More horses than humans on Easter Island / Rapa Nui

Anywhere you are on the island, you will see lots of horses. They are everywhere. They seem to be roaming freely all over. They do not respect peoples privacy. The walk all over fields, gardens, among statutes and in the streets. Whether we were hiking or driving, on our way to archeological sites, we always met horses on our way. Most of the horses are tame and have an owner. Our landlady told us that there probably is up to 30.000 horses on the island!

The island was discovered by a Duthch explorer. Because this happend on Easter Sunday (1722) the island was named Easter Island. But to the locals the name is Rapa Nui. This tiny island is located thousand of kilometers from the Chilean coast ( it’s part of Chile) and other islands in the Pacific Ocean. It's famous because of the ancient statues that has attracted archeologist from around the wold. The archeological sites are the main reson to visit the island.

We had a rental car to be able to get arount the island to explore the archiological sites. It happend often that we had to slow down, or even stop because of horses on the road. Often they walked along the roads.

Hanga Roa is the only town on the island. It's not big, but does have lots of restaurants and hotels. I guess this is where most people stay. The horses also walk the streets in town. When I was sitting in a cafe on the oppostie side, this horse came walking on the opposite side. I did wonder why they come into town...

I am not used to having domestic animals roaming freely around. The horses on Easter Island was a new experience to me. Since they are living on a small island, there is no way they can escape, so ofcourse, they can just as well roam freely around.