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Easter Island with Velvis

Rick Sadle updates us about Easter Island.

In the morning, Halle recovers, Rick walks around taking photos and power shopping before our flight to Lima where we catch our plane to Easter Island for two nights. A scheduled one hour refueling stop in Tahiti turns into almost three hours due to a fuel drivers strike. One of the passengers gives an impromptu yoga class in the waiting room. Of course we do a little shopping which we are almost as diligent about as eating.

We also get to add to our collection of Velvis photos. We haven’t mentioned it yet but at the last minute we brought along the velvet Elvis painting which hangs at the restaurant. It is already known as the most widely traveled velvet Elvis in the world but of course this journey will probably secure the title for generations to come. Not that anyone is interested in challenging us. We’ve been getting shots of Velvis at every stop and he is fast becoming a favorite of staff and passengers. Of course a few of them look at us like we’re crazy and keep their distance, but many are following this process closely and volunteering for pictures.
2400 miles west of Chile “Isla de Pascua,” after an awe inspiring circle around the island, we land on the longest runway in Polynesia thanks to NASA who built it in case the space shuttle needs to make an emergency landing in that part of the world.

Greeted with leis Hawaii 1950’s style, a few of us are driven to our hotel by the archaeologist, Edmundo Edwards who has lived on the island for forty-two years and is considered one of the foremost experts on Easter Island. An amusing story teller, he weaves island history with quips and dead-on timing. We were very lucky to have Edmundo leading us for two days. (He consulted with Jared Diamond over the years.) The island is relatively untouched by the Hilton’s and Marriott’s of the world and the 3000 or so residents now realize the importance of restoring their homeland and proudly showing their heritage to the 50,000 who visit yearly. Only Easter Islanders can own land and the Chilean government helps considerably. A UNESCO site since 1995, it took a long time for the islanders to stop clearing their land of stone Moai (statues) and Abu (platforms) and recognize their historical importance.

The Easter Islanders are over 90% direct descendents of the original Polynesians that settled the island, traveling by canoe, probably from the Marquesas over 1,000 miles away.

1 Comment

  1. peter on November 21, 2016 at 2:06 pm

    you are such a dork