In this “Navel of the World” is the Rapa Nui National Park (Parque Nacional Rapa Nui), being Hanga Roa the most important city.

Myth and reality mingle in Rapa Nui, a land of volcanic origins, with a triangular shape and a surface of 111.8 square miles. It’s an archeological resource of international importance due to the mystery surrounding its giant stone sculptures.

Rapa Nui: an attractive story

The Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen arrived at the island on April 5, 1722, Easter Sunday, from which the island gets its name; Rapa-Nui is the Polynesian name.

This big island was annexed by the Chilean government in 1888. The government reserved an area on the west coast for the indigenous population, and left the rest of the land for grazing sheep and cattle.

Easter Island is important for its archaeological discoveries: it is not only the Pacific island with the greatest quantity of megaliths, it is also the only source that confirms the existence of a writing system in Polynesia.

Many archaeologists believe that when the island was invaded, already existed about six hundred statues carved in stone or moai, which have made the island famous, and that the majority of these were destroyed by the Polynesians during a period of warfare.

There are approximately one hundred moai left on the island, (stone monuments), carved on the hillocks of a volcano, varying between 9.8 and 39.3 feet high. These are carved on “toba” (volcanic agglomerate) and represent enormous heads with elongated noses and ears. The stone for the statues was extracted from the crater of Rano Raraku, where explorers found an immense uncompleted statue of 68.8 feet long. Many of the statues on the embedded platforms wear cylindrical crowns of red toba weighing up to 27 tons.

Hidden caves have been found in the course of the excavations, containing the remains of wooden tablets and images. The fine, stylized engravings of the tablets appear to be a pictorial writing system.
Easter Island and its inexplicable monuments
The case of Easter Island is one of the most known around the world, since the construction of the moai is still a mystery, after many theories that have been formulated, none has been proofed.
Besides that Easter Island is an attractive place to visit, the Moai adds a very special connotation that everyone wants to be a part of.
Humans, by nature, have been dedicated to searching an explanation about the existence and where we come from. Many ruins give us some answers through their hieroglyphs and different manifestations that have been displayed on walls and utensils that, in time archeologists have been able to rescue after being buried underneath the earth.
Besides the marvelous experience that is to see the ruins of Easter Island, whatever it may be the real meaning behind the tales, stories and mysteries, it ends up being the most interesting and unforgettable visit for anyone. Very little is known about them compared to what is behind the mystery and old legends that fill them with curses and theories that are hard to believe.
Rapa Nui has been denominated as the center of the world, however still it’s not known for sure how the island reached its actual location and from where their inhabitants came. We do know that it’s triangular shaped and created by the action of three volcanoes that are located in each vertex of the island.
Some scientists assure that its population comes from New Guinea, others say that they are inhabitants from the pre Inca culture and, the most daring assure that they come from another planet, to say extraterrestrials. None of these theories have been proved and the mystery is still unsolved, which captures the most complete attention of the tourists.
In 1772, the first Dutch colonists arrived and, as a legend says, the only one that knew all the secrets of the Island was laying dead in his bed. For this reason is that nothing was ever known and until know it’s an enigma, and it will probably always be.
Although the entire island is an enigma, there’s no doubt that the major tourist attractions are the moais, giant stone sculptures, in their majority sculpted in porous toba, stone of volcanic origin, and they weigh between 8 and 12 tons each. Until now, about a thousand in total have been found, from which 600 are finished and 400 are in different stages of carving. These statues don’t have legs, have a prominent nose, mouth and forehead, and on both sides long ears.
Nobody has been able still to clarify how the moais were built, and how they were taken up to where they are, line up with their back to the ocean. Some calculate that to have achieved this, it was necessary the use of the labor of some 30 men during one year. The bizarre aspect is that nobody knows how they could transport them. Also, it have been said that these moais are the faces of each chief, nevertheless it’s impossible that more than a thousand had existed form the time the island was created until the arrival of the Dutch.
The wackiest theory in regards to the construction of the moais and the origin of the inhabitants of Easter Island, is that they came from another planet and dominated the native for many years. These extraterrestrial didn’t come in peace and it’s said that they were very egocentric and that the moais depict their faces that were built by themselves, but with remarkably advance methods, unknown to the humans.
¿Where did these extraterrestrials go? Nobody knows, maybe they left out of boredom or they found another place where to stay. This hypothesis has been declined by many scientists and has been cause of mockery.
Maybe we will never discover the truth, however the tourists don’t want to miss getting to see the moai and being part of the entire enigma that the island brings along.
Since the economy of Rapa Nui is based on tourism, it’s not a very cheap place to visit. Lodging goes from $60 to $800 dollars. Besides, the consumption is very expensive and planes don’t fly every day, but only once a week.
If you would like to visit the island, you must take light clothing since the island has a quite tropical climate during the entire year.
Hanga Roa

Here the big majority of the population of the island is concentrated. Of great importance is the Hanga Roa Creek (Caleta de Hanga Roa), built between 1966 and 1967 with paenga (the same stones of the ahu). It’s a small creek for loading and unloading passenger traffic from small boats. Over there boats can be rented, and cannotage, regattas and diving can be practiced. There’s also gastronomical and crafts products for sale. Another place that stands out is the Father Sebastián Englert Anthropological Museum (Museo Antropológico Padre Sebastián Englert) that gathers cultural elements from Easter Island, preferably of daily tasks, pictorial, traditional and religious representations. The museum’s name is in homage to the Capuchin priest Sebastián Englert, a German religious man that arrived to the island in 1935 and during 30 years dedicated himself to study the language, their oral traditions and the archeological legacy. Nearby is Te Pito O Te Henua, a big stone, perfectly rounded, that represents the navel of the world for the Rapa Nui.

Easter Island or Te Pito o Te Henua ("navel of the world,” according to its antecessors), is geographically the most remote point in the Earth and a real scientific enigma. It remained isolated and solitary for more than one thousand years, with no more human contact that them. In its period of glory, the life of its 15,000 inhabitants was registered in its “talking” rango rango tablets (practically, the only town with a writing system in the New World). When Chile took possession of Easter Island, at the end of last century, there were about a few more than one hundred islanders left and no one was able to interpret its hieroglyphs, nor the real history of their ancestors. But their enormous monuments are all along a testimony of their great culture.

