Chile: Easter Island

Easter Island (Rapa Nui in local language) is without any doubts one of the most beautiful and intriguing places on Earth. Located in the middle of Pacific ocean (4000 km away from Chile and 7000 km from Hawaii), it is rightfully considered to be at the end of the world. Its remote location and the desire of local people to protect their unique culture and habits, is what makes the island truly authentic even in the present era of globalization.

It was Dimo’s dream to visit Easter Island. So, when deciding to go back to South America after the good experience in Colombia (you can find here the two articles about Columbia), Chile was immediately on the list. It was natural that when going to Chile we have to visit Easter Island as well.

The Programme

The visit of Easter island was part of a longer holiday- 3 weeks in which we visited 3 countries. Starting with a short visit of Argentina, then Chile with Easter Island and Mexico as a last stop. Besides Easter Island, we visited Chili’s Atacama desert, Valparaiso and Santiago. You can read the stories of our trips in the respective articles.

Easter Island is probably one of the most difficult places to reach (and also quite expensive). There are only two airports from where you can catch a flight – Santiago and Tahiti. The Tahiti flight is once per week which leaves you basically only one option. We have to admit that the ticket price was almost the same as going to Chile from Europe. But we thought: Ok, this happens once in a lifetime. Said- done. We booked flights to Easter Island and organized the whole trip around them.

We knew that the Tapati carnival takes place at this time of the year (it’s 2 weeks usually in February). During such events it can be a bit too touristic or crowded, but after watching some videos from previous festival editions, we were sure it is the right timing. We booked 3 nights on the Easter Island. The flight from Santiago lands very early in the morning, so we had 3 full days. This is enough to see all the important points on the island. However, due to long journey to get there, we recommend that you consider at least 4-5 days to fully enjoy it.

Lili’s 6 good-to-know tips when travelling to Easter Island:

• You have to buy a National Park Ticket to explore the island. There is a checkpoint at every archeological site in the Park. At the time of our visit the cost was USD80. Our tip is to buy the ticket in the city centre to avoid the queues at the airport kiosk.
• The island is very small– 16, 17 and 24 km are the lengths of its triangle form. You can easily reach every point by car, motorcycle or even bike.

  

• The high season is January-March. We highly recommend visiting during the Tapati festival. This is an annual event with traditional games, dances and activities. More about it in the respective section below 🙂
• The Easter Island is in a different time zone than Chile (GMT -5). Our mobile phones did not recognize this, so you better switch to manual time setting.
• The prices are quite high. Of course, this is a tiny island in the middle of the ocean and the delivery of goods is expensive. There are supermarkets where you can buy food in case you want to stay on budget. We can recommend the place where we stayed – Hostal Petero Atamu – affordable and clean with breakfast included in the room rate.
• The wi-fi is scarce. Even if your accommodation includes wi-fi, most probably it will be very weak and slow. You get the best chance for a proper Internet access during the night or very early in the morning.

  

Easter Island at a glance

Many people think that there is more than one Easter island, however, the island is just one and it is Easter IslanD, not Easter IslandS. I assume the confusion was created by some geography books in the past which were referring to it in plural. The island has around 8000 inhabitants. They are split as follows: 50% Polynesian, 30% Chileans from mainland, 15% mixed and 5% internationals.

The Easter island was formed through eruptive processes from three principal volcanoes- Poike, Rano Kao and Terevaka (only the last two are accessible to visitors) some three million years ago. The volcanoes shaped Rapa Nui’s typical relief, dotted with craters, soft hills and lava fields.

The island has fresh, rainy water, gathered in the craters of the volcanoes. Most of the other essential resources such as fuel come with ships from Val Paraiso (continental Chile). The ships need about 12-15 days to get there. An interesting fact is the absence of a major port on the Easter island. There was an idea to build a big port already in 1960, but the locals were opposing this due to nature preservation reasons. And maybe it is better this way. Otherwise the island is going to be overpopulated and will have a similar fate as in the past (to be explained in the next paragraphs).

