Over the past 12 months travelling around South and Central America, I’d only ever met one person who’d been to Easter Island (Isla de Pascua in Spanish, or Rapa Nui as it was originally named), and he highly recommended visiting. I’ve always been interested by things a little different to the norm, and the idea of setting foot on one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world intrigued me. The problem was trying to find reasonably priced flights. The first time I checked several months ago, return flights were in excess of $1,000.
I kept my eye on the prices, until the start of the new year when I found return flights from Santiago (Tahiti is the only other place in the world that flies to Easter Island) for about $600. This was enough to tempt me and I bought the flights immediately.
Before I begin to cover my time in Easter Island, I need to go over my flight from São Paulo to Santiago. Before I left home last year, I’d spent the previous 12 months racking up up a considerable amount of Frequent Flyer points by signing up to credit card promotions, and so I used up a chunk of them in upgrading my flight to Business Class. This was my first time ever flying Business, and I can now safely say that it’s ruined Economy flying for me for life. Now every time I fly, I know exactly what I’m missing out on behind those curtains.
Excuse the dirty socks...
The differences are incredible. First of all, the hostesses are considerably more happy to see you. You’re first to enter the plane (you want to get the most out of your next couple of hours of luxury), upon which you’re given a glass of water, a small bowl of nuts, and a hot towel to refresh yourself. After taking off, a meal soon comes out, and this is probably the greatest benefit over Economy, because the food is actually a LAND SIZED SERVING. Not crammed into a tiny tin foil container that you have to wrestle your food out of, trying not to not burn or cut yourself in the process. The wine (you get to chose out of 4 different ones) and bread are seemingly infinite in supply and are constantly offered to you before you can finish the previous one.The toilets are nicer, and also include hand wash, body lotion, and aftershave - all of which I made good use of. Whilst only going for a quick wee, the other passengers must’ve though I left a horrible surprise in the toilet, because I came out smelling way too good.
Buen provecho!
You get proper, over-the-ear headphones, and a higher quality screen to watch your movies in. Not to mention, the whole movie experience is enhanced by the fact that your chair (bed) FULLY RECLINES into an almost 180 degrees position. You get a pillow and a soft, thick, fluffy blanket, which the hostess gently drapes over you with a smile. I watched The Martian with Matt Damon, then after a few more wines I drifted off to sleep. 20 minutes later I had probably the second sweetest wake up of my life, as the air hostess slowly stroked my shoulder and whispered “señor, señor” as we begun to descend back to my economy class reality.
I spent less than 24 hours in Santiago, then was back in the air towards Easter Island, some 5 hours of flying and just under 4,000km out from Santiago. Luckily, the adjustment back to Economy Class was aided by getting an exit row seat. The runway was actually extended in the 1980s by the US for use as an emergency landing strip by NASA space shuttles, and since then it's allowed for full size aircraft to move to and from Easter Island.
Patricia, the owner of the hostel I was staying at, was waiting for me at the airport, complete with a sign and flower necklace which she presented to me upon arrival. We walked back to her hostel, chatting in broken spanish and admiring the incredible view of the night sky.
On Tuesday morning I hired a bike and planned to ride over to Orongo and see the Rano Kau crater. I rode for a while, stopped when I saw the sign for “Orongo Trek”, locked my bike up and walked the next hour or so to the top, only upon arriving to realise there was a tarmac road I could’ve taken my bike along the whole way. Great. In the afternoon I joined up with a tour group, which took us to Puna Pau, the quarry from which the Rapa Nui locals made the hats for their moai, finishing up at Ahu Akivi.
The moai statues really are incredible to see up close. And they get even more incredible when you learn how they were carved using such primitive tools. Then your mind is blown once more trying to figure out how they moved these enormous and ridiculously heavy things tens of kilometres across the island. I won't try to educate you on the entire history of Rapa Nui, so if you want to learn more, go to the Wikipedia article.
Rano Kau
I had a full day tour take up all of Wednesday, taking us to some of the best spots of the island, such as the moai quarry at Rano Raraku. An incredible place where the moai were all sculpted from, and there you can see moai almost everywhere. We visited Tongariki just before lunch, then spent the afternoon a tthe beautiful Ahakena beach. In the evening I went to a show of local song and dance, and enjoyed a few of the Rapa Nui pale ales.
In between scouting the many moai on the island, I visited the local museum, and spent a great deal of time haggling at the local markets for souvenirs. I don't usually buy a lot of souvenirs, as my backpack is incredibly small for a one year trip, and most of the things you see are cheap and tacky anyway. Yet the same tacky items seem to have a bit more charm when you can tell people you bought them from Easter Island.
On Friday I went scuba diving all morning, which included a dive to see an underwater moai (unfortunately it’s fake and was placed there for a movie. Nevertheless, it was still impressive). The second dive took us through some coral reefs, where the visibility was incredible, however there wasn't much marine life to see.
Scuba diving with the underwater Moai
In the afternoon I visited the post office to get a "Isla de Pascua" stamp in my passport, then went to see the sunset down at the beach, before heading over to a hotel to see a screening of Kevin Costner's 1994 film Rapa Nui. The acting was at times laughably poor, yet it was cool to get an idea of what life might have been like on the island back in it's heyday.
Easter Island is a place I feel extremely privileged to have had the chance (and the money) to visit. However, It's super expensive - I realise just how adjusted I am to South American prices when I baulked at having to pay $6 for a beer - yet you can't blame them, considering the extremely remote location.
It feels more like a country town squeezed into an island, and the way the locals all know each other sometimes makes it feel like you're in the middle of an episode of Postman Pat. It's a place you can quickly slip into the rhythm of. There's little care for time, as most places don't really get going until 9 or 10 a.m., and the fact that the sun doesn't set until 9 p.m. means no one is in a rush to get home either. It's a place I remember learning about in early Primary School, and thinking I'd love to visit, but probably never get a chance to in my lifetime. Now, it gets added to the list of places I've been on this trip, and one that I feel incredibly lucky to say I've seen.
