The native people living on the island today are the descendents of these few. By the time that the island was annexed by Chile in 1888, the population had grown considerably and today there are believed to be some 2,000 native Rapa Nui living on the island, and a number who have migrated to mainland Chile.
The early period of rule by Chile was very oppressive. The main complaint seems to be about land rights. Almost all native lands once owned by the clans were purchased for a pittance by the sheep traders or missionaries. A national park that occupies about a third of the island was declared in 1935 and much of the remaining land was owned, and still is owned or occupied by Chilean interests. Some land has been handed back but this remains a source of aggravation to the people of Rapa Nui. The British Williamson-Balfour Company rented most of the island for a sheep farm until 1953. It was not until 1966 when the Rapa Nui were given Chilean citizenship, that any form of say over their governance was afforded to the Rapa Nui people. They have a hope for future independence but there is an economic reality that is associated with this as tourism is their only income. Today the island is governed as a province of Valparaiso.
Our plan for our visit was simple. We’d spend the first day exploring the town, the harbour area and the museum and organising a two day car hire. The second day we’d go round the island with time to stop at Rano Raraku - the site of the Nursery of the Statues - and on the third day we’d visit the volcano site of Rano Kau, and the nearby Orongo site associated with the legend of the Birdmen.
The Tauraa Hotel was well located in the main street with good access to the shops and restaurants. We settled into our simple but quite functional room, #2. It was colourfully and tastefully decorated with an en-suite bathroom. Other than a little trouble with the hot water, which others have experienced, the accommodation was fine. The hotel probably more of a guest house has about ten studio apartments most facing onto a grassed lawn surrounded by palm trees, tropical gardens and a row of miniature statues.
Breakfast at the Tauraa guest house was leisurely: fruit juice, rolls, butter and jam. Plus fruit and coffee. On foot, we meandered our way through the several blocks until we reached the waterfront. Here we found a very small harbour with a dozen or so small boats tied up. These were a mixture of fishing boats and others were dive boats. There were a couple of diving groups checking out their equipment. This area has a number of good restaurants including Le Taverne du Pecheur and Merahi Ráa. We checked over their menus but it was too early for lunch. We stopped to take photos of our first close-up of a moai. This statue had a topknot and we could see clearly that the topknots were made from a different stone. One near the harbour was facing out to sea and it had it’s white coral eyes intact. We were surprised by the steep and sharp volcanic rock formations along the ocean waterfront. The seas drove into these with a force that demonstrated to us how difficult it must have been to land on the island. There were two visiting sailing yachts bobbing up and down in Cooks Bay. As we continued heading north, we found more statue sites, the first of them with a fully developed platform. We were soon to discover the important ceremonial use of the these platforms in the Rapa Nui culture.
