Arriving on Easter Island’s single runway that spans the width of the island is a breath taking experience. After traveling for hours across the vast Pacific Ocean as soon as the speck of land that is the island appears we descended, landing gear lowered while still over water and touch down feet from the water’s edge. Welcome to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)!

Although part of Chile, Easter Island is tropical and has significant Polynesian influence in the people and their traditions. The ancient people of the Rapa Nui used the island as a workshop for the creation of their Moai statues. There has been much controversy over whether the Moai were created on Rapa Nui or brought there. Scientists finally found, what they believe to be, the quarry where the Moai were made. Scattered around the quarry area are all kinds of Moai from just heads to full bodies. When the Spanish arrived, like in much of Latin America, many of the Moai were destroyed so all around the island are fallen Moai. It is sad to see these giants laying on the ground broken into pieces.

To tour the island we rented e-bikes which are battery assisted. We have never ridden e-bikes before but it was great fun. They offer a thirty percent, sixty percent and ninety percent assistance. The forty kilometer ride was great, going up a hill or facing a strong head wind… easy as pie. Until Michael used up all of his battery and had to pedal, without assistance, the last ten kilometers.

The island, as it is today, was created by three volcanos. The original ancient volcano created the island and then two, more recent volcanos created the topography. Most of the island is flat or rolling hills with the volcanos creating mountains on either end. Much of the island is quite barren but what a beautiful surprise as we came upon the Moai guarding this beach.

Getting away from Easter Island proved more difficult than we anticipated. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:35 p.m. They announced a delay and finally at 1:30 a.m. they announced that the flight was cancelled. It was a mess getting back through immigration, getting our luggage and assigned to a room with 400 other passengers. It is a very tiny airport with one gate and few employees. Finally a van took us to the hostel we had been assigned to and dropped us off. We then found out that the hostel had no rooms. Just as the owner was calling a cab, another airport van came down the street. There were ten of us in the van and the next guesthouse we went to only had one room for the family of four. The van driver did not know what to do with us and the other two couples but he finally, after several phone calls, found a place for us to stay. It was 3:30 a.m. before we got to bed. We were back to the airport and on our way to Tahiti the following afternoon.