Easter Island: Paradise found.

It is impossible to put into words the experience I had on La Isla de Pascuas. It may be the most beautiful place I have ever been.

To fly to the island, essentially you travel directly West of Santiago for 4.5 hours and are above the bright blue ocean the entire time. All of a sudden, you see a little tiny island below and there you are on Easter Island! My first impression was that everything reminded me of ‘LOST,’ the terrain, small communities and mysterious elements.

As we walked off the plane, we were greeted with a humid sunny day and tropical breeze, quite a change from the chilly weather we’ve been having in Viña. The airport is very cute as there is only one flight to the island every day. We chatted with a very odd but nice woman named Teresa and decided to stay in her home during our 4 nights on the island. She gave Annie and me beautiful flower leis and brought us to her home. It was a nice place with a pretty garden, and breakfast consisting of bread, marmalade and tea was provided every morning.

The first day we wandered past a beautiful cemetery into the small town of Hanga Roa. On the way we saw our first Moai, which are the large stone heads that scatter the island. The island has an extremely interesting history with many significant knowledge gaps. Nobody knows who exactly created the Moai, what they mean or the explanations for their locations on the island. It is amazing to think about the mass production and transportation necessary to make so many Moai. At one point, all of them had fallen due to a tsunami, and today about half of them have been restored back to standing. Just to give you an idea, there are over 800 Moai, most face inward towards the center of the island, some are alone, others in groups, and some have hats, and all of them sit on stone platforms. I spent a lot of time thinking about these stone figures and just really enjoyed this unsolved mystery.

Our second day on the island, we rented a jeep in order to take a self-guided tour around the perimeter of the island. We discovered what I would consider the best radio station in the world as it played an amazing combination of the most popular US songs and reggaeton songs plus the occasional islander song. So we spent the day exploring the coast, climbing out onto rocks in the ocean, discovering Moai and seeing one gorgeous place after the next.

A highlight for me was coming upon a grassy hill that seemed to look out over the ocean. We hopped out of the car and as we walked to the edge of the hill, we saw the most beautiful beach imaginable. One of those white sand, curved beaches that you only see in postcards of paradise. We ran down to the teal blue water and went swimming and of course, the temperature was perfect!

The next morning we drove to an amazing volcanic crater Rano Kau and from there had a good view of the town and most of the island.

Equipo gringo: Jacob, Annie, me and Chaz

A nice view of Hanga Roa

Our last day on the island, we explored the other coast of the island and discovered a series of caves that are really lava tubes. Despite our lack of light, we thoroughly explored every cave and were excited to find some that opened up to views of the ocean. While we were on the island, there were extraordinarily large waves and they were just spectacular! One night we went out to watch the waves crash and look at the beautiful starry sky while eating some delicious dark chocolate, talk about the perfect combination!

Photo taken from the cave!

We had a bit of bad luck at the end of our trip as someone threw a rock through our jeep window and stole all of our daypacks, which included money, clothes, ID and credit cards and a camera. So we got to experience the police station and according to them, this is an extremely rare occurrence on the island. Although it was pretty stressful, I was proud of our Spanish skills in figuring out all the complicated logistics and I’m happy we are all safe. Overall this was an amazing trip and one I will never forget.

Did I mention that I saw some of the most breathtaking sunsets I’ve ever seen?