Could be Salt Spring… or Ireland. But is Easter Island.

Often, our travel destination is determined by which international school invites me to do author presentations and workshops with their staff and students. And almost always these destinations are fabulous and exciting. But our bucket list contained a few places that we wanted to see without waiting for a school. At the top of our list? Easter Island!

This 160 sq km² island in Polynesia is Chilean territory. It is famous for its intriguing history and mysterious stone statues. And is a whopping 3,500 km west of Chile… a speck in the vast South Pacific ocean.

We flew from Santiago, Chile to Easter Island on Latam Airlines. In fact, this is the only way to reach this distant, isolated island. Before getting here I had imagined an old, small airplane. I don't know why - but I had thought it would be a small, local airline with a small, old prop plane. The opposite turned out to be true: Latam is part of One World and operates a brand new Boeing 787 on the route to Easter Island. As we reclined in luxury, we gazed out of the airplane window while we crossed the south Pacific Ocean. Only then does it become clear just how distant this place is. From mainland Chile you fly at a speed of 850 KM an hour for about 5 hours! The island is almost halfway between mainland Chile and New Zealand.

We arrived in luxury and comfort. But imagine that you are an early explorer, sailing the Pacific Ocean in search of new lands. After weeks of nothing but water, you spot land. A green island with round, cone shaped hills and the odd ragged cliff dropping off into the roaring ocean at its feet.

As this Dutch ship, under comment of Captain Roggeveen, cautiously approaches the island, furling the sails that billow from its four tall masts, you spot people.

Giants.

Huge, towering people standing shoulder to shoulder with their backs to the sea. These stone giants protect the land from intruders and evil spirits and they do a good job at it. For more than a thousand years - no one knows their exact date - have they silently been standing here.

Roggeveen did go on land and communicate with the natives. As it happened to be Easter for the European Christians, they named the island Easter Island; Paas Eiland in Dutch, Isla de Pascua in Spanish. Never mind that the island already had inhabitants and a name: Rapa Nui. Like other lands claimed by European explorers, it has now gone back to using, and being proud of, its original name and so I shall refer to Easter Island as Rapa Nui in my story. Since the late 19th century the island has been under Chilean government. It uses Chilean pesos but has its own Rapa Nui postage stamps, its own elder council and even its own language.

The Easter Island post office receives letters to the Easter Bunny!

The stone statues for which the island is famous, are so shrouded in mystery that it is hard to realize that they stand on a normal island where regular people live in a regular town. I had only ever seen images of the statues and green grass and found it slightly jarring to arrive in this mysterious place and see ordinary trucks, Cola machines, dogs - just like in any other town. Where was the mystery?

We walked across the tarmac to the palm fond covered entrance of a tiny airport. Each and every new arrival is greeted with a lei of fresh flowers. People here still speak Spanish but also Rapa Nui, which is very Polynesian and sounds like Hawaiian to us. We noticed that most of the other tourists in our hotel and on tours around the island, must have saved up and planned for this trip-of-a-lifetime because, just like us, most had white hair!

Our hotel was a lovely, one story building with high ceilings and large rooms. Palm trees and flowering shrubs surrounded a small pool. It was nearly 30º, even late at night. With only two and a half days on the island, there would not be much time for sitting by the pool. We had an island to explore!

Rapa Nui is roughly the same size as Salt Spring Island with slightly fewer people, around 7000 - increased by roughly 50,000 tourists per year! They face similar problems, like sustainability, water shortage and recycling. Of course this island is much further away from a main land. Supplies used to come, and still may, once a year by ship. Everything else is flown in. So the cost of a soft drink or anything else is sky high. A small bottle of water which was 1 dollar in Santiago, costs 3 dollars here... Everything needs to be recycled or re-used. A sign in our bathroom asked us not to 'throw paper at the toilet' - which we took to mean no flushing of paper.

At 9 AM the next morning, we climbed aboard a small bus together with other tourists from Chile, France, Australia. The first day we were to take two half day tours. It turned out to be the perfect order in which to see Rapa Nui.

Salt Spring has its deer and lots of rabbits. Rapa Nui has dogs and horses. Dogs roam everywhere, the nicest, sweetest pups, wagging tails and friendly as can be. An estimated 2000 horses have been branded but, like our chickens at home, are free range and roam all over the island.

Our very first moai, or stone statue, was a row of five who, unlike all other moai, face out over the ocean rather than inland with their backs to the sea. Why? We can only guess and only "the ancestors " know the real answer. They sit near two platforms on which the moai typically rest. These platforms are built of huge square basalt blocks with straight lines and rounded corners. It is impressive how precise these were constructed so many hundreds of years ago, without the use of metal tools, machinery or survey equipment.

Once the guide pointed it out, we noticed moai that have fallen forward, on their faces, and cracked.

The standing, reconstructed moai are about 5 meters (!) tall. Each face is quite individual. A few wear 'top knots' - these round blocks of red lava have a smaller red part on top and are said to resemble not hats but hair, worn traditionally as a long pony tail tied into a knot on top of the head, just like most men here still wear it.

I had goosebumps when we visited the site famous from so many photos and documentaries we had seen: the long row of moai standing shoulder to shoulder to protect their land and its people. This is the iconoclastic face of Easter Island.

But my favorite site is the quarry. When I first heard the name, I pictured a rock excavation site where rocks were dug up. However, when you approach the quarry, it is as if the stone people have come to life and are walking out of the mountain from where they are born. The gently sloping green side of a volcano is scattered with upright figures. They seem to be walking down, stumbling and standing all over the slopes.

The moai were carved right here from gigantic blocks of basalt and lava. Weighing many tons and measuring up to ten meters in height, their features were carved where the artist could still reach the face.

I had heard that most figures only show the upper body while the lower half is still buried. Before I saw them, I thought that meant that the moai had been covered by drifting sand over the ages. But that is not true at all, there is no sand. Only lava and rock. The artists did not have ladders, so they dug deep pits in which they lowered or erected the moai until they could reach their faces. Once a figure was finished, it was erected and "walked" down the mountain to spots all over the island - a mind boggling feat. Words can’t describe how this worked. Archeologists have recreated the process. Be sure to watch the video, link below!

Why did the Rapa Nui create these statues? It is believed that well-to-do families ordered a moai in memory of an important member of the community. When this person died, male or female, a moai was constructed in his or her image and erected over their bones. Once the grey basalt figure, with or without red lava topknot, had been given white corral eyes with a black obsidian center, it was believed that the deceased person's spirit had entered the moai and would now protect Rapa Nui and its future generations. And we were very grateful for the opportunity to see this unique place on earth with its history and culture preserved, despite European explorers.

RESOURCES:

We booked our trip through a US travel agency that specializes in South America: www.savacations.com

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-mystery-of-easter-island-151285298/

https://www.history.com/topics/south-america/easter-island

How moai were ‘walked’ from quarry to shore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvvES47OdmY