Exploring the Moai statues of Easter Island

One of the most remote and mysterious places on Earth is Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. Our reservations were made about four months ahead with Latam airlines and a local tour company.

The 4-hour and 45-minute flight from Santiago, Chile, went quickly as we traveled on a comfortable Boeing 787. We looked down with excitement on the tiny triangle of land 14 miles long and 7 miles wide. We landed on the airport's only runway, which extends from one side of the island to the other and used to be an abort site for the U.S. space shuttle.

While some may prefer to rent a car and spend more time at each site, we felt the tour guide gave us a wealth of information and the time spent at each site was sufficient. Three days of tours with evenings on our own to walk around the very small town of Hanga Roa was just right.

Most nights the electricity would go out for the whole town. Most restaurants had to close until the power came back on. We found ourselves with flashlights in hand searching for a grocery store since we did not know when the power would come back on. Having a flashlight is a necessity. There also were no hot showers or Wi-Fi until the power came back on. Wi-Fi was only available in one area of our hotel.

Each morning our guide picked us and six to eight other people up in a comfortable van and took us to see ancient Moai statues, volcanoes, craters and archaeological sites. Our guide said the statues represented Rapa Nui ancestors who were buried below the ahu, which is the base of land the Moai stand on.

There are burial sites for each tribe and about 887 Moai, which are carved from volcanic rock. Most face inward as if they are watching over the tribe. By the 18th century, all the Moai were toppled in a civil war among the tribes. We visited the quarry where many Moai were left in various phases of completion. Chile has made the island a national park and is in the process of reconstructing the statues.

This four-day extension of our trip to Santiago was well worth it to learn about the history of Rapa Nui.

For more information: Carmen Insana at Visitchile.com. Email carmen@visitchile.com.

The writer lives in Phoenix.

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