Today was Easter Island, so named because the Europeans discovered it on Easter day. The local name is Rapa Nui. It is the eastern-most Polynesian island.
We are 2000 miles west of South Americas west coast, but since Chile owns Easter Island, we are still on eastern time (same as west coast South America)! This is weird because Galapagos (1800 mile east of us) was on central time. We will change one time zone each day on the ship for the next 5 days in a row.
In addition to being so remote, the unique item on the islands is the giant stone heads. These are called Moai (moe-eye). They weigh up to 80 tons (typically 20 to 30 tons), were carved in a quarry, then moved up to 9 miles and erected. They always face away from the sea. (Luke stayed on board, so we do not have pictures of him on the island.) The original ones had white coral outer eyes with black coral eye centers. Only one picture shows one that has this original reproduction. There are 887 of these giant monoliths round the island. Some had red stone cylinders placed on their heads. These “topknots” were carved in a single quarry and when standing next to one, it was at least 6 ft. tall. Hard to believe they were carved around 1000-1100 AD.
There are 4000 to 5000 inhabitants. The higher number is in summer when kids return from mainland. There are more wild horses than humans. So one has to be careful driving especially at night because of the horses crossing the roads!
They only have 57,000 tourists per year. This is not an easy place to get to.
Showing respect for those of you in Ohio and Chicago, I will not comment about problems with excessive sun exposure.
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