Pisco to Easter Island - Our Third Full day at Sea

We are amazed at the beauty of the South Pacific Ocean.  Usually on our trips at sea we see other ships, planes and numerous birds.  That is definitely not the case on this one.  We have not seen another ship since leaving Pisco Peru on Tuesday evening nor have we seen planes or birds.  All we see is the beautiful, blue Pacific - as far as the eye can see. 

What caused the “collapse” of Easter Island?  There are theories and facts we heard from our third Easter Island lecture this morning.Somewhere between 1722 and 1774, Rapa Nui hit a tipping point with tribes competing for resources.  From skeletal remains, it is known that they resorted to warfare (skulls hit with blunt instruments) and cannibalism.  The Moai were tipped over either because warring tribes wanted to ensure their enemy no longer had protection or because they no longer believed their Moai Mana existed. The Moai that are standing today are ones that have been restored.As with yesterday, today has been a quiet, relaxing day - laying by the pool, reading on the balcony, blogging (when our intermittent internet service works) eating and enjoying this ship.  We are amazed at how quiet and uncrowded it actually is and all of the very nice little places you can escape to.Tonight we have reservations at the Italian specialty restaurant - Toscona.

- The Rapanui people of Easter Island  thrived. They had no attacks from outsiders. There were approximately 12,000 people at the height of Easter Island’s growth in the 1600’s.  However, as the population grew, the resources dwindled.

- Trees were cut for houses, building canoes, fires, moving the Moai.

- Rats, which the Polynesians brought with them gnawed on the seeds of the trees which could then not germinate.

- These palm trees that at one time covered 70% of the island became completely extinct over time.

- The people could no longer build canoes to fish in deeper waters and were restricted to the small shore fish.

- Unlike most islands in Polynesia where the residents move to another island when resources become scarce, they could not due to their isolation in the middle of the Pacific.
- By 1650, the practice of carving Moai stopped.  
- By 1722, when the Dutch came to the island, the population had dwindled to between 2,000 and 6,000 residents.

Later in the 18th Century the remaining people settled in one corner of the island and began a yearly tribal competition for who would become Chief.  The Birdman competition lasted from the 1700’s to 1867. 

- Each Tribe would select one warrior to compete.

- These warriors would slide down the side of the volcano crater, scale the other side down to the ocean, swim one and one-half miles to an offshore Motu (islet) and wait for the Sooty Terns (birds that came every Spring) to lay their eggs.

- The warrior to find the first egg, signaled their chief to shave his head and eyebrows in preparation to become Chief.

- The warrior would then need to return, reversing his journey with the egg intact. They did this by wrapping it in a pouch on their forehead.

- The process for choosing their leader was repeated each year.

The Birdman competition came to an end when the missionaries arrived in 1867.

The Rapanui were also used as slaves by Peru to collect guano from the Ballesta Islands. Only a handful of the Rapanui were ever brought back to Easter Island. When they were, they brought smallpox and other diseases back with them that caused major health issues among the remaining inhabitants.

Chile colonized Easter Island in 1888.  Unfortunately, they leased the island to a British sheep farming company and the Rapanui became either slave workers or prisonors on their own island.  Once Chile realized that Easter Island was special, they began to help preserve the history and now have a tremendous pride in the Island.