Visiting the island is a unique experience. The interest in Easter Island lies in contemplating what isolation has been able to create: a complex cultural development in Easter Island.

About three millions and a half of years ago a volcano erupted, that later on, it would be called Poike. Then the Rano Kau erupted too and, after, did the Maunga Terevaka as well. That’s how the vertexes of a triangle were drawn over the ocean. In its interior, more than 70 new craters transported magma from the depths of the earth and formed a curious landscape of 103 square miles, which is the actual area of this island situated at 2,030 nautical miles from the Chilean coast, about 2,337 miles. In its topography dominate smooth slopes with hills, inactive volcanoes, and semi-flat prairies in some cases. The coast is rocky with cliffs and unsheltered bays. There are only three small beaches of white coral sand: Anakena, Ovahe and Pea. Near the shore, it stands out the rocky islets. Among them: Motu Marotiri, Motu Iti, Motu Nui and Motu Kao Kao.

Easter Island is part of the so called Polynesian Triangle, whose vertexes are: Hawaii to the North, New Zealand to the South and Rapa Nui to the West.

The climate in the island is subtropical maritime. The months with lowest temperatures are July and August with an average of 64° F. February, the hottest month, has an average of 74.6° F. It rains the entire year. The annual average is of 1,138 mm; April is the more rainy month. In spite of its cloudiness, Easter Island is very bright. In between downpour the sky usually opens up and with frequency rainbows can be seen.

In regards to is the island’s flora, 3 thousand years ago it was covered by forests and it had more than 14 arboreal species, which are all gone today due to human depredation. Currently it’s covered with pastures and has isolated eucalyptus forests that were introduced during our time. From the 34 native species still remaining -some brought by the first immigrants -, the toromiro tree (Sophora toromiro) suffered serious risks of extinction. It’s a tree with extremely hard wood and very used in the local primitive crafts, that literally made it disappeared from the island. Nevertheless, some seeds were saved, which allowed the farming of new plants in the National Botanic Garden (Jardín Botánico Nacional) and in other places in the world, with the intention of introduce them again into the island. Other species such as seaweed and coral that live under the ocean, have lost the size they used to have when they were used as eyes for the ancient moai statues. Today they are used in crafts.

The fauna of the island also suffered and ecological breakdown due to the human overpopulation occurred in a previous time. Today some birds make their nests in the island such as the tavake (red tailed tropical bird, Phaeton rubricauda); the kena (Pacific masked booby, Sula dactylatra); some kakapa (petrels) and terns. Sporadically come to visit the makohe (great frigate bird), and also the legendary manutara (sooty tern, Sterna lunata fuscata), which has been seen rarely these last years.

The marine fauna of the island is diverse and because of that about one fourth of the more than 160 species of fishes are endemic. Stand out the nanue (girella nebulosa), the po'opo'o (jack mackerel), the toremo (yellowtail), the kahi (tuna) and others of great consumption. There are also fishes of curious forms, such as the titeve (hedgehog fish), the double-ended pipefish, the boxfish and the tipi tipi (butterfly fish) and, among the crustaceans the ura (lobster) of large size. In the rocky places, underneath the ocean, there are many types of pure (cowries), most of them small; the islanders use them to make necklaces.

Ancestors of Easter Island
Until mid XX century the hypothesis that the inhabitants of Rapa Nui came from the Polynesia was accepted. Then, another theory came up, with the premises of a South American origin. Their supporters pointed that there were apparent similarities between the Andean constructions and Rapa Nui.

The biggest driving force of the South American theory was the disappeared explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who made a trip on the Kon Tiki raft, built by craftsmen of Titicaca, between the coast of South America and the Polynesia. In that way he proved that it was possible to navigate between the continent and these islands of the Pacific. The theory of the Polynesian origin, affirms that the island was populated by a migration from the Marquesas Islands. Such theory gathers more evidence every day, to the point that today is the most highly accepted one.

The populating of the island goes back to the VII AC century. In the posterior centuries, the initial population multiplied and, being isolated, developed a complex culture.

The stratified society of Rapa Nui was composed by a series of groups having unilineal descent relationship, directed by a king, direct descendant of the creator gods. Each social unity –“mata”- occupied an insular territory and part of the coast, where the religious, political and social center of the family was located. Over the ceremonial altar (ahu) the ancestors were worshiped in the form of deities, represented by stone statues called moai. Next to the ahu there was an esplanade or meeting square for the community activities. Groups of houses, situated in front of the ahu, were inhabited by persons of high rank. There were cooking pits, paved areas and other cult related structures in the area.

The rest of the population was located in the inland areas of the island, next to the farm sectors. They lived in houses (haré) with vegetal roofing. Today these are called “boat houses,” since their shape is similar to an inverted boat. Around these, there were one or more cooking pit (umu pae), where they cooked their food on hot stones. There were also henhouses (hare moa) and circular structures made of stone where they cultivated plants (manavai).

Evolution and decline of Easter Island
During centuries the Rapa Nui society was centered on the worshiping of ancestors. An increasing number of inhabitants were involved in the constructions of high altars (ahu) and in the carving of giant human figures of stone (moai). Thus the amount of people dedicated to food production was diminished. However, the population grew, generating a great pressure for obtaining the limited resources, which at the same time caused an alteration in the ecological balance. This seems to have caused the crisis in the system.
Such crisis was over by the XVI and XVII centuries, with successive wars among tribes, a gradual destruction of the ahu (all the moai in the island were knocked down) and the abandonment of the quarries where the statues were carved. The caves became places for living, shelter and hiding. There was a great scarcity of food, what caused –because of rage or necessity- the anthropophagi between enemies.

At the same time, a new religious cult was rising: the veneration to the fertility, represented by the sooty tern egg, the Manutara. This cult to the Bird Man had as a ceremonial center the Orongo village, located on the superior end of the Rano Kau crater. The ceremony consisted of a tournament between the chiefs of different lineages in order to obtain the first manutara egg, a migratory bird that made its nest in the Motu Nui islet, in front of Orongo. The winner was invested with the Bird Man title (Tangata Manu).

Western Contact
On April 5, 1722, on an Easter Sunday, the island was discovered and baptized by the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen, who was in command of a fleet of three ships. In 1774, Captain James Cook visited it and, in 1786, the French captain Lapérouse. Since then, Easter Island became a stopping point on the trips to Oceania. Between 1862 and 1863, ships with slaves took more than one thousand natives to work in the Peruvian guano deposits. This introduced plagues, decimating the population until there were only 111 islanders left.

