So from Machu Pichu the trip continued to Easter Island, actually a part of Chile. Nobody wanted this island for quite a while until Chile finally said they would take it in an effort to shore up their naval capacity. The statues had been known for quite a while when a Dutch explorer discovered the island and its 100 or so, starving, weary, survivors. The collapse of the society of Easter Island is quite a story. The short version is that around 1000 AD or so, people of Polynesian descent landed on the island (they were apparently extraordinary sailors) and found an island with fertile soil and thick forests. They soon set up shop and some 400 to 500 years after landing on the island, had built up a population of 25,000 or so. These Easter
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