nature, with symbols for the sun and rainbow. The next stop was the most impressive: the birthplace of the Moai, the quarry where the yellow stone comes from. About 400 unfinished Moais are scattered on the slopes of the volcano, some halfway down and buried to the neck by sediments, others lying flat on their nose, yet others a mere outline carved in the mountainside. Why the production was stopped and the site abandoned in such a state, no one knows. Civil war, scarce resources, disease, a tsunami, a change in beliefs… That place had a very strange, melancholic vibe. The stranded Moais on the meadow look like they couldn’t complete their journey. Their eyes are mere angles, as those were only sculpted “open” upon reaching their destination, five or even fifteen kilometers further. The ones still in the rock appear to be on the verge of being freed from the mountain, yet couldn’t quite get loose from the mineral layers around them. On one side, the tallest Moai in all of Polynesia, at 22m, lies in his coffin of stone, unfinished. We learned a lot about the Rapa Nui culture that day, from the ceremonies and festivals to their strong knowledge in astronomy, not forgetting the importance of the spirit world and their belief in mana. Climbing over the edge of the large volcano led into a place of rest, a peaceful rain-water lake providing sweet water and a protected environment for several free-roaming horses and cows. That night was another short one, with hundreds of stray dogs howling at irregular intervals again, for no apparent reason (mostly shortly after the noisy teenagers in the next room had calmed down).
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