Easter Island travel

The enigma of Easter Island

Easter Island has attracted lot of curiosity from the first time it was found by Europeans in 1722. Hundreds of giant statues with enigmatic expressions facing their back to the ocean intrigued the early explorers. “Who, how and why did they built such huge statues? How did they move the statues?” were the unanswered questions during those days. While there are some answers today, the island still has lot of mysteries to be solved!!

 

The size and remoteness of the island also added to the mystery. It is about 24 km long by 12 km at its widest point. The nearest continental land is 3,500 km and the next inhabited island is about 2,000 km away!! This triangular shaped island has dead volcanoes on each corner!!

History of Easter Island

The island was colonised by the group of villagers from Polynesian islands, led by Hotu Matu’a. The timing of landing is contested as it ranges from 4th to 12th century based on various sources of information. Irrespective of the timing, it is clear that within few centuries, that the population multiplied and developed a culture. During this time, the moais were built – monolithic human figures carved from stone.

 

With the increase in population and deforestation, the competition for resources increased. Internal war broke out between the long ears (elite people) and short ears (working class). During this period mois were toppled as the short ear people took over the island. Due to shortage of food, cannibalism became widespread practice. When the Europeans first found the island in 1722 (On Easter Sunday and hence the name), the civilisation was in a very bad shape. The contact of Europeans hastened the decline of Easter Island people. The diseases and slave trade created havoc depleting the population to mere 111 people by 1877. Almost all information related to the island was lost in this period.

Some oral tradition passed on from generations and recent scientific findings are helping to unearth of mystery of this island. Thanks to intervention of various groups, the population went up and now there are about 8,000 people on the island. Though the island has Polynesian culture, it is now governed by Chile.

My plan

I had heard about Easter Island during my childhood days but I never imagined that I would reach a stage where I can visit this place. The trigger was about couple of years back when I started listing “remote places”. Easter Island figured a place in the list and I just added it to my backlog.

When I included Chile in my South America plan (Read my post here), I decided to add Easter Island to the itinerary. My first action was to book the flight ticket. Easter Island has very limited connectivity – there are only two flights daily from Santiago and a weekly flight from Tahiti. LATAM has complete monopoly on these routes. Prices normally range between 400 to 1200 USD. When I tried to book, the price was on the upper side. I decided not to book but wait. At some moment of time, I saw the price at 500 USD and I went ahead and booked it. I later reserved a homestay using booking.com

At Santiago airport

There was a separate check-in counter for Easter Island flight. In order to preserve the local culture, Chile Government has put certain restrictions for travelling to Easter Island. People have to complete an online form providing personal details and information on return ticket and hotel accommodation. The form will be provided by LATAM after booking the ticket. We had to go through a mini immigration showing these details. If you bypass, you will not be able to board the flight!!

At Hanga Roa Airport

As the Latam flight landed at Mataveri airport in Easter Island, I was filled with emotion as I never imagined that I will be visiting such places in my lifetime. I purchased the National park ticket at the airport (which is needed at many archaeological sites), picked up my bag and came out of the tiny airport. It was surprising to see the land lady of my guest house holding a placard with my name. A bigger surprise was when she garlanded me!! It looked like a tradition in that island. Even though the guest house was just few hundred meters from airport, she took me to the various parts of the town showing me the restaurants, markets, Free Wi-Fi area, ATM and other important places. Easter Island looked like a big village!! I liked it a lot.

 

It was Sunday and most tour agencies were closed but my land lady said that she would call and make bookings on behalf of me. I booked a full day tour and two half day tours. It would ensure that I visited the most important places of the island. A more flexible way was to rent a car but it was not economical for a solo traveler. Anyway, with the plans done for my stay in Easter Island, I walked to visit Tahai, on the outskirts of the town of Hanga Roa to see the first moai. Hanga Roa is the capital city of Easter Island.

Evening in Tahai

A statue consist of three parts. Ahu – the platform, actual statue and the hat. Recent discoveries indicate that it is not the hat but the hair represented by red stone of top of the head!! Tahai has three platform and a total of 7 moais.

 

Tahai is mainly known for sunset views. I had to wait for a long time as the sunset happened at 8:15PM!!

