Took me really a while to get this post uploaded. But even though we are currently around 6000km away, I can’t miss to tell you about this unforgettable experience, one of my favorites so far!
I have to admit I previously didn’t know anything about Easter Island, maybe apart from photos of its famous statues. I didn’t even know it’s The Easter Island (there’s only one) or that it’s part of Chile, and never had it on my radar for our Chile visit.
The map of our guidebook had this funny little dot far away in the ocean which started to get me a bit curious, but travelling thousands of kilometers just for one little island where just the flight alone costs you $ 1000 wasn’t very high on our priority.
It was only after travelers and Chileans kept on telling us that we shouldn’t miss out on it, that we got more interested. And when the tip of a local to check the airline’s website regularly for promotions fruited in getting super cheap tickets at $ 300, it was a done deal.
Off we went from Santiago, in a straight line 2500km west towards the empty blue Pacific. Famous for its extreme isolation with no other living soul around for a 2000km radius and with only 1 or 2 planes per day landing, its quite the contrast for somebody living in Singapore!
Btw, most people don’t realize how big the Pacific is! I guess as most of us rarely get there. We actually tried to find some suitable flight connection over the Pacific to Singapore, as we thought it much closer that way than flying back over the Atlantic. But turns out its still a long way and there are just too few long haul flights that way which makes it too cumbersome and expensive.
… sometimes I am still thinking back of that Tahiti – Fidji – New Zealand – Singapore connection…. But never mind 😉
Arriving on the island, you will quickly learn the two most important words of the local (Rapa Nui) language: Ahu and Moai. Ahu refers to a burial site, prepared for the more wealthy families, dotted around the whole coast of the island. And an integral part of any Ahu are the Moais, stone statues preserving the souls of the buried family members
This tradition has likely been followed for centuries and over time covering nearly the entire coast of the only 20km long island. Directly in Hanga Roa, the only city of the island, you get a great introduction into Ahus and Moais with a few nicely restored specimen.
The Moais are so abundant, you even find them watching the local football and rugby matches.
Restoration has in general been very limited, purposely, and mostly consisted of lifting up some of the topped over statues. In fact, the whole tradition of building moais stopped all of a sudden at some point in the distant past and all the moais were topped over by the locals. The reason for this is one of the many mysteries of the island, but might be either due to internal fighting or due to food scarcity and locals loosing the faith in the power of the moais.
We stayed with a Swiss – Rapa Nui couple, who has three fantastic bungalows in the outskirt of town and also doubled as guide, sharing with us a wealth of background and insights into the island. As Yang Ke was still suffering a bit from back-pain we started slowly and went on two half-day trips with the husband, bringing us to a few great sights.
Here at the rim of a huge inactive volcano:
Here the backside of one particular Ahu.
To anybody who has been following our blog from the start, should look this very familiar!
Exactly, it looks like a typical Inca wall. Which is the reason for some people speculating that Easter Island has South American roots instead of Asian. (If you get the chance watch the great movie Kon-Tiki)
The biggest restoration project on the island has been on one of the major Ahus, founded by a Japanese tycoon, resulting in a spectacular sight of 15, quite distinct Moais.
Wait, or was it 16?
My personal highlight of the whole island was however the quarry, where all the moais have been constructed. We liked it so much that we visited it two times, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to see it under different light settings.
Remember how I mentioned that the tradition of Moais stopped all of a sudden? And with all of a sudden I really mean from one day to the next. This makes the visit of the quarry such a unique experience. Because of the island’s extreme isolation there have been very few damages to the site, apart from natural erosion , and the quarry as you see it today is basically how it has been left nearly 300 years ago. The locals had established a massive chain production line with different groups of people being responsible for different stages of the production and transportation. That’s why there were more than 200 still in preparation when they just decided to stop
[And if you look sharply at the above photo you can already see many on the left side of the quarry]
The majority of the Moai is actually underground. During its production the Moai was shifted from the mountain into a prepared hole in the ground, so that people could more easily work on the head of the Moai. Over time the holes have been overgrown with vegetation, so that nowadays only the heads are sticking out.
We spent another day on our own with a rented jeep and had a great day re-visiting some sites and exploring a few others. Like the island’s only sand beach, which, of course, also comes with a nice set of Moai.
You will meet only very few other people outside of town and its more likely to “bump” into a horse than a foreign tourist.
Apart from officially being part of Chile and getting a lot of subsidies from the mainland, the roots of the Rapa Nui actually sit in Polynesia and they share more similarity with aborigines from Tahiti and New Zealand with a very distinct appearance, culture and mentality.
It’s a must for every visitor to at least experience one of their dance shows. Even though its performed for tourists, you can feel that its still a very active tradition and every dancers gives 100%!
On and off the locals have the tendency to play with the idea of independence and just a few months ago they kicked out the Chilean park rangers and replaced them with Rapa Nui guards. Lucky for us as they dont make you pay the park entrance fee 😉
Considering the island has very little own resources, even most of its food is imported from the mainland, and considering the vast amounts of money Chile is pouring into subsidized hospitals, schools and jobs without imposing any taxes on locals whatsoever, it seems however a quite ridiculous idea to attempt independence. There are apparently some issues that the increasing wealth of the island attracts more mainland workers, but for tourists it remains an exclusive and authentic experience. With only one plane per day its just impossible to get crowded 😉