Easter Island, the easternmost settled island of Polynesia, received its European name in 1722 when the island was seen by a Dutch expedition under Roggeveen on Easter Sunday. The triangular-shaped island of 163 square kilometres is famous for the hundreds of statues known locally as moai. Rolling hills covered in grassland, eucalyptus forest and a rocky shore surround Hanga Roa, the island’s only village on the southwestern coast. This is where Captain Cook landed in 1774, where missionaries built the first church and where ships find the best protection from winds and swells. Small beaches and transparent waters invite swimmers and snorkelers, but it is the cultural aspect which attracts visitors. Since 1935 the island has been a National Historic Monument and today 43.5% of the island is a national park administered by the Chilean National Forest Corporation and Mau Henua, a local community group. The island’s national park has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. Found slightly more than 3,500 kilometres west of Chile, the island was annexed in 1888. Used as a sheep ranch for many decades, the island was opened in 1965 and an airstrip was built. The US Air Force set up a base to record the behaviour of the earth's outer atmosphere and by 1987 NASA had the runway extended as an emergency runway for the space shuttle. Tourism benefited from this improvement and today the island receives more than 100,000 visitors a year.
Experts disagree on when the island's Polynesian inhabitants first reached the island. While many in the research community cited evidence that they arrived around the year 800, there is compelling evidence presented in a 2007 study that places their arrival closer to 1200. The inhabitants created a thriving and industrious culture, as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts. However, land clearing for cultivation and the introduction of the Polynesian rat led to gradual deforestation. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population was estimated to be 2,000 to 3,000. European diseases, Peruvian slave raiding expeditions in the 1860s, and emigration to other islands such as Tahiti further depleted the population, reducing it to a low of 111 native inhabitants in 1877. Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888. In 1966, the Rapa Nui were granted Chilean citizenship. In 2007 the island gained the constitutional status of "special territory". The 2017 Chilean census registered 7,750 people on the island, of whom 3,512 (45%) considered themselves Rapa Nui. Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land (around 50 residents in 2013) is Pitcairn Island, 2,075 kilometres away; the nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea, on the island of Mangareva, 2,606 km away; the nearest continental point lies in central Chile, 3,512 km away.
By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000–3,000 from a high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. By that time, 21 species of trees and all species of land birds became extinct through some combination of over-harvesting, over-hunting, rat predation, and climate change. The island was largely deforested, and it did not have any trees taller than 3 m . Loss of large trees meant that residents were no longer able to build seaworthy vessels, significantly diminishing their fishing abilities. One theory is that the trees were used as rollers to move the statues to their place of erection from the quarry at Rano Raraku. Deforestation also caused erosion which caused a sharp decline in agricultural production. This was exacerbated by the loss of land birds and the collapse in seabird populations as a source of food. By the 18th century, islanders were largely sustained by farming, with domestic chickens as the primary source of protein.
A series of devastating events killed or removed most of the population in the 1860s. In December 1862, Peruvian slave raiders struck. Violent abductions continued for several months, eventually capturing around 1,500 men and women, half of the island's population. Among those captured were the island's paramount chief, his heir, and those who knew how to read and write the rongorongo script, the only Polynesian script to have been found to date, although debate exists about whether this is proto-writing or true writing. When the slave raiders were forced to repatriate the people they had kidnapped, carriers of smallpox disembarked together with a few survivors on each of the islands. This created devastating epidemics from Easter Island to the Marquesas islands.Tuberculosis, introduced by whalers in the mid-19th century, had already killed several islanders when the first Christian missionary, Eugène Eyraud, died from this disease in 1867. It ultimately killed approximately a quarter of the island's population. In the following years, the managers of the sheep ranch and the missionaries started buying the newly available lands of the deceased, and this led to great confrontations between natives and settlers.
Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier bought up all of the island apart from the missionaries' area around Hanga Roa and moved a few hundred Rapa Nui to Tahiti to work for his backers. In 1871 the missionaries, having fallen out with Dutrou-Bornier, evacuated all but 171 Rapa Nui to the Gambier islands. Those who remained were mostly older men. Six years later, only 111 people lived on Easter Island, and only 36 of them had any offspring. From that point on, the island's population slowly recovered. But with over 97% of the population dead or gone in less than a decade, much of the island's cultural knowledge had been lost. Alexander Salmon, Jr., a son of an English Jewish merchant and a Pōmare Dynasty prince, eventually worked to repatriate workers from his inherited copra plantation. He eventually bought up all lands on the island with the exception of the mission, and was its sole employer. He worked to develop tourism on the island and was the principal informant for the British and German archaeological expeditions for the island. He sent several pieces of genuine Rongorongo to his niece's husband, the German consul in Valparaíso, Chile. Salmon sold the Brander Easter Island holdings to the Chilean government on 2 January 1888, and signed as a witness to the cession of the island. He returned to Tahiti in December 1888. He effectively ruled the island from 1878 until his cession to Chile in 1888. Easter Island was annexed by Chile on 9 September 1888 by Policarpo Toro by means of the "Treaty of Annexation of the Island" (Tratado de Anexión de la isla). Toro, representing the government of Chile, signed with Atamu Tekena, designated "King" by the Roman Catholic missionaries after the paramount chief and his heir had died. The validity of this treaty is still contested by some Rapa Nui. Officially, Chile purchased the nearly all encompassing Mason-Brander sheep ranch, comprised from lands purchased from the descendants of Rapa Nui who died during the epidemics, and then claimed sovereignty over the island.
Until the 1960s, the surviving Rapa Nui were confined to Hanga Roa. The rest of the island was rented to the Williamson-Balfour Company as a sheep farm until 1953. This exemplified the introduction of private property into Rapa Nui. The island was then managed by the Chilean Navy until 1966, at which point the island was reopened in its entirety. The Rapa Nui were given Chilean citizenship in 1966. Following the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that brought Augusto Pinochet to power, Easter Island was placed under martial law. Tourism slowed, land was broken up, and private property was distributed to investors. During his time in power, Pinochet visited Easter Island on three occasions. The military built military facilities and a city hall.[46] After an agreement in 1985 between Chile and United States, the runway at Mataveri International Airport was enlarged and was inaugurated in 1987. The runway was expanded 423 m (1,388 ft), reaching 3,353 m (11,001 ft). Pinochet is reported to have refused to attend the inauguration in protest at pressures from the United States over human rights.
Fishers of Rapa Nui have shown their concern of illegal fishing on the island. "Since the year 2000 we started to lose tuna, which is the basis of the fishing on the island, so then we began to take the fish from the shore to feed our families, but in less than two years we depleted all of it", Pakarati said.[48] On 30 July 2007, a constitutional reform gave Easter Island and the Juan Fernández Islands (also known as Robinson Crusoe Island) the status of "special territories" of Chile. Pending the enactment of a special charter, the island continues to be governed as a province of the V Region of Valparaíso.[49] Species of fish were collected in Easter Island for one month in different habitats including shallow lava pools and deep waters. Within these habitats, two holotypes and paratypes, Antennarius randalli and Antennarius moai, were discovered. These are considered frog-fish because of their characteristics: "12 dorsal rays, last two or three branched; bony part of first dorsal spine slightly shorter than second dorsal spine; body without bold zebra-like markings; caudal peduncle short, but distinct; last pelvic ray divided; pectoral rays 11 or 12". In 2018, the government decided to limit the stay period for tourists from 90 to 30 days because of social and environmental issues faced by the Island to preserve its historical importance.] A tsunami warning was declared for Easter Island after the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami.
