27 December 2007

27 December 2007
Greetings from a long way from anywhere!
Two days away from Easter Island and three days away from the coast of Chile ia a lot of water. Couple that brilliant observation with the fact that we’re not traveling on a regular shipping line and we’re talking lonely here. We haven’t seen another ship since we left Pitcairn Island and we probably won’t see anything moving on the sea surrounding us until we’re close to San Martin. The further east we sail more character the sea is providing us. Since leaving Easter Island the swells and the chop on the water has added a constant motion to the ship that makes people walk like they’ve had a few too many. On second thought, the sea motion may not having thing to do with said staggering.
Easter Island was the main reason that most of the passengers on the Pacific Princess signed on for this cruise. Easter Island is off the beaten path and fewer than half of the cruise ships that work this part of the world include it in their itinerary. And that’s a shame.
Easter Island is known for its Moai; sculptured stones made to look like people or the stylized heads of people. We usually relate the Moai statues to Polynesia although they are only found in their original state on Easter Island. As a matter of fact, our tour guide told us that there are eight hundred ninety of the Moai, in some form, on the island. We didn’t see all of the statues standing but rather we saw them under construction, broken in pieces and sometimes standing. We were taken to the “quarry” on the side of an extinct volcano where the Moai were originally made. There were dozens of Moai that were just beginning to look like something along with many more that were in the process of completion. The soft volcanic rock used to make the Moai was apparently easy to shape with rudimentary tools. There are many theories about what the Moai meant to the ancient Easter Islanders with some concluding that they were a part of some kind of religious observance. The Moai were created in the years between 1100 and 1400 AD.
No one really knows where the inhabitants of Easter Island came from but most agree that the natives were primarily Polynesian. Thor Hyerdahl, of Kon Tiki fame, believes that the existence of potatoes on the island suggests that some of the early islanders came from South America. While the population of Easter Island today is about 3,500, evidence suggests that at one time more than 9,000 people lived on the island. There is evidence of a great many wars among the clans on the island probably resulting from an over population and a shortage of food. If some of the islanders came from South America, it is believed that their group may have been eliminated by one or more of the wars.
Evidence suggests that the first inhabitants on the island arrived between 400 and 700 AD. At the time, the now wind swept barren island was a palm tree covered paradise. The first contact with Europeans occurred in 1722. It is likely that the islanders lived in total isolation for about 1300 years creating a totally unique civilization that social scientist have explored and written about for several generations.
I was interested at one stop to learn that the Moais we had stopped to see were part of a recently completed project to restore a group of fifty Morais that had once stood in a row; the largest single group on the island. The original site had been destroyed in the late eighties by a sunami that carried most of the Moais up to one kilometer inland. A joint project to restore the area was funded by the Chilean government (Easter Island is a part of Chile) and the government of Japan.
Today the islanders prefer to tell visitors that they are descendants of Polynesians. Many have wonderfully tanned skin but they look more European than what would anticipate as Polynesian. I hd a chance to talk to a twenty year old guide who briefly described her life on the island. She told me that the thirty to forty cruise ships that stop each year provide the Island’s primary source of income. There is some farming to provide meat and vegetables for the local population.
I was told that many of the families rely on horses to take them around the island. I didn’t see many cars on the Monday we visited the island. It was rather obvious that traffic is not a problem. Our small van had to stop a number of times to wait for people to move who had simply stopped their cars in the middle of the street to visit with the occupants of a second car. I didn’t see any horses or horse drawn carts in the one village we drove through but I did see a number of horses grazing freely in fields outside of the village. One thing I didn’t see was anyone who looked like a native Polynesian or a shack like dwelling were some one less fortunate than others might live.
Everyone seemed pleased with their visit to Easter Island. The fact that we hadn’t had a chance to walk on solid ground for four days may have had something to do with the elation. No one seemed to want to talk about the fact that it will be another four days before we have a similar opportunity.
Visisting Easter Island on Christmas Eve leads one to wonder if the cruise line has plans for an itinerary that includes a visit to Christmas Island at Easter time. If there is such a place at such a time, count me in. But please, see if few can do it with less than four days at sea each way.
Los of salty kisses and hugs to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad and Barnacle Bill