Easter Island, Chile – Part 1 (Post #102)
Buenos Dias! Michele aqui (here)…
Today is April 5 and we have been traveling for 303 days!
We are in one of the most remote places on earth and also one of our favorite destinations on our around-the-world trip – Easter Island, Chile. We are currently only 1 hour behind East Coast time in the U.S. but it took days to get here. To back up a bit…
We left Picton, New Zealand on March 27th and drove to Christchurch. The drive was stunning since the road follows the coast, but like almost every day we experienced in New Zealand, it was cloudy and raining. We stopped in Kaikora, a coastal town, where we filled the car up with gas, got some lunch, and visited a seal colony. A sign on one of the shop doors read, “Missing: The Sun. If found, please return to Kaikora”. We arrived in Christchurch and found we had been upgraded to a flat (apartment) at our hostel. Our little apartment was very nice and for $35/night, it was a steal! We spent two days in Christchurch, which has a very England feel to it. We did walk around the downtown area and take some pictures but yep, it was cloudy and raining, so we mainly focused on running errands.
So, on March 29th, a long journey for us began. Our plane flew from Christchurch, New Zealand (south island) to Aukland, New Zealand (north island) to Rarotonga (one of the Cook Islands, owned by New Zealand) to Tahiti (one of the French Polynesian islands). We crossed the international date line during these flights so when we arrived in Tahiti at 1:00am, it was Wednesday, March 29th again. We joked about how this messed up our accounting and journal entries since we now have two days labeled March 29th.
Before arriving in Tahiti, we actually did research on where to stay for our one night in Tahiti. The surprising news (to us) is that Tahiti is one of the most expensive places in the world to visit, second only to Japan. At first we could only find accomodations that were around $150 but we dug deeper by looking at numerous travel bulletin boards and budget travel web sites. We felt fortunate to have found a room with air conditioning and a bathroom for $85. (While here on Easter Island we overheard a young man saying he felt fortunate to find a place to stay in Tahiti for only $100/night.) The place we stayed was not great but it was only for one night. Our main goal while in Tahiti was to get to the Lan Chile Airline office in order to book all our flights within mainland Chile since these flights cost twice as much once you make them while you are in mainland Chile. We accomplished this but little else (besides spending $22 for lunch at McDonalds). Our flight left Tahiti at 12:30am that night (March 30th) and we flew on the awesome airline, Lan Chile. Each seat on the plane came with screen and we were able to choose from dozens of movies, TV programs, music videos, documentaries, etc. I watched Million Dollar Baby on the overnight flight – a real tear jerker! I highly recommend it.
We arrived on Easter Island at 10:00am the next morning after having slept exactly 0 minutes on the flight from Tahiti. We had booked one night at a place, called Kona Tau, that we decided was too expensive for what we got. Dead as we were, we had to search out another place to stay. The problem is that on Easter Island there are many residentiales (homes that are also places where tourists can stay) that don´t have any signs out front. We had to go to the Tourist Information office where we were told things like, “Look for the orange house near the Army building” or “It is 3 buildings down from the main supermarket in town”. With the help of the Tourist Information woman, we were able to get a very good deal ($40/night)at a fantastic place called Tekena Inn (and no, there is no sign out front). Each morning there is a huge breakfast waiting for us made up of meats and cheeses, fresh bread, home made jam, cakes or sweets, fruit, fresh squeezed juice, and unlimited coffee and tea.
Easter Island is 13 miles long and 10 miles wide and has a population of about 4,000 people. It is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean miles and miles from anywhere. It is 2,530 miles from Tahiti and 2312 miles from mainland Chile (South America). These are the two closest populated land masses (with the exception of one very small island with less than 100 people living on it). There is only one town on the island and people still ride horses as a means of transportation. The island is very clean and the water surrounding the island is exceptionally clear. The languages on the island include Rapa Nui (local language) and Spanish. Mike has been my translator and it is great watching him speak in Spanish with the local people.
One reason people visit Easter Island is to see enormous stone sculptures called moai. The moai sit on ahu, which are large stone alters. These stone sculptures weigh several tons and were all carved from one place on the island between the years 1100 and 1700. The biggest one standing is 30 feet tall but there is one that was never finished that is more than 60 feet. How these monstrous statues were moved to various places all over the island is a mystery to this day.
During one of our days on the island we took a private tour with an English speaking guide to see the moai and the place where they were “born” (i.e., the place from which they were sculpted). Below are pictures from our day tour with some explanations:
This Moai is very close to Hanga Roa, the only town on the island. The eyes were inserted within the last 20 years to show tourists what the moai looked like when originally constructed. The thing on the top of the moai´s head is called a top knot and represents hair, not a hat.
The picture below shows Mike and I at the “nursery” or the “factory” where the moai were created. Each moai took about 6 months to carve and involved the labor of hundreds of people. The maoi were cut out of the slopes of an extinct volcano called Rano Raraku. At this site there are more than 600 moai that were not moved to another part of the island and they remain on the slopes of the volcano to this day.
The next photo shows Ahu Tongariki, a site with the most moi standing in a row.
These moai (below) are at Anakena, the only accessible white sand beach on the island:
Finally, moai at sunset – beautiful!
While in Easter Island, we also spent two days hiking and two days diving. Stay tuned for blogs on those activities…
Tags: Category #27: Chile
Michele Harmon
Ohhh…I am so jealous!! I’ve wanted to see the moai since I saw them pictured in a Choose Your Own Adventure novel when I was a kid! Wonderful pictures – thanks as always for posting them!
Great. Now I’m re-obsessed with the maoi — thanks a lot! I hope you bought one for me that is currently in transit to the States.