🌍 🇨🇱 Chile Weird Island🏝

#localescapes The end of the southern hemisphere summer is a fine time to make a trip to Easter Island: the flight schedule remains regular and temperatures are balmy but no longer sweltering. And, while of course the hundreds of moai statues – or ‘Easter Island heads’ – are the main attraction, it should come as little surprise that the surfing and diving here is world class. Guided dives can even take you to a submerged moai, near Hanga Roa, the island’s main town. Plus, it’s not too hot to take a hike, preferably along the north-west coastal path, where there are fallen moais, bright-green pastures and spectacular South Pacific views. The island’s population represents the easternmost settlement of a basically Polynesian subgroup that probably derived from the Marquesas group. The original Rapa Nui vocabulary has been lost except for some mixed Polynesian and non-Polynesian words recorded before the Tahitian dialect was introduced to the decimated population by missionaries in 1864. Today Spanish is generally spoken. In their traditions, the islanders consistently divide themselves into descendants of two distinct ethnic groups, the “Long-Ears” and the “Short-Ears” (see below). Intermarriage is common, and an influx of foreign blood has become increasingly dominant in recent years.