Easter Island to do

It also has an exceptional story and one of the greatest puzzles of our age.

It is dominated by wind-swept mounds, interspersed with an isolated volcano craters, which suddenly end on the shore with solid 300-metre-high whitewashed rocks, to which the great oceans lie untiringly at their feet. 2. The Easter Island is a charming place with an unbelievable story. The small people of Polynesia have suffered many hardship over the ages, including famines, wars, widespread deprivation and overcrowding.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth c., when the first discoverers of Europe came to the island, they were astonished that the island was indeed remote and had few physical ressources. Discoverers also took in the first accounts of the now famed rock sculptures on the island, known as" moai". The island is relatively prosperous three hundred years later: its inhabitants are receiving substantial grants from the Chilian authorities, its national park Raffa Nui (which covers a large part of the island) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and draws many visitors every year, and its renowned mai are being progressively rebuilt (archaeologists have rebuilt 36 of the more than 800 mai on the island).

It' s still a puzzle why the marshes were constructed and how the local people succeeded in building such giant sculptures (the biggest are more than 20 metres long) and to transport them many kilometres from the stone pit to the "ahu" (the place where the sculptures were placed).

On a walk around the island, the visitor is guided through the various puzzle relatedories - my favorite is the alien world! Before your stay, I suggest you learn about the island's amazing past, so that you can really appreciate the hardship the people of the island have suffered over the ages, their daily life and their amazing ceremonies.

Historic places are spread all over the island. This is one of these places, Akivi is made up of a large hu and seven large mai, all of which face the ocean - a singular characteristic like all the other mai on the island upcountry. It culminates in Rano Raraku, an extinguished vulcano and the site of the stone pit and the plant where the mai were built.

An itinerary through the stone pit gives the visitor a good idea of the different steps in the process of producing the clay. Don't miss the view of the giant 22-metre long mai. It is by far the biggest amphitheatre (fifteen mai in a row) with the sea and rocks that form a shimmering setting.

It has a nice sandstrand, Anakena Strand, which is bordered by more mai. Visiting this place includes a walk to the summit of the vulcano, where the visitor can enjoy a wonderful look at the great craters. Only city on the island is Hanga Roa.

It is the only place on the island where humans are permitted to stay (the remainder of the island is a protected area). There are only 5,000 inhabitants living here and are mainly dependent on the tourist industry, so that the city is full of small hostels, small bars, cafes, restaurants and tourist malls.

There is also a bench, a postal station (from which people can get very nice postage stamp in their passport for 1 USD), an interesting local history centre and a university. There is also one of the better places to eat at the harbour: Coming to Easter Island can be an expense, but as always, good research and design can significantly reduce costs.

Reserving a flight/tour from the Chilean continent can be very costly. When you fly to Chile with Lan Chile, it is not very costly to include a Santiago Easter Island in your multicultural tickets. The Easter Island can also be readily integrated into a trans-Pacific itinerary if you fly from Australia/New Zealand via Tahiti to the Chilean continent, as there is a Lan-Chile ferry from Tahiti to Santiago which makes a stop on Easter Island, which is perfect as an economical stop-off for a few nights - the same if you are going on a round-the-world cruise that includes the South Pocific and South America.

Looking for Easter Island properties. Have a look at my journey to Easter Island.