The Legend of the Birdman - Another Easter Island Strange Oddity

The Giant figureheads on Easter Island filled a spiritual void for the people who lived at this isolated place.   Among many explanations for the massive objects is that they were gravestones or in this case "head" stones for deceased ancestors. 

People need something to believe in - and if they don't have it, they often invent it.  Many ancient cultures developed some rather unusual or bizarre "religions."




 
In this case we will focus in on the very extraordinary Cult of the Birdman on Easter Island.  

Turns out that the important faith associated with the gigantic carved stone idols of the remote island only lasted a few hundred years.  Nobody knows exactly when these beliefs started or finished.  The lineage of kings and nobility eventually descended into war and chaos. 

 
Hey, and we're not talking about a whole lot of people here.  The population of this small enclave in the middle of nowhere was around 18,000 tops. 

As a people group, they were a pretty small sample size.  They were so isolated for so long that they developed their own quasi-religion of the figureheads.

---------------------------------------

But what came next was truly ... weird.  Following the collapse of the old belief system, the powers that be - the ruling class of the citizens of Easter Island - needed a new way to pick a king or deity for them to follow or worship.  

So someone - not sure how to describe the process, maybe a committee? - decided they would have a contest that would determine who the next winner (or sacred holy man, or king, or ruler) would be.

Thus became the legend of the Birdman:  
a) a select group of warriors would 
b) descend a potentially fatal cliff to the sea 
c) swim across open water to a dangerous island 
d) wait sometimes weeks for a sacred bird to lay an egg 
e) and the first one to return with the egg 
f) would swim back across the shark infested waters
g) climb the deadly cliffs
h) and the winner would determine the sacred holy emperor for the next year. 
i) who would then live isolated in a cave and let his hair and fingernails grow for 365 days until the next "contest". 

Got it?  Hunh?  Who thought this up?  Do I want to follow a god/king that was the first to win an Easter egg hunt?  What the hell?  No wonder they call this Easter Island!

 
Sorry, I don't mean to poke fun ... but you couldn't make this up.  There are a whole lot of beliefs, religions, cults and cross currents of faith crashing into each other on this one!

The Birdman thing survived until Captain Cook and other explorers showed up, and eventually brought along some missionaries who put a stop to this nonsense with a few ... umm ... possibly unusual practices of their own?  Party poopers!

I've never been to such a place as this.  A tiny island in the middle of the vast South Pacific Ocean with so many layers of unusual things related to it.  Wow ... travel opens your mind. 

Now we are in Tahiti

So we have flown more than halfway across the South Pacific, and find ourselves in the islands of a nation actually known as French Polynesia, but everyone calls it Tahiti.

This is of course a wonderful tropical climate with amazing mountains rising out of the sea, covered in green.

It's just as you might imagine, sandy beaches, beautiful blue water, palm trees swaying in the breeze.  Pretty idyllic. 

It's been a restful couple of days in the middle of a consistent travel schedule.  And here in Tahiti, in addition to their native tongue, they speak French.  After three weeks of Spanish, we've had to switch gears again.  

But hey, our next stop after this is New Zealand, and then Australia.  English at last!  In our travels, we haven't often been to English speaking countries.  

What? Are You Kidding Me? This Seems Impossible!

Easter Island! 

We have been moving around a lot in the last few days, and skipping between time zones.   In Mexico we were two hours ahead of Oregon, then Bolivia was four hours, then Chile was five hours, and now we are on Easter Island, back to three hours. 

Easter Island is one of those unique places with scenery like nowhere else on earth.   It's a place that has always been fascinating to us.   We arrived a couple days ago from Santiago, Chile (more about that later).

It's a long flight from the west coast of South America far out into the Pacific Ocean, and takes a while to get here.  Easter Island is kind of in the middle of the South Pacific, thousands of miles from anywhere.  

Which makes it all the more amazing when you see what's here.  Giant stone carved human figures with oversize heads.

The heads are shrouded in mystery.  How did they get here?  How old are they?  Who made them?  How did they move them and stand them up?   Why did they do this?  And what does it mean?

Some of these questions were answered, but many remain unknown.  The scale of this blog does not allow for a full explanation, and indeed there is much conjecture and multiple theories about this place.  

There are hundreds of them on this rather small island, and many of them are in ruins, or various states of disrepair.  Archaeologists, such as the late Thor Heyerdahl, have been at work here for sixty or seventy years digging them up and reconstructing them.  

