Disclaimer: The following is an email I sent to friends and family in June 2014, preserved here for posterity.

Subj: Chile and Easter Island [Part 2: Easter Island]

Rapa Nui

Yes there are even Wwoof hosts on the most remote inhabited island on Earth.

One of the most unique places on the itinerary.  The flight is usually a couple grand from America to Easter Island, but through the loopholes of the Round-The-World ticket, it is just one stop out of 15 (including layovers) and doesn't add to the price of the whole ticket.

The island is a tiny tiny place, full of very nice people.  When I landed, I asked a nice lady how to get from the airport to the (only) town.  She offered to take me for free in her taxi, and also gave me walking directions.  In most cities, the airport is an hour away from the city it's named for, sometimes actually in a different city or even state, but the whole island is only a dozen miles across at it's widest dimension, so things are simpler.  My host, Moi Moi, is a tour guide and was on the other side of the island giving a tour when I landed, so I walked around a little and found a nice man in the park who was more than happy to teach me Island Checkers so he could have a competitor.  When I finally met my host, we went to the farm and he whipped up an incredible tuna ceviche and some grilled tuna steaks with a fish that his friend just caught off the coast. I had arrived in paradise. 

Over the next few weeks I got the chance to go on all of the tours he offers except one (I need a reason to go back, right?), and learned a LOT about the island and even some of the language. I know you don't care, but I feel like I can't go on without giving you at least the essential history. 

First of all, I learned there is a history; how half the planet spent a couple thousand years, and I didn't hear any of it in high school.  Apparently Polynesians had some incredible navigation skills and managed to inhabit almost every island in the Pacific.  Rapa Nui, as they call this one, was settled around the time of Julius Caesar and went through many historical periods, including one particularly bountiful epoch where they had a complex economy, specialization, and sustained inter-tribal trading that enabled them to create almost a thousand giant statues, called Moai.  These statues represent past leaders, usually with their bones interred underneath, and they are grouped on the coast, facing inwards, to protect their respective villages.  They all look different, partly to try to accurately represent the subject, and also because this went on for so long that the styles evolved. The later ones are tall (up to 60 feet) and stylized, while the earlier ones are only a couple meters and ironically more realistic.  Only one very early Moai has been found that has legs, while the rest only have bodies and heads, although some very famous pictures show half buried statues from the quarry which is why I thought it was just the "Easter Island Heads".  

Finally, since some of you are engineers, I'm obligated to point out the obvious, but awesome fact that they used the ocean as their level. 

He also tried being an artist for a while, sculpting Moai out of stone and wood, but the tourists didn't appreciate the work that went into each one.  He was willing to teach me, and I can tell you, it is much harder than it looks.

Finally, he found a wife from mainland Chile who saw the value of his varied experiences and convinced him to give tours.  Now he gets to just drive around and talk about his island, gladly sharing his knowledge with the world, and he makes more money than ever before. 

I found out that two days after I was supposed to leave, Moi Moi's mother was going to throw a huge party that the entire island is invited to.  Obviously I changed my flight.   An elite team of his close family and I helped prepare everything for three days leading up to the "Curanto."  This included grating 120 lbs of mañoca (looks like white sweet potato), scraping out 15 pumpkins, wrapping the meat chunks of three pigs and two cows in aluminum foil, cutting up the weird bits of said animals, and cleaning a couple thousand bananas. 
 

The island has no metals to make pots or pans out of, so they used to cook using hot rocks and banana leaves. For the big "Curantos" like this (there are about 15 per year, hosted by different families) they go back to this old method. First, you make a mountain of fire wood, then cover it with volcanic rocks.  You light it and let it burn for a few hours until the wood is gone and the rocks are extremely hot. You take out all the rocks, and put in your food, covered in banana leaves, then replace the rocks.  Many more banana leaves on top, then covered with dirt to insulate this "oven."  Many hours later, when the entire island has driven out to your front yard with their own bowls and plastic bags, you open it up and see what you have. 
 

For this curanto, every person that showed up got offered: a kilo of meat, two cooked sweet potatoes, a chunk of pumpkin poe (like cake), a cup of sliced mangoes, an orange, a slice of fancy cake from a bakery, bananas, a cup of sweet warm milk mixed with purple potatoes (local favorite), spicy salsa, and raw pumpkin, potato, and mañoca to cook later. All of this happens for free.  It is not just free to show up and eat; all the meat, fruit, vegetables, firewood, and labor is donated as well.  It is a wonderful tradition that unites the island and passes the culture on; from the people who remember the first car, to the children that think there has always been a flight a day.
 

It was extremely difficult to leave this island, especially after learning so much from Moi Moi and bonding so well with his family in those last hectic days.  Alas, time beats on, and I had a very good friend getting on a plane to meet me in Uruguay, so I packed my bags and headed to the airport.

I don't want to give too much away, but I'm enjoying Uruguay so far, and it started with quite a little adventure. You'll have to wait until the end of the month for that though.  I admit you haven't heard from me in a while, but I haven't heard from you either! How's your summer going? What happened in May and June? It's winter here. 

Mao'a,
Colin

BONUS

These are pictures I couldn't figure out how to incorporate into the narrative