Happy new year dear Flyer Talkers ! My apologies again for the very late post, I finally took the time today to complete this long part about one of my favourites places I visited during this trip !
---It was my second time on Easter island, one of the most remote inhabited places on earth. My first time was when I visited parts of Chile and Argentina in 2017 with some friends and we decided back then with one of my friends to extend our vacation of a few more days to go on the island. Back then, there were a lot of (hidden) restrictions to get to the island, as only a daily flight going from Santiago de Chile to IPC airport in Hanga Roa, the island’s only city and a couple weekly flights from Papeete, French Polynesia, both operated by LATAM with aircrafts having a sufficient ETOPS certification given the distance (Nowadays and also back in 2017 they are using a Boeing 787 but before it was an Airbus 340)
Which brings me with a couple of fun AV facts : IPC airport has only one (very long) runway and given the remote location of this territory, and the fact there are no alternate airports able to accommodate nearby a large commercial aircraft in case of weather related issues for instance, only one flight can go towards the island at any given time. Second fun fact is that the island’s airport has a 3330m long and cement reinforced runway, which was partially paid for by the NASA ! The reason is that IPC airport was a potential landing strip for the former NASA Space Shuttles ! Although I don’t think this option was ever used, I still think this is an interesting story !
Easter Island (Rapa Nui in local dialect of the same name) is known around the world for its mystical statues, carved in stone and called moais, for which there are multiple theories on what they could mean or how they were made. Almost 1000 Moais have been discovered on the island and some more are discovered from time to time. It was found that the native Polynesian reached the island for the first time as far as around 1200 years A.D and is now home to about 7500 inhabitants, around half of them are actually considering themselves are Rapa Nui.
Easter Island map (credit : Wikipedia)
3 main (and extinct) volcanos are present on the island, including it's highest peak Mount Terevaka at 507m high.
Despite being located more than 3500 km away from mainland Chile, this territory belongs to Chile since 1888, the closest other inhabited location is Pitcairn Island, a new Zealand territory and home to only... 50 souls !
I have to say that this place remains one of the best locations I’ve ever visited, the feeling of being remote of everything, combined with this mystical history and the tropical feeling makes it a gem to visit. That being said, it seems that I am not the only one to think like this : In only 2 years time, between 2017 and 2019, the island’s landscape changed quite a bit : The single daily flight from SCL was in 2019 operated 2 to 3 times daily, 2 cruise ships (The Soleal and the much bigger Peace Boat) were on the island’s shores and it is not uncommon to also see some charter flights coming from different places, including some round-the-world charter flights. With some more tourists getting in and out of the island, hotels and guest houses were built, the single gas station of the island got some competition with a second one opening and you could see some new shops, supermarkets and other constructions getting out of the ground. You could even see some traffic jams in downtown Hango Roa at some times of the day ! Simply unbelievable given the island only has something like 7500 inhabitants living in !
Almost all the island is considered as a protected area, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and to visit almost all the sites of this national park, you need to purchase a weekly ticket (I recall it was in the ball park of 60 USD). I did it of course during my both trips, but the main difference between 2017 and 2019 is that most of the sites are now protected by some gates and barriers, while it was not the case just a couple years before. Maybe another consequence of the “over-tourism” on the island – but after all, I was participating to it ...
IPC airport, back in 2017...
DAY 1 (well... half day) : Hanga Roa city, Tahai, and Rano Kau volcano.
I booked for my 3 night stay on the island the same guest house as in 2017, a bit outside the city center of Hanga Roa and was picked up by the owner at the small port after disembarking from the Soleal Zodiac. For this part of the trip, my good friend Eva, who I would consider a seasoned traveler was flying from the US the same day as my arrival and would be landing from Santiago in the early afternoon of my arrival. Visiting the island was also a dream for her, and my presence there was a good excuse to see each other again after I saw here in Hong Kong a couple months before as she was visiting her family for the holidays. We then planned to leave the island a couple days later, on board one of the few daily LATAM flights to go to spend a few days in Santiago where my girlfriend (actually my best friend for 20 years but we were together for half a year back then) would join us to continue the trip.
Everything pretty much worked as scheduled : The receptionist of the bed and breakfast and I picked up Eva in the afternoon and we immediately rented one of the Suzuki Jimny the property was renting to explore the island after purchasing our park passes.
Picking up my friend Eva in IPC airport
We started our afternoon by getting some food downtown Hanga Roa and walking in the center towards Tahai, one of the few Ahu's (platform where the Moais are located) accessible without Park Pass. The sun was shining pretty heavily and we later decided to talke the car to get to the southern end of the island, on the site of Orongo and the crater of the Volcano Rano Kau.
Hanga Roa sailing port
Hanga Roa cemetery
Tahai is the only Ahu (Ceremonial location where Moais are located) accessible without the park pass and located walking distance from the City center
Rano Kau volcano crater
No Moais on this site, but some petroglyphs and historical village of Orongo.
The access to the historical village of Orongo was closing by the time we arrived so we opted to drive back to town and visit Orongo the next morning
View on Hanga Roa
IPC airport runway
We enjoyed a local brew and sunset in Tahai before heading for some dinner and that concluded our short first day on the island...
Cheers !
Sunset on Tahai
DAY 2 : Orongo, Ahus Akivi and Te Peu
The next morning was another beautiful day on the island and we headed again to the southern part to visit the historical site of Orongo.
View of Motus Kau, Iti and Nui.
Orongo historical site
After a couple hours around Orongo, we headed to the city for some lunch and stopped on another Ahu on the way.
We then we drove to the Ahu Akivi, where the specificity is that the 7 Moais are facing the ocean (which is not usually the case). We met there my friends from the Soleal who were visiting the site too.
Te Tata Hero, the other Ahu located in the city
Downtown Hanga Roa is the local parliament
A Kivi ahu
The only location where the Moais are facing the ocean
We continued afterwards to see a site I haven't visited the first time nearby : Te Peu ahu on the wild western coast of the island. Since you cannot really get there by car, we walked across the fields and made some nice discoveries on the way, such as a little cave...
All the cattle and horses are just roaming free on the island
We did not really see any moais there, but the short hike was nonetheless pleasant
At the end of the day, we met Rolend, Martine, Anita and Rene in Hanga Roa to see the sunset and have dinner together as I managed to convince them to stay on the island overnight to see the sunset on Tahai and the famous sunrise on Tongariki the next morning.
As on every tropical island, it rains pretty much everyday for a few minutes and it was the case that day when we started to settle on Tahai to look for the sunset...
Tahai
Sunset on the Soleal
We then enjoyed a delicious lunch at their hotel and went to bed not too late in preparation for an early wake up the next day...
Next : Mystical Easter Island Part 2 (too many pics on this post once again, I need to cut it in two parts !)