So we made our way around the island visiting several sites and being impressed and indeed astonished at what we saw.  Pictures tell the story best.  It's a bit hard to see how big they are in a photo, but most of them are twenty to thirty feet tall and weigh around 20 tons. 


Early Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen landed here on Easter day in 1722, hence the name, and Captain Cook made it more well known in 1774.  It's part of Chile and they call it Isla de Pascua (Easter Island in Spanish) - of course, the locals have a different name for the place "Rapa Nui".

We have another day and a half here. We won't soon forget this wonderful tropical island in the middle of nowhere, with awe inspiring scenes.

Earlier, in Chile 

After we left Valpariso, on the Chile coast, we headed back to Santiago for a visit and to see a close friend.   Actually she is not physically close, but in some ways almost like a family member.  Our friend Veronica is doing well.

And a personal focus for me is the wine industry (many readers of this blog may be aware that I have a wine business).  We made a special trip to visit a historic winery not too far out of town.  It is the Santa Rita winery and is over 140 years old.  

The wine business goes back a long way in Chile, and they make world class wines.  This particular winery operation was very professional with high standards, in a great setting.  

They make excellent top notch Carmenere (a Chilean flag ship red wine) along with many whites and other reds.   Their "library" of archived wines held in storage goes back over a hundred years.

And their wine cellar, in the true sense of the word, is underground; it's amazing to see and behold.  I want to be like these guys when I grow up!  However, in order to have this kind of establishment, you need to start a long time ago ...

The vast grounds were well kept too, with wonderful gardens for wandering through.  Lovely flowers were everywhere, thriving in the mild sunny climate.

We have enjoyed (that's an understatement!) our time in South America, and tomorrow evening we continue on across the Pacific where we will just keep heading west. 

Every Restaurant Needs One of These - And Other Travel Pictures

Okay, we are now in Chile, after our first-time visit to Bolivia.  A lot has happened in the last couple days, and I thought it might be best so show it with a few pictures. 

I'll give a caption under each picture to describe what it is - or give a potentially witty comment.

Above:  Hey, shouldn't every restaurant have a three thousand pound cannon amongst the tables?  I would personally not want it pointed at me.  I think I would find it uncomfortable and difficult to enjoy my meal ... however, if you got a chunk of food stuck in your teeth, you could always flick it into the barrel of the cannon ... just sayin'

So the above picture was taken in Valparaiso Chile, where we are tonight.  

But let's get the chronology correct, and finish up our time in Bolivia:  

Above:  Even though the elevation of La Paz, Bolivia is pretty much insane, their "rapid transit" system is a whole bunch of cable cars suspended over the city.  Rather ingenious if you ask me. But the day we decided to explore the skyway it started raining, resulting in this picture of raindrops set against the city below. 

So the clouds parted long enough to capture a view of the city as a cable car sped by.  They move pretty fast, so I had to be on target with the photo.  La Paz is completely built on hills, and did I mention that we were constantly out of breath?  (okay, I suppose I did, but it's around 13,000 feet high)

The women of Bolivia wear the big traditional skirt thing, along with variety of hats.  It's apparently a status symbol.  We saw a few of them doing something like singing, with one of their fans watching.  

Latin Americans of all nations love a party, or celebration, or fiesta - you name it and there's a bunch of people ready to have a good time together.  Usually including a variety of loud fireworks and music well into the night (and okay, maybe a little drinking).  This picture above shows a big crowd in the center of La Paz ... in between the rain showers.

This picture above is at the Catholic Monastery Cloister in the center of La Paz.  It was a very beautiful, dignified, and solemn place (except for the noisy fiesta outside).  It was started by the order of the Franciscans in 1632.

Among the many historical buildings in La Paz, this place was an aesthetically pleasing photo opportunity of the house of the revolutionary leader who helped Bolivia achieve independence from Spain in 1825.  They were aided by Simon Bolivar, after whom the country is named. 

Okay, on to Chile!

The above picture was taken from our hotel room window.  We are back at sea level, and you can see the bay behind the clock tower.  We are in Valparaiso, right on the Pacific Ocean, and we can fill our lungs with the lovely abundant ocean air.  Did I mention that people in Bolivia live way up in the clouds?  Sorry ... It's sunny and warm here in Valpo!

  
What, another glam shoot?  Just outside our hotel in Valparaiso, they were taking pictures of beautiful women, just like in Mexico ( Lovely woman in Mexico ).  It's summer here and the flowers are out and it was a perfect day for photos.  