In 1870 the first Chilean warship visited it -the O'Higgins corvette- and, in 1888, after insisting steps taken by captain Policarpo Toro, Chile incorporated the island to its sovereignty.

Current development of Easter Island
Almost all the Rapanui, (pascuenses [people of Easter Island]), live in the town of Hanga Roa. This is due to the fact that during a long time, the island was rented to a private company for breeding sheep. This company enclosed the limits of Hanga Roa and prohibited the islanders to cross that frontier. In 1953, the company ceased operations and the island was left under the administration of the Navy of Chile, up to the year 1965, date when just then, the free circulation of the Rapanui was allowed once again.

From its current population of 3,791 a bit more than 60% is of Rapanui origin. The most relevant areas from the point of view of the archeological legacy form part of the Rapa Nui National Park (Parque Nacional Rapa Nui) and are protected and supervised by CONAF.
Fishing and agriculture have been the traditional sources of sustain and trade among the Rapanui. Since the construction of the international airport of Mataveri and the inauguration of the regular air traffic, a new activity rose, tourism, stimulating the commerce of crafts and the opening of lodging. The actual hotel capacity, the island’s main source of sustain, is about 600 beds.

Recommendations for visiting Easter Island
All the trips that can be made in Easter Island are within the Parque Nacional Rapa Nui and there you will find the most important archeological resources of the island. With the goal of protecting this legacy, a group of local institutions representing the tourism industry and the cultural legacy, joined in the Tourism Board (Mesa de Turismo), and defined the following basic recommendations that visitors must respect:

1. Each visitor must pay the admission ticket to the National Park, a one time fee that allows the improvement of the sites. The admission ticket is US$10, valid for one person only; it can be paid in Orongo or at the CONAF’s office, and it’s good for visiting the entire park.

2. Cultural Legacy Protection. Respect the guidelines and campaigns for the cultural legacy protection that are in place. It’s your responsibility to be informed.

3. The recollection of objects, stones, obsidians or other similar goods are not allowed. Avoid going up and walking over ceremonial platforms (ahu), statues (moai) or other archeological structures, and step, draw or scribble on the petroglyphs. All of these actions will be considered harmful to the archeological legacy of Rapa Nui, and will constitute a crime punished by law.

4. Respect the trails and vehicular roads that are indicated with signs; do not access with motor vehicles to places that are not implemented. Do not go inside the Ana Kai Tangata cavern.

5. The National Park does not have precincts implemented for camping, it’s only allowed at the facilities located in Hanga Roa.

6. Rapa Nui is a clean environment. Throw trash only in the trash cans in Hanga Roa.

7. Personal Security. Each visitor is the main responsible person for its personal security. Go to your trips accompanied by a guide or a park ranger of CONAF. Do not take risks on cliff areas. Remember that Anakena is the only beach apt for swimming.

8. Get informed about the weather conditions in the place. Calculate your travel times and leave notice at the CONAF offices.

9. Park Ranger Assistance. For any doubt ask the park rangers and follow their instructions. We also recommend that you get oriented with a local guide when going in a trip. The public attention hours of the park rangers, between January and February, is from Monday to Sunday, from 8:30 am to 7 pm; from March to December, until 6 pm. The Administration, located at Mataveri Otai with no number, is open all year round, from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 1 pm and 2:30 pm to 6 pm.

Hanga Roa has a population of 3,304. Here it lives almost the totality of the population. At downtown, you will find a post office, telephone, court and a bank. The creek is the other center of permanent activity. By the boats there are the remains of an ahu or altar with a moai; at its foot there’s a small beach. This beach is located between formations of lava and has a variety of coral with extraordinary developments, such as Porites lobata of more than 16.4 feet of diameter; which is visited by sea turtles.

A bit further to the South, near the Hanga Roa hotel, there’s another creek, the Hanga Piko, with a small dock that is used for unloading the boats that come with provisions from the continent. It’s ideal for diving; most of it, it’s recommended for adventure diving.

In Hanga Roa visit the church and notice its wood figures that combine catholic elements with symbols of the Rapanui culture. Masses are held on Sunday, with chants in Rapa Nui and melodies with a stressed Polynesian rhythm.

In Hanga Roa there are night discos, where they dance to the pop modern music. Crafts are sold at the crafts market, the fair and the Mataveri airport.

The Circuit to Tahai is a trip on foot that lasts half a day. Go out until the Hanga Roa Otai creek, where you will see two restored ahu, each with a moai. Continue along the coast until the cemetery and go on the trail by the shore until Tahai. It’s a ceremonial center that gathers evidences of the Rapa Nui culture in its height moment. The first group of moai corresponds to the Ahu Vai Uri temple. In front of that group is the square, used for ceremonial and religious meetings. By it, the chiefs, priests and high rank persons built their residencies. Still remains the foundations of one of this boat-houses or hare paenga, of elliptical structure.

Contiguous to a stone ramp is the ahu Tahai. The ramp was used by the canoes that got to the small creek. More to the north, another isolated moai, the Ko Te Riku, exhibits its capping or hat of reddish stone, called Pukao.

The eyes that watch the Sky (Mata Ki Te Rangi)
In 1978, during the restoration of the Ahu Nau Nau, for the first time an eye of a moai was founded. This, the biggest and most complete discovered until today, it’s exhibited at the Easter Island museum along with another one found in 1993 during the reconstruction of the Ahu Tongariki.

These eyes were made of white coral and the pupils of obsidian or red volcanic stone.
The moais received their eyes during a ritual headed by the Ariki (king). Through this ceremony the moais acquired their “aringa ora” (alive face) of the ancestors in order to project the “mana” (energy) on their descendants.

Return through the trail located in front of the ahu Tahai. Go up and, when reaching the superior site where there’s a parking lot, notice the modern house where his owner, Gerardo Velasco, intended to perpetuate the boat-house tradition.

Close to the ceremonial center of Tahai is the Father Sebastián Englert Anthropological Museum exhibiting objects, graphs and drawings about the Rapanui culture. It has a the William Mulloy specialized library, where you will find books, photos, videos and music about the Easter Island and the Oceania in general. It’s open from Tuesday to Friday, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and from 2 pm to 5:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday fro 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. The admission is $1,000, and for children $500. The admission is free for the locals. The library is open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Close to the museum there’s a vehicular road that comes out and will take you to the center of the town.