Easter Island’s history

It isn’t confirmed when the Easter Island was first discovered. According to some sources it was found by a Polynesian tribe in the IVth century, while according to others it was the VIIIth century. This expedition aimed at colonizing new lands, as the Polynesians brought many plants and species with them.

Only within a couple of centuries, the population multiplied and developed a culture surprisingly complex, highly stratified and organized into 12 tribes. Some sources say that the population back then was 15-20 000 people.

The territory of the island was divided into “stripes” which started from the shore towards the inland. The coastal area was reserved for the ceremonial centers and for the groups with a high social rank. The main reason was simple- closer to the shore there was more chance to find food (prevalently fish). The ordinary people lived inland where they constructed houses, planted crops and bred animals.

Despite uncertainty about its first settlement, one thing is for sure- in 1722 on an Easter Sunday (where the Easter Island name comes from), the little-known Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen and his ship docked at Anakena Beach. This was when the island became known to the rest of the world.

The Moai- the unveiled mystery

Moai (pronounced as you read it) is the name of the symbolic statues which you can find only on the Easter Island. You can read a lot on the Internet about them. Here we mention just few things which we found interesting and will help you understand the story better.

Worshiping ancestors was significant part of the Easter Island inhabitants’ spiritual lives. The locals (also referred to as “Rapanui”) believed that important people’s mana (spiritual energy) continued to exist even after their death. The spirits of the ancestors had to be worshiped in order to provide food and protection for their descendants – a belief that materialized in the construction of the moai statues. When a tribe’s leader or one of its important members dies a sculpture would be created in the quarry of the Rano Raraku volcano. It would be then transported to the respective village to project its mana over the people.

There are more than 850 moai on the island- different sizes and locations. The moai statues were always placed looking towards the village (and not towards the see) to extend a “protective blanket” over the future generations. There is only one exception, where the moai face the ocean, but more about it a bit later in the article.

Moai statue structure

The Moai material is a volcanic rock. For the eyes they used corals and for the iris- a special volcanic glass. Unfortunately, because of the humidity, a special type of fungus (white in colour) covers partially the statues nowadays. So the beautiful eye decoration can be seen only in a small number of moai.

Some of the moai have a top part, which is called pukao (looks a bit like a hat). Although it looks as if it is being somehow glued to the body, it is just placed on top of it. The pukao looks light, but sometimes its weight can be up to several tones.

The statues were placed over huge altars called Ahu.

The Rapanui had an obsession with building bigger and bigger moai statues (the biggest one measured at about 200 tons!). The manufacturing was extremely resource-intensive. This in combination with overpopulation is believed to be the reason for significant food shortages and tribal conflicts between the 15th and the 18th century. The prolonged period of insufficient resources led to giving up the faith in the moais’ protective power. Respectively their construction was abandoned and many of the statues were torn down.

Despite discontinued construction, the excessive use of wood has already left its mark through the extinction of forests. Enormous amount of palm trunks and rope made from bark were needed for the manufacture and transportation of the moai. Species like the island’s endemic palm tree and the Sandal wood were among the extinct. So the palm trees that you will see today are actually “imported” after the mass felling.

What to see/ do on Easter Island?

• Rano Kau volcano crater

The crater of Rano Kau offers a spectacular view, reminding of the volcanic origins of Rapa Nui. Its crater is now the main location to conserve and preserve of the island’s native flora.

Just next to the volcano’s crater you will see the ruins of an ancient village – Orongo.

Although there is a half-day trip as a standard tourist excursion, which includes Rano Kau and Orongo, we decided to visit it on our own. We rented bikes (from the main street of Hanga Roa) for half a day at a price of CLP8000.

The ride started by the sea and then continued uphill. I have to admit it was a tough one. Although the mountain does not look steep, the volcano is at 324 meters above the sea level. So in case you choose to do the same, have in mind that it would take some time and muscle power to get to the top.

