EASTER ISLAND, CHILE
We arrived at our anchorage off the west coast of Easter Island near the only town on the island, Hanga Roa, at 9am. It is a lovely morning with clear skies and 73 degrees.
Historical/Background Info:
Easter
Island (its native name is Rapa Nui) is a volcanic island consisting of three extinct volcanoes. Terevaka volcano is over 2000 feet high and
forms the bulk of the island. The other
two give the island its roughly triangular shape. The island is only 14 miles long by 7 miles wide. It is a special territory of Chile in the
southeasternmost Pacific Ocean and is one of the most remote inhabited islands
in the world. The nearest inhabited land
is 1300 miles away. The straight line
flight distance from Lima to the island is 2338 miles. It took us 5 days of sailing to arrive here
from Lima.
Experts
disagree on when the island’s Polynesian inhabitants first reached the
island. The range is between 300 to 1200
AD (our lecturer is saying 1000 AD) and probably coincided with the first
settlers to arrive in Hawaii. First
inhabitants came by canoe for distant lands.
The early inhabitants created a thriving and industrious culture as
evidenced by the island’s numerous enormous stone maoi and other
artifacts. However, land clearing for
growing crops and the introduction of the Polynesian rat led to gradual
deforestation. By the time of the first
Europeans to arrive in 1722, the island’s population was estimated to be 2000
to 3000. European diseases and Peruvian
slave raiding in the 1800’s along with islanders leaving for Tahiti depleted
the population to 111 by 1877. The
population today is nearly 7800.
Easter
Island is famous for the large stone statues, or moai (pronounced mow-eye). They were carved in the period 1100 to 1680
AD. A total of 887 of the maoi have been
inventoried on the island. Almost 95% of
the maoi were carved from volcanic ash and found at a single site on the side
of the extinct volcano Rano Raraku (our tour is going here). They were carved with stone hand chisels. Only 25% of the maoi were moved and
installed. Although often called “Easter
Island heads”, they have torsos with most of them ending at the top of the
thighs. A few figures are kneeling on
bent knees with their hands over their stomachs. All the moai face inland, not to the sea. They were said to watch over those living on the island as they were carved when a chief had died. Kind of like a marker in one of our cemetaries. Interestingly, most of the moai were buried due to erosion over the centuries. Most have been dug up and placed back on their stone platforms. The average height of the moai is approximately 13 feet with the largest being 30 feet high. Today was incredibly fascinating.
There is
jet air service from Chile, and seasonally from Peru to the island. Non-residents are prohibited from staying on
the island for more than 30 days. There
are approximately 156,000 visitors to the island annually providing $120
million for its economy. The island was closed for over 2 years during the covid pandemic. We will be anchoring near the only town on the island, Hanga Roa, on the west side of the island.
YESTERDAY EVENING
Budi
Some goodies to start with.
Elvis, a bartender, was helping out by serving wine in Sette Mari last night.
Budi, sommelier, brought this nice Italian valpolicella for me to enjoy with my veal parmesan.
Minestrone soup to start with
I shared my veal parmesan with Rebecca and still could not eat all of it.
This is the training officer, Kateryna. She is from Ukraine and very nice lady who came by and chatted with us.
TODAY
I had this omelet with hash browns and sausage this morning as our tour will not be back until around 1:30 this afternoon.
I believe our tenders will have to go to small pier on other side of the waves breaking on shore.
Setting up the gangway and lowering a tender.
Small boat from shore arriving. I assume it is local authorities to give ship clearance.
Our tour, "Easter Island Mystical Moai Statues & Highlights", met at 10am in the theater. Due to island authorities taking everyone temperature and checking suite cards it was a slow process of boarding the tenders to head ashore. It was 11am before our tour was called to go board the tenders. The island authorities also wanted everyone to spray with insect repellant before going ashore. We told them we did but didn't. Not sure what that was about as never saw even one insect on the island.
So it was after 11:30 when we boarded our tour bus. There were 11 of us on our bus and not sure how many was on the second bus. Our guide was good but never rode in the bus. Just explained what we were seeing at the stops. The air conditioned was about nonexistent and I complained several times but no help. We paid over $100 each extra for this tour so I expected better.
It was 3:30 before we got off the tender when returning after our 3 1/2 hour tour. I picked up some turkey meat and roll at Coffee Connection on the way back to our suite. Needed a little snack before dinner. Rebecca had her Atkins bar. I hit the shower right away which felt good.
I have over 60 photos to download that I took today. An hour later only half have downloaded. So now we have 4 more sea days prior to the next port. I have decided to start putting the Easter Island photos on tomorrow's blog. It will all depend on the ship's internet. I know you will really enjoy today's photos and so glad we were able to see all the moai. Also enjoyed the perfect weather.
So plan for this evening is much needed cocktails in Mariner Lounge before dinner in Compass Rose. Terry Bishop will be doing tonight's show so absolutely want to see it.
Tonight's Compass Rose menu
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