We were on Easter Island from February 9th to February 14th, 2008. This was a challenging trip as we went from the cold of Antarctica to the heat and humidity of Easter Island. We had to take along lots of clothing and luggage.

Easter Island was called Rapa Nui by its earliest inhabitants. Rapa Nui is also the name for the island's earliest people. In Spanish, it's called "Isla de Pascua". It is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world being over a thousand miles from the nearest inhabited island and more than 2000 miles from Chile and Tahiti. It's really out in the middle of the ocean.

Easter Island was most likely first populated by Polynesians sometime around 400 AD. They are assumed to have arrived by catamaran or canoe. The current thinking is that there was a second wave of immigration at some later date with the second group being Incan and coming from Peru. The Island and all its mysterious stone carvings still present quite a bit of mystery to people. The stone statutes and why they were carved, what they represented and all of that still entails a good deal of speculation. Opinions vary widely from the Polynesians and Incan cultures to UFO's and Atlantis to who knows what.

Easter Island’s history has early Polynesians finding a lush paradise with lots of trees and plants. The inhabitants peaked at around 10,000 to 15,000 people and they had their own language, petro glyphs, statues, and civilization. Then it went down hill but with much uncertainty as to why. Possibilities include the destruction of the ecosystem, overpopulation, and deforestation. They destroyed all of their trees and most plants, had civil wars, and it’s speculated, even went to the extent of cannibalism.

The first Dutch explorers arrived on Easter Island on Easter Sunday in 1722, hence the name Easter Island. Most of the island's inhabitants had died by the 1860's with additional possible reasons being damage from the Polynesian rat, severe weather, cannibalism and slave traders.

The population was reduced to about 100 Rapa Nui people by 1877 with no real history being recorded about what happened. The island was annexed by Chile in 1888 but most of the island was leased to a company raising sheep until 1953. After that, the island was managed by the Chilean Navy until 1966. The Rapa Nui people were given Chilean citizenship in 1966 and the island still belongs to Chile.

Most of the information included in these posts comes from our local Rapa Nui guide and from information posted at the sites we visited. I can't say how accurate all the information is, but I will say that I am careful about taking notes and writing down what I learn.

I've included three initial photos to give you an idea of what this trip was about. Remember, this was in early 2008 and our point-and-shoot cameras were very simple and basic.