• One day trip around the island

We highly recommend doing this. We usually try to avoid organized tours to explore on our own. But on the Easter Island the organized excursion is a good way to learn details about the history of the island and the places of interest. We chose an organized tour at a relatively low price of  CLP20000 or around EUR30 per person (for a comparison the private tour alternative was priced at EUR240). The groups are usually up to 20-25 people. And the main points of interest aren’t overcrowded, contrary to your (and our) expectations 🙂

We can recommend the Kia Koe Tour tourist office (the price they offered was almost half the one we got at other tourist bureaus). And the experience was a very good one. The tour takes around 6-7 hours (you leave your hotel around 9:30 in the morning and you are back at around 17:00).

Which are the sites you are going to visit during this one day trip on Easter Island:

1. Hanga Te’e

Near the ceremonial platform you will see 8 moai statues all of which lying with their faces on the ground. This place (which is mainly ruins) is a good example of the so-called huri moai period or demolition of the moai, which we mentioned above.

2. Akahanga

Akahanga is the burial place of the first king of the Easter island. The houses in this ancient village have an elliptical shape and remind of boats. Very typical are the special stone ovens (a.k.a. umu pae). The locals used 5 stones to create the oven (the name Pae means “5” in local language).

As mentioned, this place was the burial place of the first king. The info on the official Rapa Nui website says: “According to oral tradition, the first king of the island, the legendary ariki Hotu Matu’a was buried in this place. His sons moved him from the top of the Rano Kau volcano, where he had his final resting place, to Akahanga.

3. Tongariki

Ahu Tongariki is one of our favourite places. It has a vibrant energy and an interesting story to tell. There was a devastating tsunami in 1960 caused by an 9.6 earthquake in Chile.

The big ten-meter waves reached as far as Asia and destroyed many Polynesian islands on their way. Ahu Tongariki was the main point of impact on the Easter Island. Some of the statues were pushed about 400 meters inland.

The tsunami ruined the place almost completely. It was only revived by a gesture, offered by Japan in the end of the 1990s. Japan provided special machinery, which transported the statues back to their original place. Thanks to them we can now see the 15 moai standing majestically on the platform. Further below in the article is the amazing view of Tongariki from Rano Raraku.

Ahu Tongariki is a famous spot for observing the sunrise. We wanted to see it, but we underestimated the length of the trip from Hanga Roa and just managed to get halfway there. Still, even from the road the sunset was truly magnificent.

4. Rano Raraku

This is the volcano mountain where Rapanui manufactured the moai. Unlike the other places where you see the whole part of the statue, here most of the statues are underneath the ground. Hundreds of statues are laying on the slope of the volcano aging at different stages of finalization.

Some of the most famous ones:

•     Piri-piri
•    Moai tuturi- the kneeling statue, which is very different from the rest. It has a traditional Polynesian shape.

  

Some of the statues are also having tattoos or petroglyphs.

After you visit the statues part, you can go to the volcano crater (it’s just 10 mins walk uphill). Although it was not that spectacular as Rano Kau, it is amazing to see the volcano crater and the statues behind on the slope.

5. Te Pito Kura

The Ahu of the last moai. Unfortunately this moai is also on the ground. The most interesting thing about this ancient village was the decoration which Rapa Nui had in front of their houses. Te Pito Kura is a sacred place.

6. Anakena beach

This was one of our favourite locations. It was the last stop of the day tour, but the time we had to explore it was not enough. That is why we came back on the next day. We rented a motorcycle and went to the places where we wanted to spend more time. Like Anakena beach.

This is the only sand beach on the island (the rest of the island is very rocky). The Ahu (ahu means huge altar, remember? 🙂 oversees the beach and the turquoise water. Even now when we write about it and go through our photos, it feels surreal that we had visited this magical place. You could envisage a full day here to have enough time for sightseeing and sunbathing.

