Rapa Nui - aka Easter Island

Wow! Where to start? For a place that wasn’t part of the original plan, Rapa Nui – the Polynesian name for the island – has turned out to be a trip highlight, or perhaps, even a top-ten lifetime highlight. If you ever get a chance to go to Rapa Nui, take it!! You will not regret it. Take Tahiti, mix it with Newfoundland, sprinkle with Stonehenge and Machu Picchu, and then place it in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as far away from people as you can get – that’s Rapa Nui. As a relatively undeveloped and out-of-the-way place, it’s a magical traveller’s playground. From cliff-edge hiking, to caving, to mountain biking, to chillin’ on white-sand palm-lined beaches, and of course, watching the sun set behind ancient statues from a past island civilization, the list of things to see and do typically exceeds the amount of time you have. We did not give it enough!


So, hmm, let’s start with “the story of Easter Island” – a fascinating and wondrous tale. The island, all 12 by 24 kms of it, basically not even a dot in the Pacific Ocean, is the eastern corner of a triangle with the other 2 corners being Hawaii to the north and New Zealand to the west – the triangle known as Polynesia (“many islands” in greek). Over 3700 kms directly west of the Chilean coast, with nothing but blue ocean in between, Rapa Nui is considered the most remote inhabited location on earth. The closest human settlement is another dot called Pitcairn Island (from “The Bounty” fame), population 50, a mere 2240 km away. It is really really really out there.

It was a surreal moment getting our first glimpse of the island through the porthole windows of our 737 after 6 hrs of cruising across nothing but the infinite blue expanse of the Pacific. It was even more surreal, no, actually quite unnerving, when the plane passed over the island in all of about 10 seconds and continued into the nothingness of the Pacific on the other side, only to finally turn about after a few minutes for the final landing approach. “Umm, hello, Mr. Pilot...did you see the island back there...pretty sure that was it!” J

It all started sometime back between 400 and 700 AD, during what is called the “Polynesian Expansion” – an event marked by indigenous people west of what we now call Polynesia getting into their canoes and paddling east into the Pacific Ocean and settling the countless islands in the south Pacific – no small feat when one considers navigating canoes across thousands of kms of open ocean! Easter Island, being on the eastern fringe of anywhere, was one of the last islands to be settled. In doing so, from a few canoe loads of people and things, sprang the Rapanui – Rapa Nui not only refers to the name of the island, but is also the name of the unique people, culture, and language that evolved over the next 1000 years. The Rapanui are thought to have peaked at about 15,000 people between 1200 and 1500 AD.

The most famous and awe-inspiring aspect of Rapa Nui are the hundreds of huge stone statues – referred to as Moai – scattered throughout the island (go through your old National Geographic mags...it’s in there). Now, here’s where the story gets juicy. On Easter Sunday (hence the “Easter Island” thing), 1722, a Dutch explorer named Jacob Roggeveen landed and became the first European (or anyone else for that matter) to make contact with Rapa Nui. As the story goes, what Roggeveen found was a treeless, relatively barren island with a couple thousand ragtag inhabitants eking out a meager disorganized existence. Afterwards, things just got progressively worse as European diseases and slave raids thrashed the population down to a low of 111 in 1877. The big question therefore was: how could a bunch of starving ragtag people be responsible for carving, transporting, and erecting such a magnificent array of enormous statues – hundreds of them, often weighing up to 50 or 80 tons each – without any of the presumably required organization and natural resources like rope and timbers...not to mention food?

Enter Jared Diamond – the “Guns, Germs, and Steel” guy. His explanation, and the leading theory, has become a classic tale of human overexploitation leading to the collapse of civilization (for the full story, read his book “Collapse”). The basic storyline is this. When the Rapanui first arrived, they landed on a virtual garden of Eden – a fully forested oasis full of the plants and biodiversity that go along with that. For a thousand or so years, life was fantastic as the islanders had all kinds of natural resources, specifically wood, from which to fuel their growing population and evolving culture. Most importantly perhaps, with large timbers they were able to make seafaring canoes which allowed them to fish the open ocean and therefore obtain a critical source of protein. Large timbers, along with rope made from native trees, allowed them to...wait for it...carve, transport, and erect their beloved Moai. From all accounts, life was pretty good.

