Moai sculptures in Rapa Nui National Park have lived long beyond the people who carved them. It’s estimated that between 400-700 AD Polynesian sailors made their way to this remote island that’s 2,600 miles west from where they most likely started. Sailing across the ocean in a small wooden boat with one sail would be today’s equivalent of venturing out into our solar system. To describe their journey as heroic would be an understatement.
Who knows why they left the safety of their tropical homeland, but searching for something new is a well-known Homo sapien trait. As I lay on my back, looking up at the heavens, waiting for the clouds to clear, I felt the spirits of the Moai looking down on me. To be here is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that becomes ever more obvious in the darkness of the night illuminated by nothing but stars.