Hello All,
I am leading a tour of Easter Island for the next six days. I know a lot of you are interested in archaeology, so I thought I'd check to see if
anyone has any specific questions or pictures they'd like me to post or probe.
I was in the Atacama Desert last week in Northern Chile which was also very interesting.
One of the most remote places on earth, we flew out to Easter Island five hours into the ocean from the coast of Chile. Looking out the window while
landing, one sees a good size island, with rolling green hills. It is not as tropical, as say, Tahiti, because most of the trees were chopped down by
the Polynesian inhabitants to build boats and fuel fires. The conditions are such that the trees didn't regenerate. Over the years, however, trees
have been imported and so there is now a fair amount of them dotting the landscape. Flowering bushes and other plants (like hibiscus) give the place
its tropical feel.
Since this is an archaeology tour, no one is talking UFO's in my group (science based thinkers) but standing in front of one of the giant statues
today, one really has to wonder how they were moved. Of course, the oral history is that the statues could walk. The archaeologist who is with us
believes these multi-ton statues were moved by rope and many men. Evidence in a nearby quarry shows that some of the statues (when moved by rope)
fell on their way to the villages and many of them have been uncovered and found to be broken or cracked. That's one theory anyway.
One feels like they are on an island in the South Pacific, thousands of miles away from anything. It is the wind that gives you that feeling----it is
the sort of wind that reminds you of ancient mariners---something unfamiliar and uncompromising about it. You still imagine pirates here...and
shipwrecks.
Pitcairn Island is 1,000 miles away and is the very island where Mutiny of the Bounty took place. That spit of land has always loomed large in my
imagination. About 500 people live there still---some are descendents of that mutiny.
We will see crater lakes, volcanoes and many of the 881 statues that dot the island in the coming week. Let me know if anyone is interested in
specific pictures or questions.
I'll post pictures later tonight and every night if you are interested.
edit on 11-11-2013 by MRuss because: (no reason given)
edit on 11-11-2013 by MRuss because: (no reason given)