Advertisement
Hello all we are just back from 6 amazing days on Easter Island!!
Easter Island is an incredible place and also one of the most isolated places on earth. It lies bang in the middle of the South Pacific and a staggering 3700km west of Chile, its nearest land mass. The island is famous for its huge statues called Moai´s. How the statues were created and moved to each of the corners of the island is still as big a mystery as how the islands first became populated by people because of the incredible isolation of the island.
Easter Island is relatively small, just 117 sq km with just one small town called Hanga Roa, population 3800. The rest of the island is uninhabited except for hundreds of wild horses that roam free on the island and of course over 600 of the Moai statues that are scattered everywhere.
We stayed in a hostel in Hanga Roa which is a nice little fishing village. It has a really chilled vibe with not much going on and we spent a fair bit of the time watching the fishing boats come in and the locals surfing of the beach breaks.
The water is really clear and warm and you can see plenty of turtles and fish that seem happy to live in the harbor under the fishing boats.
The only real way to get around the island to see all of the incredible sites is to hire a moped and spend the days exploring the island. There are numerous volcanoes on the island the most famous being Rano Kau which has an amazing crater lake and is on the far side of the island. This is also where the famous Bird men cult lived who were a tribe who worshipped the birds and dressed like them.
On the most isolated part of the island is an incredible beautiful stretch of the island where the most impressive Moai can be found. It is about a 25 min ride across the island to a volcano called Rano Raraku which is also the main Quarry on the island and where all the Moai statues were produced. There are still hundreds of statues that litter its slopes, both those that were completed and on their way to be moved to parts of the islands but never made it and statues in the
quarry that never got finished (the biggest on is 20 meters and over 150 tonnes). Its one of the great mysteries of the island, as why after hundreds of years of creating and moving Moai´s to pedestals all over the islands did they seem to stop making them practically over night????
Rano Raraku has a magical feeling to it as you wander through the Moai and from the vantage point you can see down to the ocean where an impressive line of 12 Moai stand, lined perfectly in front of the ocean in the distance.
Because of the isolation of the islands and the fact that you can only fly there from Santiago with just one flight a day it´s not over run with tourists. Therefore the island had an isolated feel, we would be riding the coast road looking for Moai with the only other living thing being hundreds of wild horses that call the island home. It’s a place that really should get more visitors because of its special location and incredible natural beauty. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and would recommend it to anyone.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 12; qc: 38; dbt: 0.0802s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Rob
non-member comment
Birdman Suit
Do they sell the Birdmen suits there? I think I might want one for work. Hope you're having a good time. Rob.