A trip of interest is the visit to Puna Pau, to Ahu Akivi and the caverns of Easter Island. It’s a trip of 13.6 miles that lasts half a day by car or motorcycle.

Exit Hanga Roa on Av. Atamu Tekena to the South, until reaching the Mataveri runway. Continue on the paved road to Anakena. Take the detour towards the left that will take you to the Puna Pau quarry, an archeological center where the hats or capping (Pukao) of reddish stone of the moai were found. Keep going until the center to find the Ahu Akivi. It’s a restored ahu with seven moais. These were lined up in relation to the equinoctials, along with another group of ahu that also have an astronomical orientation, showing the knowledge of the skies of the Rapanui culture. Observe the egg white pebble stones that decorate the platform inclined to the ahu. These stones were found in the coast, and where ballast stones of a sunken ship of the XIX century, the Appoliné Emilie.

Following the road towards the west coast, you will see banana plants and a place with beautiful vegetation semi-submerged in a hole. This is the entry to the Te Pahu cave, one of the biggest one in Easter Island. You can go in with a flashlight and get to the other opening, at 492 feet.

Continue on the trail until the ahu Tepeu, with big stones in its platform very well assembled. The moai are still knocked upside down, just like they were left during the crisis period. Here there are many remains of the boat-house or hare paenga.

If you are going in a resistant vehicle, go back to the town towards the South, along the coastal track. If you are not, go back to the same entry road. Along the coastal track you can locate, if you travel with a guide, the hidden entry to the cave of the two windows (cueva de las Dos Ventanas). Going in with a flashlight; at 164 feet, a bifurcation takes you to two exits over a cliff in front of the ocean.

Another interesting trip that can be made in the island, is the visit to Vinapu, to Rano Raraku and to Anakena. It’s a stretch of 28.5 miles that lasts the whole day. Take food.

Exit Hanga Roa on Av. Atamu Tekena until the Mataveri runway. Turn left and border the runway until the end. There you will see small hill to the left -the Orito-, the main quarry of obsidian, the bright black stone with which the majority of tools were made. Keep going straight to the coat, to the area of Vinapu. This sector is formed by temples or main ahu in ruins. One of them has a great similarity, in the carving of its stones, with the Machu Picchu ruins. The moai that were on top of structure were knocked down; even more there’s one, semi-buried, sticking his face out to the sky.

At 1.8 miles of Vinapu there’s another archeological site: Hanga Poukura. Here there’s a confirmation that the moai were knocked down, since their faces are broken and they are incrusted on the ground. At some 1.2 miles, along the coast, is the Vaihú complex, that’s also conserved just how it was left after the crisis. Observe some of the hats of red stone that were thrown to the ocean. At 1.8 miles, next a small creek, is the archeological center Akahanga, which includes an important village.

Continuing towards the East, the road passes by the ahu Hanga Tetenga, with a broken moai in four parts that measured 32.8 feet of height. Take the next detour towards the left, to go to the parking in front of the quarry of the moai. On the road border you will see many moai upside down, abandoned when they were being moved to the ahu. Stop at Rano Raraku. This is one of the most visited places and of greatest interest for the archeologists. In the quarries of this volcano almost all the existing moai were carved. Carefully follow the trail outlined, that have been designed so the visitor has a better experience during his trip. One of the moai reaches 68.8 feet of height, which is like a seven floor building. Go up to the border of the crater. In its interior there’s a lagoon with cattail and other moai, built in inner quarries.

Continuing along the north coast, you will see the group of structures at the La Perouse bay (Ñanga o Honu) and the ahu Te Pito Kura, with its knocked down moai of 32.8 feet of height, the tallest one ever erected over an ahu. Then you will get to Anakena. Here there are two restored ahu and the most beautiful beach in the island, with white sand, the only one apt for swimming and that during beach season it also has a lifeguard. This beach was the place where the ancient governors lived, and now we can appreciate a small forest of palm trees that was planted. Walk to the East towards Ovahe, a small beach with pink sand that offers another resting option, but that is not apt for swimming. In these beaches the recreational diving is widely practiced.

Return using the inner road that crosses the island by the Vaitea ranch.

Finally, another interesting and pretty trip that can be made in the island is the one that takes you to Rano Kau y Orongo. It’s a circuit of 5.5 miles round trip. It lasts half a day by car or on foot. Cooperate with the preservation of this important legacy; do not go on top of the houses or the stones with rupestrian art and do not draw lines on the petroglyphs.

Exit on Av. Atamu Tekena until the end. Continue to the right using the vehicular road that borders the coast. Go further until a small esplanade used for parking. Below this small cliff is the Ana Kai Tangata cavern, whose depth reaches about 9.8 feet. Observe the paintings of terns, possibly Manutara, on the sky of the cave. The observational platform must be respected and it’s not allowed to go further inside.

Go back to the road, continue straight and go up to the Rano Kau volcano, with a crater of 0.9 miles of diameter and more than 656 feet of depth. If you go on foot, take the trail that will lead you directly to it. The road ends up at the CONAF booth, where is the access to the Orongo village. Each visitor must register when entering and exiting this area, one of the most fragile ones of the Rapa Nui National Park. After registering, request a free leaflet with information about the site.

Orongo is a ceremonial village. Continue on the trail to the right that will take you to the first point of interest, a viewpoint from which you will be able to appreciate the islets or motu. Then walk around the village, composed by 53 houses of a unique design in the island. Stay within the trail to assist in the better conservation of the archeological resources in the area.

Finally, you will see to the right the greatest concentration of petroglyphs of Orongo, There are images of Tangata Manu or bird man; of Make Make, its creator god, and of Komari, a fertility symbol. From there you can appreciate the three islets to which the tern Manutara arrived; the clan chief that got the first egg was anointed Tangata Manu, until the following Spring.

The Cultural Legacy Te Ara o Rapa Nui Route (Ruta Patrimonial Te Ara o Rapa Nui) is a pedestrian route called “Te Ate o Rapa Nui.” It’s divided in two consecutive stretches, one urban and the other rural. The first one starts in the museum and travel along many points of interest on the coast of Hanga Roa. The second stretch starts in Ana Kai Tangata and ends in Orongo.