Not far from our hotel is a wrought iron fence with a view of the city below.  Love locks are a "thing".  Many places have a location similar to this, where couples put a padlock in place - and throw away the key, to symbolize their unbroken love bond.  Valparaiso is no exception.  

We've actually been to Valparaiso before.  In fact I think I might have referenced this statue before, it's one of my favorites.  Indeed I have a new caption:  "Come any closer bird and I shall chop you to bits with my sword!"  

Among other things, Valparaiso is an artist colony like few others in the world.  It seems like every available surface is covered with art, including this ten story building pictured above.   I couldn't resist taking a picture.  To me, it looks like the neck of a guitar ... 

Some of the artwork is simply amazing.  This animated wall art is about twenty five feet tall and extremely well done.  What a great place to visit.  We loved it so much the first time here that we came back.

--------------------------------------

And one final picture below:  It's Fiona standing in front of a fantastic and intense wall painting with a vast array of images.  She's just ever-so-slightly enchanted, and maybe even a little enthralled ....

Most People Giggle When They Hear the Name ... But It's Magnificent

In the last blog post (and first one of this long journey), I asked a question and gave a somewhat flippant answer.  Okay, maybe I wasn't entirely honest about the motivation to visit Bolivia (because it's there!) - because there is a particular place that I've always wanted to see. 

 
It's one of the more unusual names for a place, indeed it's a Lake, and like most things in Bolivia, it's at very high altitude.  

In fact, I won't tell you the name until I tell you some things about it.  
1. It's the highest lake in the world.  There is no other valid body of water that high anywhere.
2. It covers over 3,280 square miles, nearly the size of Puerto Rico.
3. Half the lake is in Bolivia and half in Peru.
4. It's over 3 million years old and was formed by an earthquake that split the Andes Mountains.
5. The Inca people called it "the cradle of life"

You're gonna giggle when you hear the name -

Titicaca

It's pronounced like you might think.  Titi: looks like and rhymes with a certain word similar to "kitty" ... and Caca: which sounds just like a Spanish word for poop. 

In fact the name comes from two words: Titi is an ancient word for Puma or Jaguar - and caca means rock, or mountain.  So the name roughly translated means Puma Mountain. 

I have always been fascinated with the lake and always wanted to visit the place, which is the origination of the vast Incan Empire.  It has floating islands.  It is one of twenty ancient lakes on earth and is a UNESCO world heritage site. 

Our Day on Titicaca

We set out early from the capital of La Paz Bolivia, still suffering from the effects of the high altitude.  It takes a while to get used to this.  Most of the day was spent at 14,000 feet.   

 
The bus ride was long and arduous.  The roads were okay, but it's a long winding way over the mountains and there are a few unexpected things.  For example: we had to cross a narrow stretch of land which where the lake runs between it.  But there was no bridge.  

So they unload all the passengers and we cross on a lightweight ferry, and then they send the bus over, also on a light weight ferry.  The whole thing did not inspire confidence.  We all loaded back on the bus and continued on our way.  

 

We finally arrived at our destination, the wonderful town on the lake called Copacabana.  It was a surprising delight.  The day was sunny and a "warm" 54 degrees which is fairly nice for these regions.  It's always pretty cold at 14,000 feet.  

We toured the town before our upcoming boat ride and had a delicious lunch at an outdoor restaurant on the lake, of what they called trout, but turned out to be Salmon!  And we toured a historic church built in 1548.  It is such a remote place to have a 471 year old cathedral.  

 
We then set out on a small launch on the lake on our way to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun).  It took about an hour to get there.  The enormous lake is filled with spectacular views - and the island is filled with Inca ruins.  

 
There was an option to hike a trail over the hills from our first boat stop to our second.  I was the only one of the twenty three people on our boat to take that offer.  Maybe everyone else had more sense.  It's not easy at that elevation.  Hey I'm a pretty fit dude, I've been running every day for most of my life.  But more than once I bent over with my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

 
Several times, while hiking over the rocky hills, I passed Inca ruins.  At couple times I just stopped and sat on a rock, gazing out as the vast inland body of water, soaking in the view (pardon the pun).  It was amazing.  It was one of those moments when you travel and you ultimately reach a destination and you sit and wonder, "wow, I can't believe I'm here ..."

 
I descended into the small unspoiled town village on the other side.  It was remote and peaceful.  The locals make a living mostly from fishing.  The lakeside inhabitants build boats out of straw from the lakes edge.  In fact they build large platforms that become larger and eventually, floating islands that they live on.  

