Easter Island, Chile – Most Isolated Inhabited Island in the World

Easter Island

DAY 16 – Thursday, January 20th - If you ever wanted to get away from the rest of the world, Easter Island is just the place for you!  This small island is located in the south Pacific Ocean, 2,237 miles west of Chile, and it took us four days out at sea to reach this treasure.

Easter Island got its name from the Dutch discovery of this already inhabited island on Easter Sunday, 1722.  The famous stone figures (called moais) found on this island were carved out of volcanic rock around 1200 AD, and moved into position along the coast line areas to provide good blessings on the people and villages of the island. 

The average moai is 13 feet in height and weighs 13 tons.  There are 887 moais on Easter Island…and it is still somewhat of a mystery how these huge figures were put in place on platform pedestals (ahus) coming from a quarry nearly 15 miles away.  The ashes of important ancestors were buried in subterranean vaults below the statue-like figures, probably signifying the spirit of these forefathers in the stone figures.

The triangular-shaped island has three volcanoes at each corner of the triangle, and the entire island is only 45 square miles in size.  This small size is probably why so many early seafaring explorers from Europe and South America missed discovering it!  Each volcano has a deep crater, which is filled with fresh-water lakes and reeds.

The famous Kon Tiki voyage made by Thor Heyerdahl on a raft of reeds proved that Stone Age crossings to this island from Polynesia was possible.  It is speculated that these were the island’s first inhabitants, and they brought plants, animals, and tools with them to survive on this island.

You can fly in to Easter Island from Chile and land at the island’s large jet airport runway, which is the way a lot of the supplies arrive on this island.  There are hundreds of wild horses (most are Peruvian Paso Spanish breeds) on the island, and many of the inhabitants ride horses to get from one place to another on the island.

We were fascinated by everything we saw as we toured all around this island and learned much about its early inhabitants and the history of the mysterious moais.  There are three central villages and several paved roads to reach these villages.  The island has nearly 3,000 residents, many of them are working in military or government services, such as the island’s Chile National Parks helping to preserve the ancient areas and artifacts.

Here are a few selected photos of our excursions and hikes:

We  had to drop down off of our cruise ship into the ship’s tender boats to arrive at our beach landing area.  You can see some of the Easter Island stone figures on the raised platform on the sandy beach area to the left.

We hiked on a trail to the rim of the Orongo volcano, and this photo is looking down into the crater.  The rim of this volcano is 1,000 feet high, the highest point on the island, and the crater holds fresh water.  From here you can turn 360-degrees and nearly see the Pacific Ocean all around the island.

These are some of the huge moai statues that are found all around the perimeter shoreline of the island.