OK, so what happened? According to Diamond, in a classroom example of suicidal deforestation, the Rapanui essentially liquidated the forests they so desperately depended on (the parallels to contemporary deforestation of the Amazon, for example, not going unnoticed). Once gone, among other things, they lost the ability to make boats and therefore could not venture into the ocean for fish, resulting in a downward population spiral. Evidence suggests that as things got worse and food more scarce, their society disintegrated into war and cannibalism and ultimately total collapse. The last kick in the groin was in the midst of the final chaos, they toppled every single Moai on the island – apparently just to piss each other off. Hmmm, hard to get happy after that story.

However, cheerfully, today Rapa Nui, population approx 6000, about a third Chilean/European, has rebounded somewhat, obviously. Annexed by Chile in 1888, it is a territory of Chile – although calls for independence are out there – and therefore enjoys the conveniences of the modern world like daily flights to Santiago, ATMs, and espresso machines. As such, the island has one foot in Polynesia, the other in Chile. Traditional outrigger canoes ply the waters in front of the central futbol park. Dark-skinned men with long black hair tied in a topknot and adorned with traditional tattoos call their wives on smart phones while eating an empanada. Despite the smart phones and things though, the Rapanui are fiercely proud of their Polynesian roots. It’s an interesting mix that seems to be working for them.

Culturally, things appear to be moving along well. The vast majority of the island was designated a national park and prohibits all the usual bad stuff that parks typically prohibit, including development and harming historical artifacts in any way. And, thankfully, the job of restoring, protecting, and re-erecting the Moai, and the rest of the Rapanui culture, is well underway. As we experienced more than once, you haven’t really been to see the Moai unless you’ve been whistled after by a Rapanui to “get off the no-go areas ya big oaf!” Honestly, I did not see the barrier! J UNESCO, ever-present on our trip (seems to be a prerequisite before we go anywhere), declared Rapa Nui a world heritage site in 1995.

Our 9-day mission was fantastico...but WAY too short. In fact, Rapa Nui could be Amy’s new favourite place on the planet. We did not want to leave. It’s that special mix of good semi-tropical weather (at 27^oS latitude, it technically lies just below the tropics), white-sand beaches, palm trees, and endless hiking and biking to ancient ruins from a past civilization. The most stunning sunsets and sunrises you’ve ever seen are a dime a dozen. The added bonus is having the island to ourselves much of the time.

Ironically, the island is known to be expensive, for obvious reasons (oh, maybe the 4000 kms from the nearest brewery?), but was actually remarkably affordable for us. Our campsite, which has actually become the cheapest per-night accom we have had in Chile, was a fantastic setup. With drinkable tap water, full kitchen, hot showers, and right beside the ocean, it was among our best accommodations of the trip. Then, unbeknownst to us as we set up our tent, it’s THE sunset spot on Rapa Nui with nightly shows right outside our door. Sometimes you just get lucky eh. And really, while groceries were a tad higher than the mainland, wine and beer is still WAY cheaper than the BC Liquor Store. How crazy is that?

The real highlight, aside from the endless hiking, biking, exploring, and lazing on beaches, were the Moai. You just can’t get enough of them. They are quite simply, incredible. Gazing upon them, in the context of “the story” behind them, they just give you that tingly back hair feeling. Sunsets and sunrises are nothing short of magical. Sometimes it doesn’t seem real. The 2-litre tetrapac of Chilean cabernet beside us was an added bonus (sunset only, of course). J


We really didn’t want to get back on the plane yesterday. Our pleas to the airline to change our flight went unanswered. So here we are back in smoggy drizzly Santiago. Amy’s in bed reading with a cup of tea while I type (it’s 2 pm). This morning we had to dig out our cold-weather clothes that we happily buried and forgot about for the past 8 days. As someone once said, all good things come to an end, unfortunately.


So now what? We're in Santiago for a week to catch our flight out (tried to move that flight up, but no-go there either). We're hoping to head into the mountains for a bit of camping/hiking in the next few days, but there might be snow already. Not sure on that one just yet. The real objective on the radar is getting ourselves organized for our return journey northwards. Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but the plan for our journey back to the motherland includes a few months of exploring in the Caribbean. Hey, we’re flying right over it! First stop, Dominican Republic where we have a house booked to use as a base for a month. Shouldn’t be too hard to take. As always, more on that soon. Hasta luego.