Myth and reality mingle in Rapa Nui, a land of volcanic origins, with a triangular shape and a surface of 111.8 square miles. It’s an archeological resource of international importance due to the mystery surrounding its giant stone sculptures.

Rapa Nui: an attractive story

The Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen arrived at the island on April 5, 1722, Easter Sunday, from which the island gets its name; Rapa-Nui is the Polynesian name.

This big island was annexed by the Chilean government in 1888. The government reserved an area on the west coast for the indigenous population, and left the rest of the land for grazing sheep and cattle.

Easter Island is important for its archaeological discoveries: it is not only the Pacific island with the greatest quantity of megaliths, it is also the only source that confirms the existence of a writing system in Polynesia.

Many archaeologists believe that when the island was invaded, already existed about six hundred statues carved in stone or moai, which have made the island famous, and that the majority of these were destroyed by the Polynesians during a period of warfare.

There are approximately one hundred moai left on the island, (stone monuments), carved on the hillocks of a volcano, varying between 9.8 and 39.3 feet high. These are carved on “toba” (volcanic agglomerate) and represent enormous heads with elongated noses and ears. The stone for the statues was extracted from the crater of Rano Raraku, where explorers found an immense uncompleted statue of 68.8 feet long. Many of the statues on the embedded platforms wear cylindrical crowns of red toba weighing up to 27 tons.

Hidden caves have been found in the course of the excavations, containing the remains of wooden tablets and images. The fine, stylized engravings of the tablets appear to be a pictorial writing system.
Easter Island and its inexplicable monuments
The case of Easter Island is one of the most known around the world, since the construction of the moai is still a mystery, after many theories that have been formulated, none has been proofed.
Besides that Easter Island is an attractive place to visit, the Moai adds a very special connotation that everyone wants to be a part of.
Humans, by nature, have been dedicated to searching an explanation about the existence and where we come from. Many ruins give us some answers through their hieroglyphs and different manifestations that have been displayed on walls and utensils that, in time archeologists have been able to rescue after being buried underneath the earth.
Besides the marvelous experience that is to see the ruins of Easter Island, whatever it may be the real meaning behind the tales, stories and mysteries, it ends up being the most interesting and unforgettable visit for anyone. Very little is known about them compared to what is behind the mystery and old legends that fill them with curses and theories that are hard to believe.
Rapa Nui has been denominated as the center of the world, however still it’s not known for sure how the island reached its actual location and from where their inhabitants came. We do know that it’s triangular shaped and created by the action of three volcanoes that are located in each vertex of the island.
Some scientists assure that its population comes from New Guinea, others say that they are inhabitants from the pre Inca culture and, the most daring assure that they come from another planet, to say extraterrestrials. None of these theories have been proved and the mystery is still unsolved, which captures the most complete attention of the tourists.
In 1772, the first Dutch colonists arrived and, as a legend says, the only one that knew all the secrets of the Island was laying dead in his bed. For this reason is that nothing was ever known and until know it’s an enigma, and it will probably always be.
Although the entire island is an enigma, there’s no doubt that the major tourist attractions are the moais, giant stone sculptures, in their majority sculpted in porous toba, stone of volcanic origin, and they weigh between 8 and 12 tons each. Until now, about a thousand in total have been found, from which 600 are finished and 400 are in different stages of carving. These statues don’t have legs, have a prominent nose, mouth and forehead, and on both sides long ears.
Nobody has been able still to clarify how the moais were built, and how they were taken up to where they are, line up with their back to the ocean. Some calculate that to have achieved this, it was necessary the use of the labor of some 30 men during one year. The bizarre aspect is that nobody knows how they could transport them. Also, it have been said that these moais are the faces of each chief, nevertheless it’s impossible that more than a thousand had existed form the time the island was created until the arrival of the Dutch.
The wackiest theory in regards to the construction of the moais and the origin of the inhabitants of Easter Island, is that they came from another planet and dominated the native for many years. These extraterrestrial didn’t come in peace and it’s said that they were very egocentric and that the moais depict their faces that were built by themselves, but with remarkably advance methods, unknown to the humans.
¿Where did these extraterrestrials go? Nobody knows, maybe they left out of boredom or they found another place where to stay. This hypothesis has been declined by many scientists and has been cause of mockery.
Maybe we will never discover the truth, however the tourists don’t want to miss getting to see the moai and being part of the entire enigma that the island brings along.
Since the economy of Rapa Nui is based on tourism, it’s not a very cheap place to visit. Lodging goes from $60 to $800 dollars. Besides, the consumption is very expensive and planes don’t fly every day, but only once a week.
If you would like to visit the island, you must take light clothing since the island has a quite tropical climate during the entire year.
Hanga Roa

Here the big majority of the population of the island is concentrated. Of great importance is the Hanga Roa Creek (Caleta de Hanga Roa), built between 1966 and 1967 with paenga (the same stones of the ahu). It’s a small creek for loading and unloading passenger traffic from small boats. Over there boats can be rented, and cannotage, regattas and diving can be practiced. There’s also gastronomical and crafts products for sale. Another place that stands out is the Father Sebastián Englert Anthropological Museum (Museo Antropológico Padre Sebastián Englert) that gathers cultural elements from Easter Island, preferably of daily tasks, pictorial, traditional and religious representations. The museum’s name is in homage to the Capuchin priest Sebastián Englert, a German religious man that arrived to the island in 1935 and during 30 years dedicated himself to study the language, their oral traditions and the archeological legacy. Nearby is Te Pito O Te Henua, a big stone, perfectly rounded, that represents the navel of the world for the Rapa Nui.

Easter Island or Te Pito o Te Henua ("navel of the world,” according to its antecessors), is geographically the most remote point in the Earth and a real scientific enigma. It remained isolated and solitary for more than one thousand years, with no more human contact that them. In its period of glory, the life of its 15,000 inhabitants was registered in its “talking” rango rango tablets (practically, the only town with a writing system in the New World). When Chile took possession of Easter Island, at the end of last century, there were about a few more than one hundred islanders left and no one was able to interpret its hieroglyphs, nor the real history of their ancestors. But their enormous monuments are all along a testimony of their great culture.

Visiting the island is a unique experience. The interest in Easter Island lies in contemplating what isolation has been able to create: a complex cultural development in Easter Island.

