Easter Island - Day 1 (Who wants a free horse?)

When people go looking for a place to vacation many people go looking for some place unique, or some places off the beaten path that will give them some fun stories to tell their family and friends. No place fits that description better than Easter Island (Rapa Nui). Easter Island is the most remote inhabited place in the entire world. Located more than 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile, and close to 2,500 miles from the next Polynesian island of Tahiti, Easter Island is a geographic, historic, and sociological wonder. 

The history of the island could fill a whole book, but I will keep it short as possible. Sometime between the 8th and 12th Century, Polynesian people most likely sailed here from another in the chain of islands that make up Polynesia. The leading theory at this time is they came from the Markeacus Islands. During this time the descendants of the first king Hotu Matu'a began dividing up the limited size of the island it smaller kingdoms.  As more sons of more kings were born the territories they controlled continued to get smaller. These tribes began constructing moai, giant stone monuments meant to be the living representation of their now deceased elders. At some point around the 16th Century the island ran out of trees needed to move these giant statues, some more than 60 feet tall, and the social order of the island collapsed. They kingdoms descended into tribal warfare, knocking over a majority of the moai at some time during the 18th or 19th Century. In 1722, Dutch explorers discovered the island on Easter Sunday, and gave it the name. They were unable to completely control the island and left. The Spanish arrived four years later, but they too found a desperate island of warring tribes they could not control. Nearly fifty years later Captain Cook, the same Captain Cook who would discover Hawaii, found the island for a third time and marked it for future exploration. By the 19th Century the island had fallen so badly into disarray they were choosing their kings by a shockingly insane feat called the Birdman ritual were servants of the warring chiefs would have a representative climb down a thousand foot cliff to the sea, swim the mile to a smaller island, be the first to find an egg laid by a rare bird, and return to give it to their chief who was king for a year. In the 1867 Catholic missionaries seized control of the island, and by the 1880's the island had become a territory of Chile. That relationship has lasted, whether by choice or by force, since that time.

Getting to Easter Island is not easy. Flights come in daily from Santiago, Chile. There are also twice weekly flights from Tahiti for people visiting from Asia or other South Pacific nations. Cruise ships do come about once a month, but the port is too small to sail into, so they have to shuttle guests over on smaller rafts.  Once you are on the island you have a good selection of places to stay. We enjoyed the Iorana Hotel. It is a little farther outside of town than other hotels, but the views are worth it. The entire population of the island is located in the city of Hanga Roa. There are very few streets, and a majority of the town can be walked in a full day. While everyone lives in the town, some of the best sites are more than ten miles away on the other side of the island, so you may consider either getting a tour company to drive you, renting a car (I was told it's about $90 a day), or a bicycle. There are plenty of great restaurants over looking the sea to enjoy dinner from, so no one will go hungry. You may however go crazy at night. There is no cable, only three channels that broadcast in Spanish from mainland Chile, and the Internet will remind of something from the early 1990's. They still have Internet cafes here. One thing to know is all of the parks on the island require a fee, which is $60 per person, they prefer it in US dollars, upon entering the nation. So if you are going to pay that one time fee, you better plan on going to see some of the parks.

While our thoughts on the sites will follow in another post, I think it is important to share about the history of this place a little more since it is so widely unknown to most of us. Since seizing the island in the 19th Century, the Chilean government has forced all inhabitants of the island to live within the borders of the city of Rapa Nui. To get land to live on they have to petition the Chilean government for land, and that can take decades to get permission. As recently as 2015, revolutionaries seized control of the parks from the Chilean government for about six months. Their argument was too much of the money collected from tourism in Easter Island was leaving the nation and returning to the socialist Chilean government. The two sides negotiated a truce, and the government is back in charge, but you may see a clean break soon and a new nation emerge in the South Pacific.  A modern movement is growing seeking independence for the island, but with around 8,000 people on the island they would be one of the smallest nations in the world if independent.

You will notice a few things when you get here that are out of place for most developed nations. First, animals run the place, literally. At some point that was not shared with me, the people of the island gave up on controlling the animals. Wild horses roam the streets of the city, the historic sites of the moai, and the beaches. Packs of very mellow dogs roam the streets looking for food and shade to sleep in. Even cattle wander aimlessly down main roads, or onto ancient structures to scratch their backs on the hard stone statues.  The animals are completely used to people and get out of the way, but I mean it seriously when I say if you want a horse just walk outside and take the first one you see, no one will care.

Now that you are caught up on the island and it's history, check out our next post for some cool sites.  As a parting gift, here are a few amazing pictures Wendy took of an Easter Island sunset.