EASTER ISLAND

Eastern Island (Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Eastern Island is widely famous for its 887 monumental statues, called Moai, created by the early Rapanui people. Easter Island is one of the most isolated inhabited islands.  Its closest inhabited neighbor is Pitcairn Island 1,289 miles away. The island is 15 miles long by 7.6 miles at its widest point. There are three freshwater crater lakes but no permanent streams or rivers.

The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded  European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen who encountered it on Easter Sunday 1722.

The large stone statues, or Moai, for which Easter Island is world famous, were carved from 1100-1680 AD.

Tom and I did not get off the ship to take a tour as we had been here in 2014. The ship could not get close to the island and the people had to go by tender (small boats from the ship) to the landing dock. The seas were very rough and only those that had tours, and were brave went on the tenders. As it was three people fell but no one was badly hurt.