Starting in August 2010, members of the indigenous Hitorangi clan occupied the Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa. The occupiers allege that the hotel was bought from the Pinochet government, in violation of a Chilean agreement with the indigenous Rapa Nui, in the 1990s. The occupiers say their ancestors had been cheated into giving up the land. According to a BBC report, on 3 December 2010, at least 25 people were injured when Chilean police using pellet guns attempted to evict from these buildings a group of Rapa Nui who had claimed that the land the buildings stood on had been illegally taken from their ancestors. In January 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People, James Anaya, expressed concern about the treatment of the indigenous Rapa Nui by the Chilean government, urging Chile to "make every effort to conduct a dialogue in good faith with representatives of the Rapa Nui people to solve, as soon as possible the real underlying problems that explain the current situation". The incident ended in February 2011, when up to 50 armed police broke into the hotel to remove the final five occupiers. They were arrested by the government, and no injuries were reported.
March 27th
A very frustrating day, the ship arrived off the northern beach of Easter Island at 8am. We had already had breakfast and were expecting to go ashore soon after noon for a 4 - 5 hour excursion, thus an early lunch was called for at 11, the weather was far from ideal, . Having just started lunch, Marieke announced that today's excursion was to be absorbed into tomorrow's, when the weather was forecast to improve. Around one she announced that we could go ashore to explore the local marae with its Moai. So we got all wrapped up against the rain, only to then be informed that the local authorities had banned all disembarkation for the day!! Their bio-secutity inspectors obviously had refused to stay there for 4 hours in the rain! And she added the fact that there had been more rain today than any other day in the past 8months!.
Jackie gave a slide show on a 2002 festival in Hawaii of canoe building by several Polynesian nations. We had an early dinner after Recap and Briefing, in which Marieke went on and on, with the volume of the microphone far too high, about how she had tried to get the best experience for us. Her latest news was that the dance show was no longer going to be tonight but tomorrow, at 8.30 pm after a long day out on tour of eight hours
March 28th
The rain had stopped and we were ashore on Easter Island by 8.30. We had Sabrina as our local guide, shared between buses 1 & 2, 15 in each; she was excellent. First stop was the 7 Moai platform at Ahu Akivi
Ahu Akivi is a particular sacred place. The site has seven moai, all of equal shape and size, and is also known as a celestial observatory that was set up around the 16th century. The site is located inland, rather than along the coast. Moai statues were considered by the early people of Rapa Nui as their ancestors or Tupuna that were believed to be the reincarnation of important kings or leaders of their clans. The Moais were erected to protect and bring prosperity to their clan and village. A particular feature of the seven identical moai statues is that they exactly face sunset during the Spring Equinox and have their backs to the sunrise during the Autumn Equinox. Such an astronomically precise feature is seen only at this location on the island.
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Ahu Tahai
The Tahai Ceremonial Complex was restored in 1974 by American archaeologist William Mulloy, Tahai comprises three principal ahu from north to south: Ko Te Riku (with restored eyes), Tahai, and Vai Ure. Visible in the distance from Tahai are two restored ahu at Hanga Kio'e, projects that Mulloy undertook in 1972. Like other Mulloy restoration projects at Ahu Akivi, the ceremonial village of Orongo and Vinapu, the ceremonial cent er at Tahai now constitutes an integral part of the Rapa Nui National Park, designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
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Orongo
Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial cent er at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui . It consists of a collection of low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled buildings with even lower doors positioned on the high south-westerly tip of the large volcanic caldera called Rano Kau.
Below Orongo on one side a 300-meter barren cliff face drops down to the ocean; on the other, a more gentle but still very steep grassy slope leads down to a freshwater marsh inside the high caldera. The first half of the ceremonial village's 53 stone masonry houses was investigated and restored in 1974, with the remainder completed in 1976 and subsequently investigated in 1985 and again in 1995. Orongo now has World Heritage status as part of the Rapa Nui National Park.
