Thousands of Pagans and New Agers flock to Easter Island for solar eclipse
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Pastor Dale Morgan
Jul 12, 2010, 2:28:52 AM7/12/10
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Perilous Times
Thousands of Pagans and New Agers flock to Easter Island for solar eclipse
Thousands of Pagans and New Agers have flocked to remote Easter Island for a rare solar eclipse, putting strains on a tiny speck of land which already struggles to cope with water pollution, overcrowding and deforestation.
By Nick Squires
Published: 7:20PM BST 11 Jul 2010
Some of the famous moai statues, believed to be 3,000 years old
The arrival of an estimated 4,000 Visitors, doubled the population of the island, which is famous for its mysterious giant stone statues.
As the island tried to absorb the influx, forecasts of bad weather threatened to disappoint the small army of tourists and to obscure what should have been one of the planet’s best views of the eclipse.
Astronomers consider the island, which lies roughly halfway between Chile and New Zealand, to be the best place in the world to see the four minute eclipse.
The shadow was expected to envelop Easter Island in darkness at around 2011 GMT, before moving east across the Pacific along a narrow, 7,000 mile long corridor.
The island’s governor, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, insisted that the 60 square mile chunk of land, known as Rapa Nui to its indigenous Polynesian inhabitants, had the capacity to absorb so many tourists.
But Easter Island is struggling to accommodate a more long-term increase in population, as a growing number of outsiders choose to settle on the island, which is governed by Chile.
Last year the Chilean government proposed introducing stricter immigration controls and to limit the number of tourists in order to protect the fragile ecosystem and the world famous moai statues, which are believed to be 3,000 years old.
Thousands of Pagans and New Agers flock to Easter Island for solar eclipse
Thousands of Pagans and New Agers have flocked to remote Easter Island for a rare solar eclipse, putting strains on a tiny speck of land which already struggles to cope with water pollution, overcrowding and deforestation.
By Nick Squires
Published: 7:20PM BST 11 Jul 2010
Some of the famous moai statues, believed to be 3,000 years old
The arrival of an estimated 4,000 Visitors, doubled the population of the island, which is famous for its mysterious giant stone statues.
As the island tried to absorb the influx, forecasts of bad weather threatened to disappoint the small army of tourists and to obscure what should have been one of the planet’s best views of the eclipse.
Astronomers consider the island, which lies roughly halfway between Chile and New Zealand, to be the best place in the world to see the four minute eclipse.
The shadow was expected to envelop Easter Island in darkness at around 2011 GMT, before moving east across the Pacific along a narrow, 7,000 mile long corridor.
The island’s governor, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, insisted that the 60 square mile chunk of land, known as Rapa Nui to its indigenous Polynesian inhabitants, had the capacity to absorb so many tourists.
But Easter Island is struggling to accommodate a more long-term increase in population, as a growing number of outsiders choose to settle on the island, which is governed by Chile.
Last year the Chilean government proposed introducing stricter immigration controls and to limit the number of tourists in order to protect the fragile ecosystem and the world famous moai statues, which are believed to be 3,000 years old.
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