About three millions and a half of years ago a volcano erupted, that later on, it would be called Poike. Then the Rano Kau erupted too and, after, did the Maunga Terevaka as well. That’s how the vertexes of a triangle were drawn over the ocean. In its interior, more than 70 new craters transported magma from the depths of the earth and formed a curious landscape of 103 square miles, which is the actual area of this island situated at 2,030 nautical miles from the Chilean coast, about 2,337 miles. In its topography dominate smooth slopes with hills, inactive volcanoes, and semi-flat prairies in some cases. The coast is rocky with cliffs and unsheltered bays. There are only three small beaches of white coral sand: Anakena, Ovahe and Pea. Near the shore, it stands out the rocky islets. Among them: Motu Marotiri, Motu Iti, Motu Nui and Motu Kao Kao.

Easter Island is part of the so called Polynesian Triangle, whose vertexes are: Hawaii to the North, New Zealand to the South and Rapa Nui to the West.

The climate in the island is subtropical maritime. The months with lowest temperatures are July and August with an average of 64° F. February, the hottest month, has an average of 74.6° F. It rains the entire year. The annual average is of 1,138 mm; April is the more rainy month. In spite of its cloudiness, Easter Island is very bright. In between downpour the sky usually opens up and with frequency rainbows can be seen.

In regards to is the island’s flora, 3 thousand years ago it was covered by forests and it had more than 14 arboreal species, which are all gone today due to human depredation. Currently it’s covered with pastures and has isolated eucalyptus forests that were introduced during our time. From the 34 native species still remaining -some brought by the first immigrants -, the toromiro tree (Sophora toromiro) suffered serious risks of extinction. It’s a tree with extremely hard wood and very used in the local primitive crafts, that literally made it disappeared from the island. Nevertheless, some seeds were saved, which allowed the farming of new plants in the National Botanic Garden (Jardín Botánico Nacional) and in other places in the world, with the intention of introduce them again into the island. Other species such as seaweed and coral that live under the ocean, have lost the size they used to have when they were used as eyes for the ancient moai statues. Today they are used in crafts.

The fauna of the island also suffered and ecological breakdown due to the human overpopulation occurred in a previous time. Today some birds make their nests in the island such as the tavake (red tailed tropical bird, Phaeton rubricauda); the kena (Pacific masked booby, Sula dactylatra); some kakapa (petrels) and terns. Sporadically come to visit the makohe (great frigate bird), and also the legendary manutara (sooty tern, Sterna lunata fuscata), which has been seen rarely these last years.

The marine fauna of the island is diverse and because of that about one fourth of the more than 160 species of fishes are endemic. Stand out the nanue (girella nebulosa), the po'opo'o (jack mackerel), the toremo (yellowtail), the kahi (tuna) and others of great consumption. There are also fishes of curious forms, such as the titeve (hedgehog fish), the double-ended pipefish, the boxfish and the tipi tipi (butterfly fish) and, among the crustaceans the ura (lobster) of large size. In the rocky places, underneath the ocean, there are many types of pure (cowries), most of them small; the islanders use them to make necklaces.

Ancestors of Easter Island
Until mid XX century the hypothesis that the inhabitants of Rapa Nui came from the Polynesia was accepted. Then, another theory came up, with the premises of a South American origin. Their supporters pointed that there were apparent similarities between the Andean constructions and Rapa Nui.

The biggest driving force of the South American theory was the disappeared explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who made a trip on the Kon Tiki raft, built by craftsmen of Titicaca, between the coast of South America and the Polynesia. In that way he proved that it was possible to navigate between the continent and these islands of the Pacific. The theory of the Polynesian origin, affirms that the island was populated by a migration from the Marquesas Islands. Such theory gathers more evidence every day, to the point that today is the most highly accepted one.

The populating of the island goes back to the VII AC century. In the posterior centuries, the initial population multiplied and, being isolated, developed a complex culture.

The stratified society of Rapa Nui was composed by a series of groups having unilineal descent relationship, directed by a king, direct descendant of the creator gods. Each social unity –“mata”- occupied an insular territory and part of the coast, where the religious, political and social center of the family was located. Over the ceremonial altar (ahu) the ancestors were worshiped in the form of deities, represented by stone statues called moai. Next to the ahu there was an esplanade or meeting square for the community activities. Groups of houses, situated in front of the ahu, were inhabited by persons of high rank. There were cooking pits, paved areas and other cult related structures in the area.

The rest of the population was located in the inland areas of the island, next to the farm sectors. They lived in houses (haré) with vegetal roofing. Today these are called “boat houses,” since their shape is similar to an inverted boat. Around these, there were one or more cooking pit (umu pae), where they cooked their food on hot stones. There were also henhouses (hare moa) and circular structures made of stone where they cultivated plants (manavai).

Evolution and decline of Easter Island
During centuries the Rapa Nui society was centered on the worshiping of ancestors. An increasing number of inhabitants were involved in the constructions of high altars (ahu) and in the carving of giant human figures of stone (moai). Thus the amount of people dedicated to food production was diminished. However, the population grew, generating a great pressure for obtaining the limited resources, which at the same time caused an alteration in the ecological balance. This seems to have caused the crisis in the system.
Such crisis was over by the XVI and XVII centuries, with successive wars among tribes, a gradual destruction of the ahu (all the moai in the island were knocked down) and the abandonment of the quarries where the statues were carved. The caves became places for living, shelter and hiding. There was a great scarcity of food, what caused –because of rage or necessity- the anthropophagi between enemies.

At the same time, a new religious cult was rising: the veneration to the fertility, represented by the sooty tern egg, the Manutara. This cult to the Bird Man had as a ceremonial center the Orongo village, located on the superior end of the Rano Kau crater. The ceremony consisted of a tournament between the chiefs of different lineages in order to obtain the first manutara egg, a migratory bird that made its nest in the Motu Nui islet, in front of Orongo. The winner was invested with the Bird Man title (Tangata Manu).

Western Contact
On April 5, 1722, on an Easter Sunday, the island was discovered and baptized by the Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen, who was in command of a fleet of three ships. In 1774, Captain James Cook visited it and, in 1786, the French captain Lapérouse. Since then, Easter Island became a stopping point on the trips to Oceania. Between 1862 and 1863, ships with slaves took more than one thousand natives to work in the Peruvian guano deposits. This introduced plagues, decimating the population until there were only 111 islanders left.

