As many know, this is our second visit to Easter Island,
less than a year following our first last February. Today we can look out at the five moai
statues and the one separate one that we visited on our shore excursion last
year. This year we have a different view
from anchor and most of us who are able to compare, feel things were
better. Last year, we tendered to a
fairly remote beach with several moai not far from where we anchored. Last year could be described as hot, hot, hot
and none of us who did the cruise last year will forget standing in the broiling
sun for over two hours to board tenders to take us back to the ship. The makeshift dock had been damaged and
tenders couldn’t board passengers.
This year in a different location, tenders are still having
a very rough time because of the typical high swells. The boats rock in the high waves and when on
a tender, one feels like it’s a carnival ride instead of a real mode of
transportation. We were told that about
3 in 10 ships which schedule visits to Easter Island actually are able to get
guests ashore. We have made it two years in a row, and with costly damage to
tenders, but Holland America does absorb these costs to make a valiant effort
to let people see one of the most talked about but least visited islands in the
world.
Easter Island has a longitude similar to eastern Arizona but
remains on the same time zone as Chile (which administers Easter Island) which is
in the same time zone as New York!
Actually, we have not had a single time change yet since we arrived in
Florida on New Year’s Eve, but after Easter Island, that will change quickly as
we will need to cross through 15 time zones in 25 days before we reach Sydney
in mid-February. As we approached Easter
Island waters around 6:30 AM it was pitch dark.
But when the sun came up, it revealed a mostly sunny day without the
blistering hot sun we experienced last year.
Easter Island is one of the most remote populated places in
the world and has a population of between 2800 and 4200 people depending on the
time of the year. The frequent sea
swells make arriving by ship or boat difficult.
Its small population does not make it an economically practical place to
schedule flights and there are only a few into and off the island per
week. Its nearest neighbor is the even
less developed and populated Pitcairn Island (our next destination for scenic
cruising), almost 1300 miles west.
Easter Island is only about 63 square miles in a somewhat triangular
shape. It has no natural rivers or
streams but three freshwater crater lakes.
It is most noted of course for its nearly 600 Moai or unique statues
that are found all around the small island.
Most were apparently carved between 1100 and 1680 according to
radio-carbon dates and have religious and ceremonial significance. Because they are unique to this remote
location, it is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and most are found
in the Rapa Nui (the native name for Easter Island) National Park. Admission to the park is a major source of
revenue as $60 per person is charged for park entry and is added to the cost of
tours anywhere in the park.
Having done a shore excursion to Rapa Nui National Park last
year and having seen several of the intriguing statues and visiting the
location of a good view of Moto Iti (small island) and Moto Nui (larger island)
from a cliff, we had decided if we went to the island, we would play it by ear
as to what we did and saw. We had remembered
from last year that the tendering to and from the island was the most difficult
we had ever experienced in any of our cruises.
We had decided we wouldn’t invest in a shore excursion in case the tour
ran and we decided not to run the risk of the tender ride. We anticipated going ashore at our leisure if
we could, and if we couldn’t, at least we had been there last year!
As we watched the tenders being prepared to take people
ashore in a hopefully better location than last year, we saw a tender struggle
valiantly along the side of the ship to get in place to let people go
ashore. The swells and the tides made
the boat bob up and down in the water like a cork. Those on shore excursions were held for
lengthy times before they were able to go ashore but finally the morning
excursions went. We were pleased for
those who had invested in this cruise and were making their first visit to
Easter Island. But watching the
difficulty in securing the tenders and how hard it was for some to board the
tenders, we decided it was best not to risk life and limb to go ashore.
But after lunch, we watched people get on the tenders with
ease so made a quick reversal in plans and decided to get on land for a short
time anyway. We boarded a tender
immediately but as Barb did, the wave pulled the boat down so she had an extra
deep step into the boat. (We had
commented that a second trip to Easter Island wasn’t worth jeopardizing the
ability to go to new places and favorite repeats!) Thankfully, no harm done! As we took our seven minute journey which we
think was shorter than most had experienced, all of a sudden our seats in the
pull down seats one uses when the boat is crowded, pushed us forward. The metal grab bar from floor to ceiling had
come undone and we noticed the screws that anchored it to the ceiling had come
out. We also noticed that the front
window had been bashed, undoubtedly because of a collision with the ship tender
pad or the dock on shore. There was even a crack in the wall of the boat that
was open to the outside air! But our
tender driver was a complete professional and navigated the choppy waters with
seeming ease.
As we stepped on land, we saw our friends Sally and Ange and
our tablemates, Ed and Betty in line to go back to the ship. Both of them told us quickly that this would
be their second attempts as their return tender was so badly battered that it
didn’t dare make the run with a full complement of riders. Only after returning back to the ship later,
did we find the full extent of the problems they and others had
experienced. On shore, we checked some
of the sales tables, full of Easter Island treasures and knick-knacks. After a few photos of the island and the
one nearby Moai, we decided we should return to the ship earlier rather than
later. This time, rather than waiting in
broiling sun with no place to sit as last year, we sat on folding chairs under
tents until we were sent out to a waiting tender. Boarding the ship from the tender wasn’t easy
but was without incident, fortunately.
It was only back on the ship that we began to hear the
experiences of others. Both Sally and
Ange as well as Ed and Betty told us that their tender had hit something with a
crash and tender window was knocked onto the laps of nearby people. A gaping hole brought lots of water into the
tender so that as people evacuated, they were walking in ankle deep water. We heard that one man had an expensive new SLR
camera, purchased for this trip, completely submerged in water with undoubtedly
a complete loss of the camera! Sally
told us she was glad she made it to Easter Island but that if she ever
returned, she would stay on the ship! We
also heard from our friends Bob and Nancy, that the itinerary of their shore
excursion was completely revised because a road was flooded and the same
expensive shore excursion that they had done last year was substituted in its
place. I am sure we will hear more stories in the next day or
two.
Between Peru and Easter Island, we have kept busy with a
myriad of activities including the various speakers, events which included a
1960s Flower Power Formal Night and a Navigation Deck invitation to “Lunch with
a Bunch” in the ship galley. There is
never a dull moment. For those who chose
not to go on land in Easter Island, they will have gone 10 straight days at sea
between Gen. St. Martin, Peru on January 16 and Papeete, Tahiti, French
Polynesia on January 27! So we continue
our long journey across the Pacific Ocean …
CT
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