Easter Island

Way back in 2011 we were lucky enough to visit Easter Island, classed as the world's largest open air museum. Easter island lies 3700 km from the coast of Chile and is one of the most isolated and least inhabited islands in the world. The nearest island is Pitcairn which again is nearly 3000 km East, it really is in the middle of nowhere and it does feel like that, which makes it really special.

I must say Easter Island exceeded both of our expectations but it's a very long way to come and expensive if you are making a trip from the UK. We were so lucky to go at a time where it really didn’t have any visitors, our only regret was not staying longer as it really is just so charming

The island's first inhabitants arrived back in 1722 from the Polynesian islands and NZ. It was these people who then formed two tribes, the long ears on the East and the short ears on the West of the island.The tribes built all Moai's (carved statues) that are seen today as a tribute to their dead ancestors. 

The Moai's were all carved out of a volcanic quarry site and moved to various places around the island. In total 887 were carved but only about 230 made it to be standing upright on the island. Today few still stand as most have toppled due to time and weather. You can still see the ones that have fallen and the ones that still stand are very impressive.

The island itself is quite small and you can easily get around in a day seeing most of the major sites. We were based in the only town, Hanga Roa and stayed in a lovely little cottage that overlooked the sea.

At the time of visiting there was only one flight a day from Chile and one a week from Tahiti that came here and this made it so peaceful and quiet. I imagine there are a lot more fights each week now and visitor numbers must be much higher. This is something to check if you intend to visit and I also believe you need to pay park entrance fees and for guides to take you round the island. When we went it was all free.

When we were on the island we only saw about 20 people the whole day and one was a tour group of 12. It did feel like you had the whole place to yourself.

Even though the island is small it has so many things that you can do, surfing, beaches, a boat harbour tours, cave paintings, rock pools and even a little bay where turtles swim right up to the shore. The added bonus of the island is that wild horses roam freely and you are never far away from seeing them grazing or bolting across the land.

Most afternoons we would go out exploring to find the Moai's, you don’t have to go far as the first ones were walking distance from our cottage. I would highly recommend hiring a car though to explore the whole of the island. 

With it being so long ago we were able to drive around not seeing anyone but the horses. Everywhere you drove you could see Moai's either standing upright or where they had fallen. All face in land apart from a row of 7 which look out to sea so at equinox their gaze meets the sea. 

A trip to the volcanic quarry where the Moai were made, is certainly worth a trip as 600 of them are still dotted around the quarry either unfinished or fallen, a pretty spectacular sight. 

It’s easy to do a loop around the whole island and where we got to see various wildlife, carvings and more Moai's including the famous line of 15 which have recently been restored following a tsunami. I would love to go back to Easter Island and would recommend it to anyone if you are in this part of the world.

If you want more information r want to plan a trip to Easter Island then contact me at info.ninapricetravel.co.uk or visit my blog Nina Price Travel