Easter Island

Ponder the mysteries of gargantuan statues and the civilization that built (and destroyed) them on Earth's most remote terrain

By JANE WOOLDRIDGE
MIAMI HERALD

last updated: March 23, 2008 06:49:00 AM

Even in the murk of a sullen, gray afternoon, the massive stone sentinels of Ahu Tongariki seem imperious, an uncompromising guard against the gluttonous sea crashing at its flank.

The shimmer of late afternoon darts through the cloudy drape in a last heady dash before the earth edges darkward. A herd of tawny horses, branded but untamed, gallops into the valley for a late-day graze. For this golden instant, the glory days of Earth's most remote island return.

How bizarre and otherworldly this rocky outcrop must have seemed to Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who arrived on Easter Sunday, 1722.

Many of the massive stone statues -- called moai -- might have been strewed on their backs and bellies across the rugged surface. Treeless and barren, the plot he dubbed Easter Island was a ruin, more than halfway to dead. Today, dozens of 12-ton moai have

been resurrected with the help of modern technology. But the romance remains, drawing explorers, scientists and tourists to ponder the mysteries of the gargantuan statues and the sophisticated civilization that built them -- and all but disappeared.

Even if you've read the books and seen the films, visiting Easter Island is stepping into a new dimension.

"I cannot believe I'm seeing these with my eyes, not in a picture or a movie. It's real," says Sue Hobart, a visitor from Portland.

About 28,000 visitors per year hop the five-hour flight from either Santiago, Chile, or Tahiti to the "navel of the world," as locals call it. Easter Island -- Rapa Nui to locals, who call themselves Rapanui -- lies farthest from land of any island on Earth: 2,300 miles off the coast of Chile, to which it now belongs, and 1,240 miles from its closest inhabited neighbor, Pitcairn Island, where "Mutiny on the Bounty" sailors settled. Easter Island measures 66 square miles.

Despite explorer Thor Hyerdahl's famed 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition suggesting Rapa Nui and other Pacific islands were settled by Latin Americans, scientists now generally agree with local legend, that Rapa Nui was established by seagoing Polynesians sometime between 400 and 800 A.D.

Scientists still debate what followed -- the how and why of statue creation, tribal conflict, deforestation, disease. Some researchers, including "Collapse" author Jared Diamond, see Easter's demise as "ecological suicide" by a competition-focused culture burdened by population growth and naturally limited supplies of trees and food.

Others argue that rats -- brought by settlers as a food source -- were the primary cause of deforestation.

Regardless of the details, it's a somber story. By the late 19th century, the local population had plummeted from a one-time swell as high as 15,000 -- some say even 30,000 -- to a mere 111, says China Pakarati, an island-born guide.

Yes, island-born.

Given its sad history, you might expect Easter Island to be a remnant-turned-tourist attraction: the Pompeii of the Pacific, Stonehenge of Polynesia, an island Acropolis ...

But come here and you'll find a place decidedly alive, if not always thriving.

About 3,800 people live here -- among them, most of Pakarati's 78 first cousins. The town of Hanga Roa bustles with schoolchildren, soda stands, tourist shops, low-key guest houses and hotels and an ATM.

Cowboys -- without cows -- canter along the main street on ATV or horseback. "We've got more horses than people," Pakarati says.

Te Moana, a chic little bar on the main street, serves icy pisco sours. Near the fishing harbor, a French restaurant offers filet mignon. The town's two discos crank up around 2 a.m.; horse-riding locals don't head home until dawn.

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