Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Feb. 11-13

Easter Island is a Polynesian island of 63 square miles.

If you follow my blog, you know how passionate I am about visiting and learning about different cultures.  This was an especially rewarding experience for me.  If you're not as interested as I am in this area, you might want to skip to the next blog post for more photos.  😉

Our local guide, Niko, told us much that has been written about the island is only partially true or questionable.   His mother has been a global leader in studying the history and culture of this remote place and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in Sweden for her extraordinary work.

Niko

Below are some details that most experts seem to agree on in respect to Easter Island:

*the first people arrived from Polynesia about 500 AD
*there were few resources on the island

*it was volcanic in origin with 3 long-extinct volcanoes

Mel's photo of a volcano with a lagoon inside

*the remoteness of the island afforded only a few species of plants and animals  and very few fish
*earliest settlers subsisted on sweet potatoes and chickens
*the population increased and organized around clans
*each clan had its own center for religious and cultural activities.   The centers were on platforms called ahus

Mel's photo of an ahu

*over 300 ahus were constructed,  some with sophisticated astronomical alignments
*at each site, between 1-15 huge stone statues or MOAI were erected

Our group

*using only obsidian stone tools, over 600 MOAIS were carved at the quarry at Rano Rataku by the 16th century

Statues at the quarry

*the island reached its peak population of about 7,000 around 1500 when wars broke out between the clans which resulted in destruction and toppling of the MOAIS
*the birdman religious cult displaced the MOAIS before European colonization occurred
*overpopulation created massive environmental degredation including total deforestation
*the first recorded European contact was made in 1722 on Easter Sunday by a Dutch explorer, hence the name
*with "discovery " came slave traders, epidemics, and choas
*Christian missionaries arrived in 1867 when the population declined to 1200
*by 1877 only 111 lived on Easter Island
*in 1888 the island became a special territory of Chile
*in 1966 the Rapanui were given Chilean citizenship
*today there are about 4,000 people on the island, and tourism is the mainstay of their economy