Easter Island

See the statues in the lower right of the above photo. They were all cut out of the volcanic quarry in the mountain above. There are over a thousand of them around the island.

Easter Island was one of the highlights of the world cruise. It is the most remote inhabited island in the world. We sailed for four days to get there. We had reserved a car rental so we could explore it to our hearts content, but. . .  We never got off the ship! There were four to eight foot swells and the ship’s tenders could not safely transfer people to shore. Mass disappointment, but not uncommon in this part of the world. The result is that we were not able to get off and visit the ancient statues up close. Instead, the captain circled the island so we could view it from the water. Oh well!  I am glad we got to see one of the statues in Valparaiso at the Easter Island Museum.

We did pass the largest collection of standing statues and we could see them from behind.They face inland. We also were in a good position to see a herd of wild horses for which the island is famous having more horses than people.

Now we are off to Tahiti