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Easter Island
Easter Island is one of the most mysterious, most remote and most fascinating destinations I have ever visited...
My first moai! After all I had read about these enigmatic statues, it was all the more thrilling to see this first moai, as they are known locally, just outside the little town of Hanga Roa.
Hanga Roa is the only town on the island and is where almost all of the islanders live. It's a funky, sleepy mix of local shops, restaurants and a small but pretty harbour where the colourful fishhing boats bob. There's a tiny sand beach and the most perfectly placed cemetery beside the ocean breakers that I have ever seen!
If only more airports looked like the thatched palapa that greets new arrivals on Easter Island! The warm tropical embraced us as we ambled through the relaxed immigration and paid our $100 US per person fee for access to Rapa Nui National Park; as the park is essentially the whole island, this is a requirement of all visitors.
There is really only one way to reach Easter Island for most travellers... Our LATAM flight from Santiago, Chile took five hours of flying out into the wild blue yonder of the South Pacific before the pilot spotted the tiny speck of an island. The Mateveri Airport runway stretches right across the southwest corner of the island and is able to take large planes because it was enlarged for use by the US as a potential emergency runway for their space program.
Accommodations on the island are mostly simple and rustic. The Mana Nui Inn where we stayed for our week on the island is fairly typical and has a wonderful location on the edge of town and within easy walking distance of restaurants, shops, the shoreline...and some of Easter Islands amazing statues. Our cottage was one of ten and nestled in a lush garden with the sound of ocean surf competing with cock crows.
The best way of seeing all the wonderful sites of this small island is to rent a car so that you can do it all in your own time. We rented a Suzuki Jimny at Oceanic Car Rental in Hanga Roa, which was the perfect little 4WD vehicle to navigate the little roads and tracks that wind around much of the island.
Most food on the island has to be imported from Chile in South America, but the locally grown pineapples are divine! They are sold by the farmers from the back of their trucks along the main street of Hanga Roa and are fresh and juicy from the fields.
