Zim Photography (blog site)

Duly impressed – the big heads!

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 01:37:19 +0000

Ok, from my last blog you might have guessed that although I thought the island is pretty I really haven’t been moved by this Moai thing. Well all that has changed. Went to Rano Raraku today. Site of where they quarried all of the big heads and I am duly impressed. This was rather impressive. Prior to coming here I had a vision that there were more heads here than there are; like scattered all about the island, but this is not the case. Although this is a “small” island it is not as small as one might think; so 900+ heads scattered about still do not amount to seeing them everywhere. Furthermore, the ancients were clearly not stupid, the further they had to take the head the smaller they made them. So the first heads I saw were not all that impressive compared to other things I have seen in the world like the stuff in Egypt. Don’t get me wrong, they ain’t small and it WAS a pretty nifty feat to move these things as they did, it just wasn’t awe inspiring. And since the Europeans interrupted life here the Rapa Nui stopped taking care of the Moai and all toppled over; so what you see are those which have been restored to their standing position.

Again my ambivalent feelings changed today. This was worth the trip. The big heads closer to the quarry site were indeed impressive. I could have stood there and looked at them all day. I shot over 400 images on that site alone. This is where the most common pictures of the heads come from. I hope I’ve done them justice (below is just one quick sample).

The largest Moai ever moved weighed approximately 82 tons and was moved about 3 miles! Think about that. They had to make this thing with primitive stone tools, move it, build a base for it, then erect on said base. But the best part is there was a habit of putting Pukaws on top – that would be stone hat which weighed about 11 tons…which was fashioned from a different stone from a different location and then had to be put on top of this Moai which was about 33 ft tall. When I saw these larger Moai and did the calculation that’s when I got the HOLY COW moment. And holy cow it was.

And as much as I have written about how much vegetation there is here (ie. all the grass etc.) the more I walk this island the more I’m starting to think, this is a barren wasteland. In between what seems to be fields of grass are fist size (and larger) volcanic rocks. In most places it seems to be littered with this stuff. The grass have somehow made their way through this and flourished. There seem to be guava plants growing wild here now (I believe they were introduced in more recent times and probably it is the birds which have scattered the seeds all over the island). Everyday I fear tripping and falling this stuff because it is hard, sharp and nasty. I’m beginning to wonder how the ancients survived here. And then the ants… there are ants EVERYWHERE on this island.

Please note that at the height of ancient Rapa Nui only about 3000 men, women and children lived here and they were able to make these. And this statue? You are only looking at 1/3 of it, the rest is underground.

If this doesn’t give you a sense of the scale…

12 hour hike on Easter Island

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:26:58 +0000

Today, I got up around 6 and out the door at 7 for the sunrise. Hiked up the tallest volcano on the island (500 meters – a total cinch compared to what I was doing this time last week in Patagonia, what a difference some experience makes!). Unfortunately there was no sunrise as there was cloud cover but it still made for some interesting images. From there you can see the entire island, and I was reminded again that I am definitely in the most remote place on the planet. When I visit a place like this I always wonder what it was like to live there during the time they built these structures. Although, as stated in the previous post, this island does not come off as a barren wasteland there is not much here and there isn’t much of a shore line. The coast is mostly cliffs against crashing ocean waves . What I’m getting at is that there wasn’t much to do here. Maybe some fishing, a little bit, like a little bit of farming and then there are the big heads. Although NOTHING has been proven about why these structures were built I think the answer is simple – BOREDOM! What else do you do with your time in a place like this? It’s been proven that due to the lack of resources (food and water) people tend not to procreate much (ie. have sex) so what would one do to fill that void? hmmmmmm lemme count the ways… oh, how about carving big stone heads out of really hard stone, with few tools, that way 50 TONS and then moving them several miles from the original location with little wood to do it with?

BTW, they natives didn’t seem to build big houses, as they did not have many resources to do it with. they are low structures akin to a cave but that seems to be it.

