Easter Island
Easter Island (Rapa Nui in Rapa Nui or Isla de Pascua in Spanish) is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle. Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
Contents
Open Water Swimming
- Cristian Vergara attempted a 38-mile (61 km) circumnavigation swim around Easter Island on 29 November 2016 that ended in 26 hours 52 minutes.
- Sarah Ferguson completed the 60 km circumnavigation swim around Easter Island on 16 March 2019 in 19 hours 8 minutes. This first circumnavigation swim of Easter Island was announced by Plastic Oceans International and Breathe Conservation with the following escort team: observer and Director of Cientifica Plastic Oceans Chile Camila Ahrendt, coach and feeder Sarah Houston, Dr. Rentia Denissen, safety coordinator John McCarthy, support staff Marta Vigoroux, escort boat captain Hian Schneider, escort kayaker Juan Gustavo Ogaz, escort kayak team of Te Manu ko Nui, escort kayaker Gabriel Lillo, videographers/photographers Erik Aleynikov and Karl Oftebro, along with collaborations with the Chilean Navy, Hanga Roa Hospital, Nanaky yacht (Nautica Rapa Nui), Kayak Rapa Nui, Hotel Hotu Matua, and Discover Agency. The swim was the subject of the 58-minute documentary film Against The Current.
Against The Current Trailer
Plastic Oceans International produced the 58-minute documentary film Against The Current about the unprecedented 60 km circumnavigation swim around Easter Island by South African open water swimmer Sarah Ferguson in 19 hours 8 minutes in March 2019. Narrated by Matthew Modine.
Swimming Easter Island
Swimming Easter Island is a book written John McCarthy, his eyewitness account of the global effort that resulted in South Africa’s Sarah Ferguson becoming the first person to swim around the perimeter of Easter Island, known locally as Rapa Nui.
Habitation
Polynesian people most likely settled on Easter Island sometime between 700 and 1100 CE, and created a thriving and industrious culture as evidenced by the island's numerous enormous stone moai and other artifacts. However, human activity, the introduction of the Polynesian rat and overpopulation led to gradual deforestation and extinction of natural resources which severely weakened the Rapa Nui civilization. By the time of European arrival in 1722, the island's population had dropped to 2,000–3,000 from an estimated high of approximately 15,000 just a century earlier. European diseases and Peruvian slave raiding in the 1860s further reduced the Rapa Nui population, to a low of only 111 inhabitants in 1877.
Location
Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The nearest inhabited land (around 50 residents in 2013) is Pitcairn Island, 2,075 km (1,289 miles) away; the nearest town with a population over 500 is Rikitea, on the island of Mangareva, 2,606 km (1,619 miles) away; the nearest continental point lies just in central Chile, 3,512 km (2,182 miles) away.
Easter Island is a special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888. Administratively, it belongs to the Valparaíso Region, and, more specifically, it is the only commune of the Province Isla de Pascua. According to the 2012 Chilean census, the island has about 5,800 residents, of whom some 60%are descendants of the aboriginal Rapa Nui.
Name
The name "Easter Island" was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday on 5 April 1722, while searching for Davis or David's island. Roggeveen named it Paasch-Eyland (18th-century Dutch for "Easter Island"). The island's official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means "Easter Island".
The current Polynesian name of the island, Rapa Nui ("Big Rapa"), was coined after the slave raids of the early 1860s, and refers to the island's topographic resemblance to the island of Rapa in the Bass Islands of the Austral Islands group.
Climate
The climate of Easter Island is classified as a tropical rainforest climate that borders on a humid subtropical climate. Winters are relatively mild. Easter Island's isolated location exposes it to winds which help to keep the temperature fairly cool.
Transportation
Easter Island is served by Mataveri International Airport, with jet service (currently Boeing 767s and Boeing 787s) from LAN Airlines and, seasonally, subsidiaries such as LAN Peru.
9 Most Mysterious Islands
External links
- New Documentary From Plastic Oceans International "Against the Current"
- The World Oceans Day Swim In Durban
- Against The Current, For A Greater Cause
- Eyewitness Account of Sarah Ferguson’s Easter Island Circumnavigation Swim
- Swimming Easter Island
- The Roaring '20s Of Open Water Swimming
- Easter Island Bradshaw Foundation
- Cristian Vergara's Easter Island Circumnavigation
- Cristian Vergara Getting Ready To Round Easter Island
- World Open Water Swimming Association
- Open Water Swimming
- Cristian Vergara Ready To Roll 'Round Easter Island
- Around Easter Island, 26 Hours 52 Minutes Later
- Something To Think About
- Sarah Ferguson Swims Circumnavigation Of Easter Island
- SA endurance swimmer Sarah Ferguson sets a new world record
- Where Tranquility Replaces Turbulence
- It Takes A Village To Swim Around An Island
