After five days at sea, with no internet, finally arrived at Easter Island. Easter Island is is the furthest inhabited island from anywhere else in the world. In any direction you are thousands of miles on the open Pacific Ocean to the nearest dock or port. On our last trip around the world we could only see the island from the ship’s deck. Rough seas prevented us from tendering ashore. This time we got off and what an experience it was.

Easter Island has captured the world’s imagination with its giant moai, 887 human-faced statues created by the Rapa Nui people. Where the island’s inhabitants came from and how they got there has been a mystery since a Dutch ship discovered the island on Easter Sunday in 1722. The statues date back to 300 AD and are all volcanic, similar to the island’s core. How the solid rock structures were carved, moved and erected is an unanswered question to this date. Wild horses roam free throughout the island as do the cattle. The shoreline is spectacular and the 8000 or so inhabitants seem quite content with their isolated existence and lot in life. Modern health care as we know it is non-existent.