Easter Island - or Rapa Nui as it is called locally - is probably the most remote island and one of the most mysterious in the world. It’s a nearly 5 hour flight to Santiago, Chile and another nearly 5 hour flight to Tahiti. In between those two there are no other inhabited islands and nothing but the vast Pacific ocean. This remoteness played an important part in the history of the island as for hundreds or even thousands of years, the islanders had no contact with the outside world and must have thought they were the only people on the earth.

This remoteness is also part of the charm of going there, knowing you are in the most remote island in the world, a place where civilization once carved impressive Moai statues out of volcanic rock with nothing but primitive tools, and a place where you can gaze out to sea knowing that there is no land for thousands of miles around. There are however, a few inconveniences to such remoteness: Almost everything is about twice the price as in mainland Chile (except gasoline), and unless you are willing to spend over US $1000 a night on a hotel room at the hotel Explora, don’t expect anything more than guest-room type accommodation which can easily cost over US $150 a night.

The jeep we rented for our first day

Since we’re the adventurous type and don’t particularly fancy being packed into a tourist bus and herded along from one attraction to the other, we decided to rent a jeep and explore the island at leisure. Besides the island is so small it’s impossible to get lost and not that many roads are paved so we got a bit of the 4WD adventure while enjoying some amazing scenery and archeology.

Horses on the road

The first thing they warn you when you rent a car is to be careful of the wildlife on the road. The island is full of semi-wild horses that roam freely and can be seen walking across or down roads everywhere even in the main town of Hanga Roa.

The church in Hanga Roa

Ahu Akivi

Ceremonial platforms, known as “Ahus” are scattered throughout the island. They are rectangular in shape and are considered the most sacred structures on Easter Island as it was a place where ancestral worship took place hundreds of years ago. Some of these Ahus have statues of human figures on them, and these rock statues are known as the “Moai”. Indeed, we’ve traveled so far to see the Moai in person. The Moai were probably carved between the year 1250-1500, and typically have big heads in relation to the torso, elongated noses with big nostrils. The long-gone natives carved them as representations of their ancestors whom they regarded as deities.

Above is one of the famous Ahus called Ahu Akivi which is made up of 7 Moai. As with almost every Ahu and field on the island, horses are nearby, and this one decided to pose for a picture in front of the 7 Moai.

Ahu Akivi

Here you can see how tall the Moai are in relation to Grace who was standing in front of them.

Side view of Ahu Akivi

Most of these Moai have suffered damage throughout their history due mainly to infighting between the different tribes, and many have been restored in recent years. Stay tuned for more amazing pictures of this island in the next posts.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 am and is filed under Easter Island. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.