And when you get hungry or thirsty there are two restaurants, offering some delicious food and drinks. Around the beach there is a palm tree forest which adds additional charm and spirit to your experience.

• Ahu Akivi

This site is part of another half-day trip which you can make. However we included it in our third day when we travelled across the island with a motorcycle. When we missed the sunrise at Any Tongariki, we decided it might be a good opportunity and also nice to see the sunrise at Ahu Akivi (it has a small slope behind, so the sun appears slightly later on the horizon).

The two times we went there (at sunrise and then in the afternoon on our way back from Anakena beach), we were all alone. Having the statues to admire on our own – it was simply once in a lifetime experience.

• Watch the sunset at Ahu Tahai

Most probably you will be staying at the main city of Hanga Roa, so visiting Ahu Tahai would be an easy task (it is nearby). When we visited the place in February, the sunset was at around 21:00.

As there are quite some volunteers to enjoy the sunset, it’s better that you go there early enough in order to get the best spot. The weather on the island is changing quite fast and it is very likely that there will be some clouds (which makes the sunset view even more spectacular).

• Visit the Tapati carnival

This is a must-do. If you are able to choose the timing of your trip, choose February. The parade was one of the most amazing things we have ever seen. It seemed as if the whole island population (and half of the visitors as well) are taking part in it. Body painters make tourists look like locals 🙂

But what is the Tapati?

Tapati Rapa Nui literally means “Week of Rapa Nui” in the local language and is the most important cultural festival on the island. It includes a series of traditional games and events that take place every year in the first half of February. The festival is a tribute to the ancestral traditions of the Rapanui, reviving and preserving the cultural identity of this fascinating corner of the planet.

The people are dressed in traditional attire made by feathers or other natural materials, with painted bodies and faces.

People were moving slowly down the streets along with big moving platforms. Everyone was singing and dancing. If you, however, come at a different time of the year, make sure that you visit one of the dancing shows offered in some the restaurants. It is far from the original Tapati feeling, but is still a way to touch the local culture.

• Stamp your passport with Rapa Nui sign.

Well, we are not sure if this is fully in accordance with passport rules, but so far we haven’t read about any issues with it. One thing to have in mind – the stamping is done at the Tourist Information center. You can find it on the beach alley where all souvenir booths are (if you are facing the ocean, it would be on the left end of the street/ alley). The stamping is free of charge and it is a nice souvenir from this amazing trip.

• Try the Tres Leches cake

This is a Chilean sweet specialty, made of three different types of milk. I’m definitely not a person who eats deserts. However, Dimo loved the cake. Just visit Moiko Ra’s Cafe and ask for it 🙂 I also tried it and this was a big mistake- it was so good, that we were coming to this place every day afterwards 🙂 We tried it at other places across Chile as well, but nothing was like the one we ate at Moiko Ra’a. You will not regret giving it a try.

• Try traditional Easter Island dishes

The traditional cuisine is based on fish and seafood: tuna, mahi mahi, swordfish, lobster, shrimp and others. The dishes are flavored by various agricultural products, such as sweet potatoes, taro, yams, plantain and sugarcane.

The most traditional dish is the Umu Rapa Nui, which is cooked in a hole in the ground with firewood and red-hot stones, the same way it was made hundreds of years ago. The hot stones are covered with plantain leaves. Then meat or fish is placed on the leaves and covered again with more leaves and stones. A second layer is placed on top of it with sweet potatoes, taro and tapioca and covered again. The heat cooks the food very slowly and needs long time, but the end result is worth the waiting 🙂

Another traditional dish is the Tunu Ahi: tuna fish cooked on hot stones or grill.

Well, our relatively short trip to the dreamed Easter Island came to an end. We hope you have the chance to get there and enjoy it as much as we did!

For more tips what to do in Chile, we created a special section for you. In you are interested in ideas for other long haul vacations, we also have something for you.

Maururu– or thank you on the language of Rapa Nui people!