With triangle and each vertex a volcano (Terevaka, Puakatike and Rano Kau), Easter Island offers a unique and endemic fauna make it a place unlike anything seen before. Its hills, tinged with a yellowish green scorched by the sun and windswept almost nonstop we offer miles and miles of visibility, a horizon almost as wide as the ocean that surrounds it, by the total absence of trees.

Photography by Alex Grechman

Deforestation is another of the great mysteries of the island. As they have found evidence of palm groves and tropical plants, some geographers point to the lack of rain or the «Little Ice Age» that occurred between 1650 and 1850 as guilty of extermination of the native flora. Others believe that the most likely reason is the arrival of man. The overcrowding crisis suffered by the island affected both the culture and history of the Rapa Nui people as its vegetation gradually exterminated.

164 km2 resources are very limited and population growth in the clan led his people to a fight over resources that resulted in the destruction of many ceremonial altars, the demolition of moai and the return of the natives to live in caves. These caves are now visible and accessible even for those who dare to walk under the scorching sun Polynesian or engage the services of a local guide show you the depths of the island.

Photography by anoldent

Many of the statues that we see on the island are now lying on the ground and as the chronicles tell they were already at the arrival of Europeans, as historians point to internal wars as the collapse of major implications for the island . But if the rose fell how?

This is another of the mysteries of this enigma in the Pacific. The most plausible theory is that the use of large logs in a ‘Y’ for lifting and other lines for movement. Another reason that adds to the multiple causes that could lead to drastic deforestation faced by the island. Many trunks are needed to mobilize more than a thousand moai on the island there.

Today, Easter Island has about 3,800 inhabitants and belongs to the territory of Chile, but despite its distance from the coast of South America, was not spared the atrocities that followed the colonization of the continent.

But despite the setbacks historical rapanui population has survived and now continues recovering ancestral traditions through oral tradition, since the only writing Polynesian Rongo Rongo, was lost in the mid-nineteenth century with the extermination of the priestly class .

When to visit the island?

The best time to visit the island in February, the inhabitants of Easter Island set aside today adopted Western clothes in everyday life to return to wearing traditional costumes made from reeds (a reed of the island) , shells, flowers and feathers.

This event divides the population into two groups, white and red, competing for 15 days in sports and cultural activities to rise as the winners and put on the throne, «his queen.» Each team has a candidate and around all competitions are organized to recover the culinary traditions, dances and sporting events of their ancestors.

Photography by amanderson2

If you can choose the time when you visit the island, holding the Tapati is undoubtedly the best time to live with their inhabitants is party and to join the competition in the final parade through the streets of Hanga Roa with participants wearing native clothes with almost naked body painting following the ancient traditions.