Between the 18th and mid-19th centuries Orongo was the centre of a birdman cult whose defining ritual was an annual race to bring the first manutara (sooty tern) egg back undamaged from the nearby islet of Motu Nui to Orongo. The race was very dangerous, and hunters often fell to their deaths from the cliff face or were killed by sharks. The site has numerous petroglyphs, mainly of tangata manu (birdmen) which may have been carved to commemorate some of the winners of this race. In the 1860s, most of the Rapa Nui islanders died of disease or were enslaved, and when the survivors were converted to Christianity, Orongo fell into disuse. In 1868, the crew of HMS Topaze removed the huge basalt moai known as Hoa Hakananai'a from Orongo. It is now housed in the British Museum.
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Hanga Roa
Such is the joys of cruise ship timings, that we had 30 minutes to walk around Hanga Roa. Like many places around the world, Hanga Roa has sold out to mass tourism. It is a sad little town today, with little to commend it. Places like the Artisan Mall were virtually devoid of anything artisan, and the souvenirs were of the "made in China" variety - mainly moai in plastic or resin
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Ahu Vaihu
This are two things of interest here. One is a reconstructed village and the other is a moai platform. You need a guide here to understand how they lived. For example, the guide showed us how the ancient chicken houses worked. There is a stone that is removed from the wall and the chickens continue to file out. Very amusing. The boat houses were explained in detail, as well as how they farmed and how they cooked.
Towards the water is the platform used to support 8 moai, each one with its red topknot. The moai are now lying prone in the exact position that they were thrown over. In front of the platform, you will see a large round circle named paina , after the ceremony that used to take place inside it. This is one of the unrestored platforms situated on the south coast. There are eight moais knocked down. It gives you an idea how all the statues used to look before being restored.
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Rano Raraku
Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation, where 887 moai remain. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park.
The incomplete statues in the quarry are remarkable both for their number, for the inaccessibility of some that were high on the outside crater wall and for the size of the largest; at 21.6 m in height, almost twice that of any moai ever completed and weighing an estimated 270 tonnes, many times the weight of any transported. Some of the incomplete moai seem to have been abandoned after the carvers encountered inclusions of very hard rock in the material. Others may be sculptures that were never intended to be separated from the rock in which they are carved.
On the outside of the quarry are a number of moai, some of which are partially buried to their shoulders in the spoil from the quarry. They are distinctive in that their eyes were not hollowed out, they do not have pukao and they were not cast down in the island's civil wars. For this last reason, they supplied some of the most famous images of the island.
Next stop was the quarry where they had erected a large tent for our lunch , the a large bap with tomato, ham & cheese and an apple. We then walked round the quarry.
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Ahu Tongariki
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Easter Island . Its moais were toppled during the island's civil wars, and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami.
It has since been restored and has fifteen moai, including one that weighs eighty-six tonnes, the heaviest ever erected on the island. Ahu Tongariki is one kilo meter from Rano Raraku and Poike in the Hotu-iti area of Rapa Nui National Park. All the moai here face sunset during the winter solstice
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Anakena
We completed our island tour where we started and where the Explorer was anchored. Anakena is a white coral sand beach in Rapa Nui National Park. Anakena has two ahus; Ahu-Ature has a single moai and Ahu Nao-Nao has seven, two of which have deteriorated. It also has a palm grove and a car park. Anakena is unusual for Easter Island in that it is one of only two small sandy beaches in an otherwise rocky coastline.
According to island oral traditions, Anakena was the landing place of Hotu Matu'a, a Polynesian chief who led a two-canoe settlement party here and founded the first settlement on Rapa Nui. It was later a ceremonial centre where islanders read from Rongorongo boards. Anakena featured in the Tangata manu or Birdman cult as in years when the new Birdman was from the western clans, he would end his celebrations at Anakena.
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When we got back on board, Chris found champagne, a birthday cake and balloons in the cabin. After showering we took a glass of champagne up to the Panorama lounge to enjoy it with some canapés. Then we had dinner up on deck with a lovely view to the beach and just 4 other passengers. We finished the champagne up there and ended our meal with the cake.
Somebody's Birthday
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Then down to the watch the Kari Kari dancers who had come aboard. Not my idea of entertainment, as I thought is was synthetic culture, complete with guest participation.
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