2013 Birthday in Chile, Pt 2

Easter Island tour was beautiful, informative, and Patricio was the best guide EVER! It is unknown exactly how the Moai statues were moved to the sites where they rest. There were suspicions that logs, ropes, and a pulley system was used, but no evidence was found to support that. The Rapa Nui people believed the statues walked to their locations. There are more than 700 of them on the island. Most are mostly, partially, or completely buried under terrain. The stones are colossal, weigh tons, and extend down some 30-40+ feet  below ground level. (pics: Pyramid landscape, scattered Moai, a pic of an excavated Moai-note the scale;  a pic of how it was once believed the Moai were moved - but unproven; Moai statues; a stone mountain quarry where statues were carved from; carvings; 15 Moai near the ocean shore; the only kneeling short-eared Moai (the Ruling people are depicted with long ears); Rudy and I posing with aforementioned Moai; the only female Moai - known because genital area was exposed decades ago, she was thought to have been a female of Status; a volcano crater that is a fresh water lake; Mammie packaging of a coffee brand in a shop; the 15 Moai. Sites like these were also used as burial sites of the Rapa Nui people up until the Missionaries brought Catholicism some 500+ yrs ago).