Easter Island is one of the most isolated places in the world. It is in the South Pacific and is something like 1100 miles from the next nearest island. Admittedly, I would never have made it a destination point. Yet, I am so, so, glad it is on the itinerary. It is beautiful and sightseeing here has been a real education. I don’t know where to start. We’ve all seen pictures of the huge stone faces but the origin of them is quite fascinating.
William Malloy was the first scientist, archeologist, to scientifically explore Easter Island. He was a friend of Thor Hyerdahl (of Kon Tiki fame) who also spent time on Easter Island. Our guides were basically family members of the team that took over the work of Malloy. Our guide was Claudio Cristophe who has lived and done archeology on Easter Island for 38 years. Another guide was his ex-wife who actually was the head archeologist. A third guide was their son.
Easter Island was formed by three major underwater volcanoes that spewed lava for eons until it all merged into one island. The volcanoes have been dormant for thousands of years. Polynesians eventually inhabited the island. They were the ones that produced the stone heads. The population of Eastern Island increased to 25-30 thousand at one point. However, they managed to deforest the entire island and that along with other factors eventually reduced the population to 111. Today the population is between 5 and 6 thousand. There is an ecological lesson in this but some will still refuse to listen.
The heads were cut and carved out of rock on the side of a dormant volcano in one particular location on the island. When the sculpture was ready it began the long, arduous process or the “walk” to where it would be placed. I don’t want to get into the details, as best we know them, but needless to say, it is amazing what was accomplished.
After touring some of the sites of the heads and the quarry we went to the beach for a Bar-B-Que. We had our bathing suits with us and took the opportunity to play in the waves of the South Pacific. I’m glad we didn’t pass on that chance as many others did.
Back at the hotel we had a fine buffet dinner and a show of native dancers.
Easter Island is technically part of Chile and is artificially on Chilean time which is the same as Eastern Standard Time. Easter Island should be on Mountain Time.
An early morning visit to one of the sites where the heads had been placed. Of course, these are our shadows in the foreground.
The area near the quarry. These statues were in transit and never made it to their intended final destination.
This is one of the most impressive sites of the heads. This had to be totally restored. All of the statues were knocked over by a tsunami from the largest earthquake ever recorded. It was thought to be forever destroyed. A Japanese company provided the money and machinery to get the site restored. Our guide headed up the restoration.