In 1870 the first Chilean warship visited it -the O'Higgins corvette- and, in 1888, after insisting steps taken by captain Policarpo Toro, Chile incorporated the island to its sovereignty.

Current development of Easter Island
Almost all the Rapanui, (pascuenses [people of Easter Island]), live in the town of Hanga Roa. This is due to the fact that during a long time, the island was rented to a private company for breeding sheep. This company enclosed the limits of Hanga Roa and prohibited the islanders to cross that frontier. In 1953, the company ceased operations and the island was left under the administration of the Navy of Chile, up to the year 1965, date when just then, the free circulation of the Rapanui was allowed once again.

From its current population of 3,791 a bit more than 60% is of Rapanui origin. The most relevant areas from the point of view of the archeological legacy form part of the Rapa Nui National Park (Parque Nacional Rapa Nui) and are protected and supervised by CONAF.
Fishing and agriculture have been the traditional sources of sustain and trade among the Rapanui. Since the construction of the international airport of Mataveri and the inauguration of the regular air traffic, a new activity rose, tourism, stimulating the commerce of crafts and the opening of lodging. The actual hotel capacity, the island’s main source of sustain, is about 600 beds.

Recommendations for visiting Easter Island
All the trips that can be made in Easter Island are within the Parque Nacional Rapa Nui and there you will find the most important archeological resources of the island. With the goal of protecting this legacy, a group of local institutions representing the tourism industry and the cultural legacy, joined in the Tourism Board (Mesa de Turismo), and defined the following basic recommendations that visitors must respect:

1. Each visitor must pay the admission ticket to the National Park, a one time fee that allows the improvement of the sites. The admission ticket is US$10, valid for one person only; it can be paid in Orongo or at the CONAF’s office, and it’s good for visiting the entire park.

2. Cultural Legacy Protection. Respect the guidelines and campaigns for the cultural legacy protection that are in place. It’s your responsibility to be informed.

3. The recollection of objects, stones, obsidians or other similar goods are not allowed. Avoid going up and walking over ceremonial platforms (ahu), statues (moai) or other archeological structures, and step, draw or scribble on the petroglyphs. All of these actions will be considered harmful to the archeological legacy of Rapa Nui, and will constitute a crime punished by law.

4. Respect the trails and vehicular roads that are indicated with signs; do not access with motor vehicles to places that are not implemented. Do not go inside the Ana Kai Tangata cavern.

5. The National Park does not have precincts implemented for camping, it’s only allowed at the facilities located in Hanga Roa.

6. Rapa Nui is a clean environment. Throw trash only in the trash cans in Hanga Roa.

7. Personal Security. Each visitor is the main responsible person for its personal security. Go to your trips accompanied by a guide or a park ranger of CONAF. Do not take risks on cliff areas. Remember that Anakena is the only beach apt for swimming.

8. Get informed about the weather conditions in the place. Calculate your travel times and leave notice at the CONAF offices.

9. Park Ranger Assistance. For any doubt ask the park rangers and follow their instructions. We also recommend that you get oriented with a local guide when going in a trip. The public attention hours of the park rangers, between January and February, is from Monday to Sunday, from 8:30 am to 7 pm; from March to December, until 6 pm. The Administration, located at Mataveri Otai with no number, is open all year round, from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 am to 1 pm and 2:30 pm to 6 pm.

Hanga Roa has a population of 3,304. Here it lives almost the totality of the population. At downtown, you will find a post office, telephone, court and a bank. The creek is the other center of permanent activity. By the boats there are the remains of an ahu or altar with a moai; at its foot there’s a small beach. This beach is located between formations of lava and has a variety of coral with extraordinary developments, such as Porites lobata of more than 16.4 feet of diameter; which is visited by sea turtles.

A bit further to the South, near the Hanga Roa hotel, there’s another creek, the Hanga Piko, with a small dock that is used for unloading the boats that come with provisions from the continent. It’s ideal for diving; most of it, it’s recommended for adventure diving.

In Hanga Roa visit the church and notice its wood figures that combine catholic elements with symbols of the Rapanui culture. Masses are held on Sunday, with chants in Rapa Nui and melodies with a stressed Polynesian rhythm.

In Hanga Roa there are night discos, where they dance to the pop modern music. Crafts are sold at the crafts market, the fair and the Mataveri airport.

The Circuit to Tahai is a trip on foot that lasts half a day. Go out until the Hanga Roa Otai creek, where you will see two restored ahu, each with a moai. Continue along the coast until the cemetery and go on the trail by the shore until Tahai. It’s a ceremonial center that gathers evidences of the Rapa Nui culture in its height moment. The first group of moai corresponds to the Ahu Vai Uri temple. In front of that group is the square, used for ceremonial and religious meetings. By it, the chiefs, priests and high rank persons built their residencies. Still remains the foundations of one of this boat-houses or hare paenga, of elliptical structure.

Contiguous to a stone ramp is the ahu Tahai. The ramp was used by the canoes that got to the small creek. More to the north, another isolated moai, the Ko Te Riku, exhibits its capping or hat of reddish stone, called Pukao.

The eyes that watch the Sky (Mata Ki Te Rangi)
In 1978, during the restoration of the Ahu Nau Nau, for the first time an eye of a moai was founded. This, the biggest and most complete discovered until today, it’s exhibited at the Easter Island museum along with another one found in 1993 during the reconstruction of the Ahu Tongariki.

These eyes were made of white coral and the pupils of obsidian or red volcanic stone.
The moais received their eyes during a ritual headed by the Ariki (king). Through this ceremony the moais acquired their “aringa ora” (alive face) of the ancestors in order to project the “mana” (energy) on their descendants.

Return through the trail located in front of the ahu Tahai. Go up and, when reaching the superior site where there’s a parking lot, notice the modern house where his owner, Gerardo Velasco, intended to perpetuate the boat-house tradition.

Close to the ceremonial center of Tahai is the Father Sebastián Englert Anthropological Museum exhibiting objects, graphs and drawings about the Rapanui culture. It has a the William Mulloy specialized library, where you will find books, photos, videos and music about the Easter Island and the Oceania in general. It’s open from Tuesday to Friday, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and from 2 pm to 5:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday fro 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. The admission is $1,000, and for children $500. The admission is free for the locals. The library is open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Close to the museum there’s a vehicular road that comes out and will take you to the center of the town.