Although Rapa Nui’s ancient past is very murky, it’s recent past (about 300 years worth) is much more clear. After first contact with the Europeans things went down hill, from the disease they introduced to being kidnapped into slavery, to imprisonment on their own island and used as force labor (ie slaves) for various commercial exploits (ie. ranching). At one point the population of Rapa Nui was down to about 100 people. Today, the community survives on the tourism industry and subsidies from it’s mother country – Chile. It feels like the natives are still not the ones who benefit most from their own land and their own culture. I think I will stop my ranting there. (see “Statues That Walked”)

As for my visit, during my 12 hour hike up and then down the volcano today, I did get a chance to see the lesser known Moai. Although interesting I will look forward to seeing the largest ones tomorrow. It’s been a pretty long day.

West side of the island

First Moai

That’s me.

This is the result of my rather impressive application (or lack there of) of sunblock…OMG

Touchdown Easter Island

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:03:50 +0000

I’ve landed on Rapa Nui aka Isla de Pascua aka Easter Island and thus far only one big head sighting. The day started in Santiago with a 5 hour flight and 2 hour time zone change to get here. The fun began on the flight. There was a noticeable mood of the people on the plane. This is the first time I have seen this perhaps since the 80’s when I first started traveling – when traveling abroad was still a big deal that people were clearly giddy. When the pilot came on the p.a. system to do the usual welcome aboard etc. everyone clapped at the announcement that we were headed towards Il de Pasqua like it was a surprise for everyone. Then the we landed same thing. You could really feel the excitement in the air. You should know that Rapa Nui gets about 10 flights a week onto the island; there is one small building and one luggage carousel. Which means we were walking from the tarmac to the terminal. As soon as we got on the tarmac? 80% of the passengers were stopping to take their first pictures – the airplane. Although I was excited to come here and see the Moai, I can’t say that i was THAT excited. I just hope it lives up to the other passenger’s expectations. I also came to realize that many of the passengers seemed to be of retirement age and couldn’t help but think to myself, I’m glad to have made it a priority in life NOT to wait until I’m old and gray to do something like this.

Anyhoo, 2 hours on the island and it was off for a first look and shoot at the top of the smaller of Rapa Nui’s volcanic craters and then hike back down to the town (operative word there folks: DOWN) total about 15 kilometers. I was surprised that the terrain had more vegetation than I had imagined. All of the books would lead you to believe that this is a barren waste land, but in fact there was some sort of grass that grows all over the island at about knee high. And now there are definitely patches of yucalyptus trees. All of which reminded me of the hillsides near the California coast. The big difference (and perhaps problem) is that there is a lot of volcanic rock on the land – like everywhere, which is probably what makes this place so hard to farm real crops. After 4 hours of hiking all I could think to myself was “Yup, you’re on an island alright.” I don’t ever remember being in a place where I could not see another major body of land and although this island is considered rather small it is bigger than I had imagined. But having said that, I find it fascinating that the ancient polynesians were able to find this place on multiple journeys and then for the Europeans to find it as well. The message is clear I am in the most remote place on the planet.

did i mention?

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:40:09 +0000

Did I mention in the previous bitching blog that I’m in Chile and headed to Easter Island? Poor me. I know. :P

For those who did not catch the sarcasm in my humor, this part of the world really is unreal. I came here because I got a chance to go to Patagonia on the Argentinian side about 18 months ago and just had to see what else there was on the other side. It did not disappoint.

Below are the missing videos. I’m currently at a Hilton Garden in where the internet connection is shhhweeet.

So this is the island of PINGUINOS:

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This is the view from my Cabana in Torres Del Paine

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Arrived back into Santiago for one night and am staying at the lovely Hilton Garden Inn; supposedly one of their lower end hotels but I have to say I really dig this place and the restaurant? Was a complete surprise on the positive side. But this place is like in the middle of NO WHERE near the airport and there is NOTHING here! check out the lovely room and then see what my view is! OMG.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Anyhoo, tomorrow Easter Island, the BIG heads. I can ‘t wait.