We love Easter Island! It might be our favourite place on the trip so far.
Arrived here after one of the most comfortable flights ever (Emergency Exit row seats!) The aircraft is so new, it looks as if it’s just been unwrapped from the cellophane.
Mataveri International Airport has a quaint grass-hut terminal. We are greeted with floral leis on arrival.
Interesting airport fact: Easter Island had no useable airport beyond a dirt field until the Americans built a base here (1965-1970) and constructed one. In 1985, they came back and extended the runway to serve as a possible emergency landing strip for the space shuttle.
It feels like we’re on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific. Nobody here is in much of a hurry. Hanga Roa, the main (and only) town, has a population of around 7,000 people.
There is no deep harbour. There’s a small beach in the centre of town that regularly has sea turtles swimming leisurely a few metres from shore.
Needless to say, there are lots of friendly dogs.
Easter Island has an interesting and controversial history. In reality, much about the original Rapa Nui people is unknown, or guessed at wildly. A handful of proven facts:
- humans did not arrive on the island before the year 1200 AD
- Rapa Nui people are Polynesian people, as proved by DNA and linguistic evidence (sorry Thor Heyerdahl, they did NOT come from the South American mainland)
- Rapa Nui people underwent a lot of self-inflicted troubles even before the arrival of satanic Europeans – of course, it was no picnic after Whitey arrived, either
The main draw are the moai, the giant statues that you associate with Easter Island.
It also seemed like a good place to spend Christmas. It turns out there’s a song by an ’80s-’90s English band, Sad Lovers & Giants, titled ‘Christmas on Easter Island‘. The lyrics don’t seem to have much to do with Christmas OR Easter Island, but what the heck.
There are reported to be over 900 moai on the island. Some come in groups.
Some used to have eyes made of coral and obsidian. In this case, they have been restored.
Almost all have long ears, big noses, and beetling brows.
People may remember the comic strip ‘Sherman’s Lagoon‘. Sherman is a shark. He has a friend and preceptor, Kahuna, who is obviously patterned on the moai.
A specialty of the island that we have for lunch almost every day (in different locations): tuna empanadas. These are large empanadas stuffed with thick chunks of fresh tuna and melted cheese.
There are things to see besides big statues. One day we visit a couple of caves.
We visit Orongo, a Rapa Nui ceremonial centre.
These have been partially restored.
Orango is perched on the rim of Rano Kau crater. On one side is the wetlands on the crater’s bottom.
On the other side is the ocean, with the small island of Motu Nui, the site of the ‘Birdman‘ contest. This bizarre egg-hunt was extremely important to the Rapa Nui people.
How remote IS Easter Island?
- Its closest inhabited neighbour is Pitcairn Island, 1,931 km to the west
- Its closest point to mainland Chile is 3,512 km to the east
- Its closest point to Point Nemo – the furthest point in the ocean from any land – is 2,688 km
I’ve never even heard of Point Nemo. Apparently that’s where space-exploring countries try to dump their superannuated space stations.
Back to the moai: often, images show the figures standing on a grassy hillside.
These photos are often taken at this location, Rano Raraku. This is the quarry from which almost every moai on the island comes.
The many that so picturesquely cover the hillside are ones that hadn’t been delivered yet when moai production was suddenly shut down entirely.
An interesting note: moai are often shown facing the ocean like vigilant sentinels. But when put in place, they almost always faced inland, to protect ‘their’ community.
You can see several that were abandoned in mid-carving.
We go to the beach three times while here. There’s only one, Anakena. It’s clean and uncrowded.
A week is over all too soon. It’s back to Mataveri Airport for flight LA844 to Santiago.
Our flight back is even better than our flight here. For some inexplicable reason, we get to fly back business class! Five and a half hours of sheer luxury. We could get used to this.
A final comment…sad to hear that former President of the United States Jimmy Carter just passed away at age 100. He was a decent man. See you in another life, Jimmy.
I think Jimmy deserves another tip o’ the hat.
Sight or Insight of the Day
Another Easter Island mystery.
We rent a car for three days. While looking at Google Maps for interesting places to visit, We come across this intriguing feature.
Hmmm, an ‘Old NASA site’? It’s on the road to Anakena Beach, so we stop on the way.
What remains looks like something out of the TV series ‘Lost‘. (Which I’m rewatching at the moment.)
The facility opened in 1983. I manage to find some brief footage of its inauguration here (https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/223943/). We can’t find a closing date, but the site is clearly abandoned.
It’s interesting that in the film clip, the area is totally bare. Today, it’s surrounded by ranches and trees.