Easter Island

We’ve been having quite the adventure while sailing the South Pacific.  After leaving Lima on January 15th we arrived at Easter Island on the 20th.  At first glance it appeared that we couldn’t tender to shore due to high swells on the only docking area.  However the Captain moved to the North side of the Island and the locals worked with the crew to figure out a way to land the passengers.  We ended up tying a work barge to a rock pier and then a ship’s tender to act as a bridge between the shore and the disembarking tenders.  No limited mobility passengers could go ashore.  Remember you can click on a photo to make it larger.

Close up of the landing site.  The boats are tenders from our ship working on developing the landing area.  This is the only beach on Easter Island.  Note the Moai in the background.

So much for getting onto the Island.  The official name of the Island is Rapa Nui.  This is the National Park.

This Moai is one of the largest and fully restored on the Island and is known as Ko te Riku.   There are approximately 600 Moai restored across the island.  This one includes the Top Knot (hat) that all completed statues had at one time.

This picture gives you an idea of the size but it isn’t the largest Moai on the island.  Our volunteer photographer was a little off level.

There are other Moai in the park.   The Ko te Riku is in the background.

Probably the most famous place on Easter Island is the quarry known as Rana Raraku.  I’m sure you remember seeing this type of picture.  Well, maybe not with us in it.

The quarry is full of Moai in various stages of completion.  Below is a picture of one carved on the front but still in the rock face.

This Moai is the largest on the Island.  It is believed that once it was carved they determined it was to large to move and was abandoned.   I’d love to give you the height and weight details but I don’t remember them.

In this picture you can see the top of the head of the large Moai.  If you look closely in the center you can see the broken top of the start of a Moai.  Apparently not all carvings were successful.

One theory is that the Moai fronts were carved vertical and then split from the quarry face and lowered down to the base.  Then the back and details were added.  In this picture, taken from the top,  you can see the large field of Moai at the bottom of the quarry.

Easter Island is known for it’s herds of wild horses.  They aren’t really wild since they are all branded but they do run wild.  Interesting sign at the quarry that warns of wild horses and they are all over the place.   They are also not the least bit concerned about you walking around them.

Around 1982 the Japanese had the islander's cooperation for a lot of research.  To thank them they paid for the restoration of a Moai religious of Rano Roraka pictured below.

The story is that the Japanese brought in a crane that erected this line of Moai.  They found the top hats but since they didn’t know which hat went with which Moai, they weren’t going to put any on.  One night the islanders came in and used the crane to put one top hat on a Moai.  Thus you see it that way.  The second picture shows the line of top hats which still lie by the Moai.

This is a Moai lying on the ground.  Speculation is that it fell over and the Islanders couldn’t raise it back up.  Note that the horses don’t pay attention to the no trespassing sign.

Finally, a picture of our ship off the Easter Island coast.

Easter Island was a interesting place to visit.  It is certainly far off the beaten path as it took us five days of steaming to reach it from Lima.  Interesting about the Pacific.  The Caribbean is almost constantly a smooth sailing sea.  It often doesn’t even seem you are on a ship unless you look outside.  The Atlantic is choppy with short intervals between waves giving the feeling of raising and falling into wave troughs.  The Pacific is a series of widely spaced swells, no white caps or visible foam, but the ship has a constant rolls side-to-side or bow-to-stern depending on how we are aligned with the swell.  The sea appears calm but there is an undercurrent of power that constantly challenges the ship.  And it is BIG.  Not a ship, bird, or anything insight for the entire time we have been away from land.

Next is Pitcairn Inland and the mutineers.   Hope all is well with you.