Easter Island is quite literally in the middle of nowhere, 2,300 miles east of Chile. Experts think the first islands arrived as early as 450 AD from the Cook Islands or Pitcairn Island. The first Europeans arrived after the island was discovered by a Dutch explorer on Easter Sunday 1722. Today it is technically part of Chile, but it has special status in that it has greater autonomy than other parts of Chile.
Like I said….the middle of nowhere!
What makes Easter Island so spectacular, is the color of the water. It’s this amazing blue and against the black volcanic rocks, it’s just amazing!
See what I mean about the blue of the water against the black of the volcanic rocks? Absolutely gorgeous!
The “birdman competition” involved climbing off of this cliff, swimming to the far island, retrieving the egg of the sooty tern bird, and being the first to return with the egg intact. The winner would receive special status for that next year. There’s a fictional movie called Rapa Nui which portrays this competition.
Easter Island is best known for its large statues numbering 887 in all. The moai were carved out of rock between 1250 and 1500. Almost half of the statues that have been found are still at the quarry. These statues are unique because of their large head (3/8 the size of the whole statue). Experts are still not sure how the islanders transported the statues. The largest one is 10 meters (33 feet) high and weighs over 82 tons. Almost all the statues you see today have been restored as they were torn down during clans wars in the 1700s.
Almost half the moai are still at the quarry waiting to be transported to their permanent home.
The moai were carved out of the rock. They would carve the front part out and then do the back part last.
Moai by sunset
There’s even a moai underwater. I saw this while scuba diving, although this picture is from google as I don’t have an underwater camera.
Traditional dance show
There is only one flight a day from Santiago, Chile and one flight per week from Tahiti.
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