 

This is the only place where a moai with an eye socket can be found!!

Full day tour

As mention, I went for a full day tour and two half day tours. The full day tours consisted of visit to northern and eastern part of the Island. Here are some of the most important places visited.

Vaihu

A tour to Vaihu provided another aspect of Easter Island. One was the recreation of the village atmosphere during the time of early Polynesian people. The houses were all small to handle the winds that blow during winter time.

Tongariki

This has the largest group of standing moais in Easter Island. The 15 standing statues are a great treat to watch. This place was severally damaged in 1960 tsunami. It took nearly 4 decade to restore the place. The statues are all in different sizes and form indicating the different time spans during which they were built.

 

Note that this is also a place to watch sunrise. I did not go for it as the weather was cloudy during early mornings during my stay in Easter Island.

Rano Raraku

Where were the statues carved? The query was at Rano Raraku on the slopes of the volcano. Even today, hundreds of statues are lying around in various stages of construction. It looks like the carving was stopped abruptly probably due to local disturbances. It is hard not to go back in history and feel yourself in the midst of those activities!!

 

We also hiked to the volcanic crater nearby.

Anakena

Anakena is the only beach in Easter Island. It was also the place though which the Polynesians first entered the island. This place also has the statues surrounded by the coconut trees.

Half day tour

I went on two half day tours on the second day – southern and western part of the island.

Rano Kau

Rano Kau is an extinct volcano situated on the outskirts of Hanga Roa. The striking aspect of this place is a crater lake against the backdrop of Pacific Ocean. It was a huge crater and it was difficult to photograph it in one complete frame.

Orango

Orango is a stone village and ceremonial center near Rano Kau. One part consists of low ceiling stone houses. The other part is the view of Pacific Ocean and the small islands of Motu Nui and Motu Iti.

 

After the fall of Moai building civilisation, bird man cult came into existence between the 18th and 19th centuries. An annual race was held to bring the bird egg back from the island to Orango covering steep cliffs and crossing ocean.

Ahu Akivi

This is the only place where the moais are placed away from the ocean. Unlike other statues, the ones in Ahu Akivi face towards the direction of ocean. It is said that the seven statues represent the people who first found this island.

Puna Pau

This was the quarry where the Pukao (or the hat like structure) was carved.

Ana Kai Tangata

I utilised the free time I had in the morning of the last day by visiting the sea cave of Ana Kai Tangata. It was about 30 minutes walk from the homestay. There are paintings of birds in the cave. While there are many such caves in the island, most of them are not accessible.

Things to know

• There is no need of additional visa of you are in Chile. But you need to have a return ticket and hotel booking available. You can stay for a maximum of 30 days in the island.
• Easter Island is expensive.
• The biggest cost in Easter Island is the flight. A good deal would be something below 500 US$.
• Accommodation costs are higher when compared to mainland Chile.
• Every item is expensive as they have to come from mainland. I saw few people utilising the 23*2 kg baggage allowance of LATAM to bring in bag of food items.
• While there are no exclusive vegetarian restaurants, it is not hard to find vegetarian food in the restaurants.
• Cash is king in Easter Island. Get Chilean pesos from mainland itself as ATM’s in Easter Island is not very efficient. The conversion rate for other currencies is very bad in the island.
• My TSIM refused to work in Easter Island. The guest house I stayed did not had Wi-Fi. I had to rely on the public Wi-Fi (available at only one place) and the network provided by restaurants. It was not a big issue as I had already informed my family that I would be “unreachable” for few days!!
• Timezone: Easter Island is 2 hours behind Chile.
• It takes about 5 hours of air travel from Santiago to Easter Island.

Easter Island and Indus Valley civilisation

I will end this post with another mystery for which the definitive answer is not yet available. Rongorongo is the writing on wooden tablets in Easter Island. People have not been able to decipher the writing and the ones who knew about it died during European invasion. Interestingly, the scripts found in Indus valley civilisation resembles the Rongorongo script of Easter Island!! Both civilisations existed in different time periods with a difference of nearly 3,500 years and separated by 20,000 km by two great oceans. How they are similar? The enigma of Easter Island continues…