A tour of the east coast

The first place we went to was a recreation of a village where the homes were boat shaped and there were large chicken coups made from bricks. They planted food which was surrounded by bricks too to maintain moisture as the land is very arid. There are very few trees on the island and so shade was hard to come by.

A house

A chicken coup

At Ahu Tongariki we were completely blown away - this site was rebuilt by the Japanese who were wanting to shown off the abilities of their new crane which had been invaluable in helping re-erect some of the Moai (in fact it has since broken and they have sent a new one free of charge)

Another site that was mind blowing was Rano Raraku - this was the quary where all the moai were carved out of the rock. It was littered with moai at different stages of construction, some still attached to the hillside and some buried up to their necks. The people who carved them were paid by being given enough food to eat during the process (it would take 10 men about 5 months to create). The bases were wider and on a slant so that they could 'walk' them to their destination i.e. men with ropes would stand on either side and at the back and rock the moai from side to side - it must have taken days to deliver them! When they were at their final destination the bases were made narrower and flat so that they could stand and then the eyes would be carved and filled with coral.

Spot the moai

This one has some evidence of painting under the chin

Our final destination for the day was a lovely beach at Anakena where it had the most complete moai of all - bloody fantastic!

On a sad note (sorry Mandy) in recent years only 5 species of birds have been confirmed as nesting in Rapa Nui with 4 of them considered to be threatened. I didn't see any of them but I have managed to get a few pictures of the birds that were in plentiful supply!