Easter Island

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean and is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.

It is thought that Easter Island's Polynesian inhabitants arrived on Easter Island sometime near 1200 AD. They 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 2,000–3,000. European diseases, Peruvian slave raiding expeditions in the 1860s, and emigration to other islands, e.g. Tahiti, further depleted the population, reducing it to a low of 111 native inhabitants in 1877.  However, this population has increased substantially with the current indigenous population being descendants from the original Rapa Nui.

Chile annexed Easter Island in 1888 with the 2017 Chilean census showing 7,750 people on the island, of whom 3,512 (45%) considered themselves Rapa Nui.

We were unable to land on the island because the seas were too rough for the tender boats to safely moor at the small harbour jetty. We were able to sail around the island and take photos of the scenery, especially the moai.