They also do a lot of knitting, using wool or Llama or Alpaca, like the one in the picture below.

 
The boat was there and Fiona was glad I showed up.  We made our way back with fewer passengers, as some of the first batch stayed behind to backpack and camp.  It was getting toward the end of the day by then, and the sunset was unforgettable.  

 

One last moment of unusual circumstance.  When we left the town of Copacabana on the bus, it was getting dark and there were several who had just arrived via transfer bus from Peru.  

They had no idea of what the road was like and after some time we stopped and everybody had to get off the bus and take the ferry in a reverse of our outbound trip.  They were confused but went along with the highly unusual process.  It was almost funny but also rather frightening to see them load vehicles on the crude floating barges to cross the lake - in the dark.  

Crazy stuff in amazing places.  Now, if I could just catch my breath.   

This Seems Like a Good Place to Start - Another semi-epic journey

After a while, we just get restless.  Then we plan, then we buy tickets, and then we leave ...

It's another Round The World trip, and we're already a week into it.   Fiona and I love to travel - there is so much to see and do.  Is it too much of a cliche to say "It's a big wide world out there"?

This adventure has a bit of a twist, we are going around the world in the Southern Hemisphere.  This is a challenge because 80% of the world's land mass is in the Northern Hemisphere.  And 
88% of the world's population is north of the equator.  

But we have plotted a course and we are on our way ...  and oh yeah, another thing, this time of year it's summer down south!

First Stop - Mexico 

Okay, I know Mexico is not south of the equator, but it's where our close friends Jeff and Angela live with their three kids.  We were invited on our way down south to spend a few days with them in Puerto Vallarta, and so that's where our trip began.

And if you want to get out of the Oregon winter, Mexico is a good place to start.  And we weren't disappointed.  Lots of warm sunshine and sandy beaches.  

Must be the season for dramatic beach photos, there were others too!

 

This is a place you can enjoy the food, the music, the weather, the ocean, and of course good friendship.   The flowers and plant life and also outstanding.  It was a wonderful time.   

 

 

And Now - we are in Bolivia! 

The itinerary calls for a direct route down into South America, a place we know well - except for the country of Bolivia.  There was a time on another trip (click here: earlier no-go on Bolivia) when we could not get into the country, and it took another heroic effort, but this time we made it.

Why are we so dead set on getting to this country?  Well, easy answer, because it's there!  We have hit almost everywhere else in South and Central America and this is one spot on the map that we (up to this point) have missed. 

We flew from Puerto Vallarta to Mexico City and had to spend the night in an airport hotel to catch the early morning flight the next day to Lima, Peru.  Then after a layover, on to La Paz, Bolivia.  

The only problem with that?  It arrives at 1:30 in the morning.  After the usual immigration and customs we walked out with our bags ... looking for the taxi ... that we were told would be waiting for us.  But ... no taxi.  

----------------------------------------

Permit me to interrupt myself here and point out a dramatic fact about La Paz Bolivia.  It's the highest capital in the world and, before the jokes start, we're talking altitude - it's over 12,000 feet high!   That's quite a bit higher than the peak of Oregon's Mount Hood!   

And boy did we feel it.  The moment we walked off the plane we felt light headed.  It was very unpleasant and it got worse; we couldn't focus, and every step left us gasping for air!  I was surprised how much it affected us.  There was no adjustment, just boom, you're 2.3 miles up! 

-----------------------------------------

So back to the story, we had to negotiate with another taxi guy who would take US dollars, and by the time we made it to the hotel it was 3:00 in the morning.  We were dazed and confused.  The altitude thing just hammered us.  And even this morning when we woke up (too early) we had bad headaches and we very disoriented.  Not fun.

The good news:  after breakfast we took a bunch of extra strength Tylenol, Aleve, Ibuprofen, and whatever else we could get our hands on, and went back to sleep.  We totally crashed.  

It helped a lot, and we were able to make it through the day.   But it's a fact of life that you need to adjust to high altitude, and you don't function at your best until you get used to it.  

What a way to start a long adventure!

----------------------------------------

As usual, there are lots of sights and sounds that ignite your imagination, especially if they're weird.  Below are a couple examples:

This is the typical garb that the older Bolivian ladies wear.  This particular one happened to be sitting in a cardboard box with a puzzling sign.  

And this has to be one of the more unusual statues I've ever seen.  I couldn't figure out what they are celebrating ...