Listen, I’m no Gaughan.
And when you think about what happened to him after he ran off to Tahiti to paint, that is a very good thing. For me anyway.
But here’s the thing.
After my week on Rapi Nui, I concluded that this island of myth and mystery perched on the very edge of the known world is simply too fantastical for mere photogenic reality to do justice.
And what I lack in palette and paint, I try to make up for with my Apple photo editing tools.
So here are my, um, slightly fantastical impressions of an island I have dreamt about for most of my life. Lord knows why it took me nearly seven decades to finally get there.
On this island awash in stone giants, only seven actually face the sea. Why this is so is a matter of considerable dispute. I have decided to let the mystery be.
These 15 Moai, formidable as they appear, were tumbled off their platforms like so many corks by a tsunami in 1960. And they might still be scattered about if a Japanese company – in search of publicity – hadn’t paid to set them back on their feet.
Have I mentioned that there are a lot of Moai? They’re everywhere.
The cemetery of Hanga Roa overlooks an ever mood-shifting ocean.
The ancients of this island believed the ocean all around them was the realm of the spirit world. This because so few who ventured out into it ever returned.
There is a decided absence of sails or large vessels about this island. Mostly there are small, open, colorful fishing boats.
That’s because there are virtually no ports of refuge to speak of on these rocky, wave-pounded shores.
So if you see a vessel of any size at all, rest assured it came from some point of land more than two thousand miles distant.
One evening we dined with a local family. They lived in a garden of earthly delights.
It is said that a local chief once witnessed two aka aku (earth spirits) resting in the bog at the bottom of the Rano Kau volcano. Legend has it that, once depicted in its true form, an aku aku, abashed, would vanish from sight forever.
The forms and colors abounding on this lush landscape island dazzle the imagination.
The circle of life, Rapa Nuian style.
The Pacific’s temperament changes from one instant to the next.
Moody and sullen one minute.
Playful and serendipitous the next.
The people of Rapa Nui tend to be insular but accepting.
An island of myth and mystery that begs us all to simply let the mystery be.
FreeGNV 