Easter Island

Sallie & Bill-Easter Island
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Today is the first unpleasant day weatherwise, that we have had. It’s cloudy and the seas are moderately rough but no one is complaining as veteran travelers have never seen the Pacific as calm and beautiful as we have enjoyed the past week. We anticipated that with a trip this long, we would have a few disappointments and we had our first one two days ago when huge swells made it unsafe to use the ship’s tenders to go ashore on Easter Island for a special tour. Our visit coincided with the 2 week long Tapa Rapa Nui Festival celebrating the rich Polynesian heritage of the Island. As disappointed as we were, the natives must have .been more so as they were looking forward to feeding and entertaining us.Fortunately, our visiting lecturer, Sir Matthew “Tony” Wilson, who has been there 8 times, was able during his slide lectures and his running commentary over the ship’s speaker system, as we made the 66 mile circle close into shore around the island, to help us feel better. This small island,, more than 2300 miles from Valparaiso, is believed to have been settled by the Polynesian”s but there were only a few natives when a Dutch explorer , commanding three small Dutch vessels landed on April 5^th,Easter Sunday, 1722 and that’s how it got it’s name. The Island is famous for it’s more than 400 Moai, monolithic stone statues some weighing over 30 tons. How they were carved at the quarry and transported all over the island is a mystery. Over the years the inhabitants of this Island were abused by many foreigners including Americans,particularly South Americans who took slaves from the few inhabitants there..Since 1888 the island has belonged. to Chile

Our newest 97 yr old friend,Ilse Smith,Pensacloa,FL.
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The Pacific Ocean is truly a wonder..It occupies about 1/3 of the earth’s surface and is largely a deep sea plain about 4.3 miles deep. The deepest part isalmost 11 miles deep-The Challanger Deep in the Marianas trench near Guam The blue colors are truly beautiful and on Monday even the Captain said he had never seen it more calm. It’s not calm for us though even while at sea. We keep busy doing all the things we like and enjoying meeting new people and telling each other lies about each other. The other night Sallie didn’t feel like dinner and I ended up being seated with a couple from England and two attractive widows traveling together from London. One had lived in Herndon,Va. The next night the Wests and the Wallaces were asked to have dinner with the ship’s safety officer, a young attractive Italian and two lady guests from Milan,one a Contessa-. A lot of interesting people and a lot of interesting conversation. It’s nice to meet people from where we have traveled.

Guest Lecturer, Sir Matthew "Tony"Wilson
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Tomorrow we will be at Pitcarin Island-famous because it was the scene of the mutiny of HSS Bounty which has been the subject of a number of books and movies. It is a small Island part of the UK and is located about half way between The Panama Canal and Australia & New Zealand. As result a lot of ships make a brief stop although there aren’t many inhabitants and not one restaurant. It is believed that this is the island Rodgers and Hamerstein had in mind when they wrote the music, Bali Hai.