A trip of interest is the visit to Puna Pau, to Ahu Akivi and the caverns of Easter Island. It’s a trip of 13.6 miles that lasts half a day by car or motorcycle.

Exit Hanga Roa on Av. Atamu Tekena to the South, until reaching the Mataveri runway. Continue on the paved road to Anakena. Take the detour towards the left that will take you to the Puna Pau quarry, an archeological center where the hats or capping (Pukao) of reddish stone of the moai were found. Keep going until the center to find the Ahu Akivi. It’s a restored ahu with seven moais. These were lined up in relation to the equinoctials, along with another group of ahu that also have an astronomical orientation, showing the knowledge of the skies of the Rapanui culture. Observe the egg white pebble stones that decorate the platform inclined to the ahu. These stones were found in the coast, and where ballast stones of a sunken ship of the XIX century, the Appoliné Emilie.

Following the road towards the west coast, you will see banana plants and a place with beautiful vegetation semi-submerged in a hole. This is the entry to the Te Pahu cave, one of the biggest one in Easter Island. You can go in with a flashlight and get to the other opening, at 492 feet.

Continue on the trail until the ahu Tepeu, with big stones in its platform very well assembled. The moai are still knocked upside down, just like they were left during the crisis period. Here there are many remains of the boat-house or hare paenga.

If you are going in a resistant vehicle, go back to the town towards the South, along the coastal track. If you are not, go back to the same entry road. Along the coastal track you can locate, if you travel with a guide, the hidden entry to the cave of the two windows (cueva de las Dos Ventanas). Going in with a flashlight; at 164 feet, a bifurcation takes you to two exits over a cliff in front of the ocean.

Another interesting trip that can be made in the island, is the visit to Vinapu, to Rano Raraku and to Anakena. It’s a stretch of 28.5 miles that lasts the whole day. Take food.

Exit Hanga Roa on Av. Atamu Tekena until the Mataveri runway. Turn left and border the runway until the end. There you will see small hill to the left -the Orito-, the main quarry of obsidian, the bright black stone with which the majority of tools were made. Keep going straight to the coat, to the area of Vinapu. This sector is formed by temples or main ahu in ruins. One of them has a great similarity, in the carving of its stones, with the Machu Picchu ruins. The moai that were on top of structure were knocked down; even more there’s one, semi-buried, sticking his face out to the sky.

At 1.8 miles of Vinapu there’s another archeological site: Hanga Poukura. Here there’s a confirmation that the moai were knocked down, since their faces are broken and they are incrusted on the ground. At some 1.2 miles, along the coast, is the Vaihú complex, that’s also conserved just how it was left after the crisis. Observe some of the hats of red stone that were thrown to the ocean. At 1.8 miles, next a small creek, is the archeological center Akahanga, which includes an important village.

Continuing towards the East, the road passes by the ahu Hanga Tetenga, with a broken moai in four parts that measured 32.8 feet of height. Take the next detour towards the left, to go to the parking in front of the quarry of the moai. On the road border you will see many moai upside down, abandoned when they were being moved to the ahu. Stop at Rano Raraku. This is one of the most visited places and of greatest interest for the archeologists. In the quarries of this volcano almost all the existing moai were carved. Carefully follow the trail outlined, that have been designed so the visitor has a better experience during his trip. One of the moai reaches 68.8 feet of height, which is like a seven floor building. Go up to the border of the crater. In its interior there’s a lagoon with cattail and other moai, built in inner quarries.

Continuing along the north coast, you will see the group of structures at the La Perouse bay (Ñanga o Honu) and the ahu Te Pito Kura, with its knocked down moai of 32.8 feet of height, the tallest one ever erected over an ahu. Then you will get to Anakena. Here there are two restored ahu and the most beautiful beach in the island, with white sand, the only one apt for swimming and that during beach season it also has a lifeguard. This beach was the place where the ancient governors lived, and now we can appreciate a small forest of palm trees that was planted. Walk to the East towards Ovahe, a small beach with pink sand that offers another resting option, but that is not apt for swimming. In these beaches the recreational diving is widely practiced.

Return using the inner road that crosses the island by the Vaitea ranch.

Finally, another interesting and pretty trip that can be made in the island is the one that takes you to Rano Kau y Orongo. It’s a circuit of 5.5 miles round trip. It lasts half a day by car or on foot. Cooperate with the preservation of this important legacy; do not go on top of the houses or the stones with rupestrian art and do not draw lines on the petroglyphs.

Exit on Av. Atamu Tekena until the end. Continue to the right using the vehicular road that borders the coast. Go further until a small esplanade used for parking. Below this small cliff is the Ana Kai Tangata cavern, whose depth reaches about 9.8 feet. Observe the paintings of terns, possibly Manutara, on the sky of the cave. The observational platform must be respected and it’s not allowed to go further inside.

Go back to the road, continue straight and go up to the Rano Kau volcano, with a crater of 0.9 miles of diameter and more than 656 feet of depth. If you go on foot, take the trail that will lead you directly to it. The road ends up at the CONAF booth, where is the access to the Orongo village. Each visitor must register when entering and exiting this area, one of the most fragile ones of the Rapa Nui National Park. After registering, request a free leaflet with information about the site.

Orongo is a ceremonial village. Continue on the trail to the right that will take you to the first point of interest, a viewpoint from which you will be able to appreciate the islets or motu. Then walk around the village, composed by 53 houses of a unique design in the island. Stay within the trail to assist in the better conservation of the archeological resources in the area.

Finally, you will see to the right the greatest concentration of petroglyphs of Orongo, There are images of Tangata Manu or bird man; of Make Make, its creator god, and of Komari, a fertility symbol. From there you can appreciate the three islets to which the tern Manutara arrived; the clan chief that got the first egg was anointed Tangata Manu, until the following Spring.

The Cultural Legacy Te Ara o Rapa Nui Route (Ruta Patrimonial Te Ara o Rapa Nui) is a pedestrian route called “Te Ate o Rapa Nui.” It’s divided in two consecutive stretches, one urban and the other rural. The first one starts in the museum and travel along many points of interest on the coast of Hanga Roa. The second stretch starts in Ana Kai Tangata and ends in Orongo.