I woke up feeling like my cold was coming back but after I cleared my head and gargled with some salt I decided to go ahead with it. The dive master said that I had enough experience that I didn't need a whole refresher course but he would give me a review and just do a shallow-ish reef dive with one guide since my ears were also giving me trouble.
It was my first back entry over the side of a boat which was a little freaky after only doing the step in entries. It was also my first time with a steel tank - what a difference! The steel tanks weigh more so you have less weight on your belt. Much better weight distribution and no back ache at the end of the dive. It took me while to clear my ears but I managed it - it was my right ear this time. The water was 22C and clear with not so many fishies but what ones there were were extremely colourful. Saw a sea turtle and some big trumpet fish which look like long colourful pipe cleaners. It was my most comfortable dive to date for temperature, suit and equipment - no chill at all - also felt more confidence with my bouancy but I think it was all in the weighting. The divemaster just looked at me asked if I wanted a 3mm or 5mm suit and put together my weights for me. It felt pretty perfect. Every other dive I would always have to have adjustments made to the weights.
When we surfaced Kata my guide said that I dive very well which pleased me as I was a bit nervous after 3 years. Also when we surfaced my cough started which was a sign to stop for the day. The afternoon dive was going to be a deep cavern dive which I would have been up for sans cough. Instead, I spent an hour or so swimming with another woman on from the dive boat in the little harbour near the dive shop with about 6 sea turtles - they are so tranquillo!
After lunch I called a cab and got a drive up to the one of the volcanos (extinct) to visit the restored village of Orongo. In the later years of Rapa Nui the cult of the Birdman was on the rise. Orongo was a ceremonial village, used only for a few weeks of the year and built on edge of a volcano crater next to the ocean. This culture was more about a central god related to fertilty, spring and migratory birds and less about ancestor worship through the Moai. The big annual event was the Birdman competition in which young men would scramble down a cliff, swim 2 km to Motu Nui islet off the coast and camp out until they found the first egg of a sooty petrel. The petrels come from Antarctica and nest on these motus every spring so it was a big seasonal indicator. To win the competition the dude had to tie the egg to his forhead, swim back and climb up the cliff to prove his Birdman-ship. His prize, or the prize of the chief he represented, was the title of Tangata-mau (chief) AND he got to live in "Ceremonial reclusion" for a year. Not sure how you can be a recluse and a chief at the same time but that's what the literature says. The last competition was estimated to be in 1867.
The buildings were all low and made of stacked thin pieces of limestone quarried on site. The roofs were corbelled with the stone and had sod on top - LEED platinum I would say. Many petroglyph carvings are found here . There was a central moai for this village with engravings related to the birdman culture on it's back but it has resided in the British Museum since 1868. It's a big point of contention here with overseas artifacts but as some point out they may very well not exist today if they weren't in overseas museums.
It is a very dramatic site with the ocean on one side and the crater on the other. From a distance it looks like it's perched on a knife edge between the two. The crater below is filled with water and the same reeds grow here as in Lake Titicaca that the Uros people make their floating cities on. I spent a few hours hiking around the rim of the volcano. This may very well be may favorite landscape that I've encountered on the trip.
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