Pictures of Moai heads don’t do justice to the experience of standing on Easter Island next to one of them.    I can understand better now how Katherine Routledge abandoned her British roots and committed herself to documenting the beliefs and customs of this place.

Easter Island’s 64 square miles is one of the most remote and mysterious specks of dirt on this planet.  Modern world note:  Blackberry and global cell phone work here so news of stock gyrations and computer “glitch” kept us current and sometimes interrupted. 

It is the top of a volcano whose base is miles below sea level on the Pacific ocean floor.   Its uniqueness is found in these magnificent carved stone heads and figures.  The puzzle is how they were made and moved.  And why?

I have wanted to visit it since I read Thor Heyerdahl’s book “Kon-Tiki”.   His theory of settlers coming from Peru is mostly discredited now by research that suggests they were really Polynesians and got here from the opposite direction.  Kon-Tiki was an enchanting story but it did not prove that Easter was first inhabited by rafting adventurers.  Modern knowledge of the Pacific currents will assuredly disabuse a thoughtful person of the original Heyerdahl notion.

We flew 2600 miles west from Santiago, Chile.  One day of touring and then the long return flight on March 1st.  March 2nd starts an economic conference in Santiago.  But at this moment, in the middle of the Pacific, interest rates and economics are far from my mind. 

Was Jared Diamond right in studying Easter Island’s barrenness as proof of the perils of deforestation?  It appears so. 

Is there history here from sailors who used it as a stop when traversing the Pacific?  Most assuredly.  The evidence is plentiful. 

But the big carved heads?  They tower above us.  They sit there poised with their majesty and serenity?  There and only there remains the enigma attached to this remarkable place.

I touch this Moai that stands next to me.  This exquisitely carved multi-ton rock is worn from years of nature’s work.  The stone masons and transporters are long gone.  Why is this here?  The question haunts?  Why the curved nose and unusual head?  And why are there are so many?  This is the result of years and years of effort.  And so many are still unfinished?  What abruptly stopped this ritual that had obviously commenced with the first of them? 

Many explanations are offered.  They are all plausible in one way or another.  But the riddle remains and will do so forever.  Why?  How were they moved?  What is the purpose?

Would I trek here again?  No.  It is a long journey. 

Am I glad I did?  Absolutely, yes.  Easter Island is one of those places you visit once, hold in awe, respect for its hidden story and then ponder from time to time as the memory is recalled. 

Good luck gave me the GIC conference in Chile and the extra three day window to visit here.  Notwithstanding the stock, bond and currency market volatility, this is a grand way to celebrate a 64th birthday.