It was still morning as I left French Polynesia and set off across the South Pacific. There was not much out there. It was supposed to be four hours flight time but I had a strong trade wind quartering from behind. It sped up my ground track by fifteen knots. It also pushed me south of the route so I had to steer slightly north of the projected track to stay on course. The computer said if this kept up I would shave 24 minutes off the flight. That brought a smile to my face. It’s funny how little things like a tail wind can bring so much happiness when you are out over the middle of the ocean.
I concentrated on keeping on course and speed, and watched the computer project my arrival time. The wind actually picked up a little and moved around behind as I went east. So the ground speed picked up with a 25 knot tail wind. As I got close to Easter Island, the wind had moved to the south and I had to steer slightly south to keep on course. But I was still going to get in quite early. Then I saw the three cones of the extinct volcanoes which built the island gradually rising from the sea. I breathed a sigh of relief. If you ever had a question about the earth being round, flying in from the ocean and watching the mountains rise out of the sea would convince you otherwise.
Because the wind was coming from the west I couldn’t come straight in to the airport but had to run a left pattern and land on runway 28 back into the wind. I could have set down in a couple hundred feet in that wind but I held it off the runway until I was half way down then cut power and settled in. Half flaps had me stopped well short of the terminal and I still had to taxi a ways on the runway to get to the taxiway.
There is a town on the island but it exists to serve tourists coming to see the famous statues on the island. I would have wanted to come here even if it wasn’t the only way across, which it was for me. Like the Angel Falls, the statues of Easter Island are a once in a lifetime experience. I walked to the hotel where I had a reservation. The walk felt good, even though I was tired from the hours of flying. Getting out and walking released the tension and worked out muscles that hadn’t had enough exercise recently.
The hotel was pretty functional. I signed up for the island tour the next day. Dinner was early and I crashed into bed as the dusk ended that day. I woke when the light came in through the window. I had arranged a private tour guide. He took me by jeep around the island. Many of the statues have been moved to help protect them from the tourists who would climb on them or even carve their names. Makes you want to track them down and carve your name in their chest with a chain saw. My guide took me up to the quarry on the flanks of the volcano where the moai were carved from the basalt. You can see the beginnings of other moai still in the rock, a mouth here, maybe an eyebrow there. Then he showed me the path taken by the statues down the hill. Many have fallen along the side here and were left. One called Gigante, 72 feet long and weighing 160 tons was left laying on the trail. I can see why they maybe gave up on that one.
What was so important that the people of the island had to carve such giant heads? And why did they suddenly quit? No one has the answer. There are plenty of theories and the guide told me several but no one knows. After lunch back in the town, I went to the museum and learned a little more, but not the answer. No it wasn’t aliens. Little green men did not carve the heads nor did they build the pyramids and they don’t have Elvis either. Rival clans carved them apparently as status symbols for the strength of their clan. Same kind of keeping up with the Jones we ‘civilized’ people do today.
It kills me how people think we have advanced. Technologically, oh yes. But socially? No way. I look at cage fighting so popular today and it is the same sort of blood sport that has been popular since antiquity. Mike Vick went to jail for dog fighting. Cock fighting is still the most popular sport in Hawaii. Go out to the other side of Pearl Harbor and you hear hundreds of cocks out there being bred for the cock fights. The police don’t do anything because they like the fights just like everyone else. Us advanced? Nope.
Dinner that night was quiet. There were tourists, but I guess the tourists on Easter Island weren’t the rowdy kind like Tahiti. I crashed in bed early again since there was nothing to do and I had a flight the next day.
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Copyright Rod O'Steele © 2009