Easter Island

Come to Easter Island for wild horses—yes thousands of them—white-sand beaches, a great outdoor museum of enigmatic stone statues, and even a high-end hotel or two. Head for the Galapagos Islands to track tortoises in the highlands, swim with the sea lions, dive deep for rays and sharks, cruise among many islands, and stay put on one or two. Actually, Easter Island and the Galapagos do have something else in common: they’re each unique.

easter island: just call me rapa nui

Easter Island may have jumped first into travelers’ imaginations on reading “Aku-Aku,” charting Thor Heyerdahl’s quest (scientifically unfulfilled) to prove that seafarers from South America could have settled Polynesia. More recently, inspiration to add Easter Island to one’s bucket list of must-see places may have come from the exposure of its beauty (and the visiting beauties) in Sports Illustrated’s 50th annual Swimsuit Edition.

Archaeologists and anthropologists are still unraveling the mysteries of the Polynesian people who arrived in giant canoes to settle around the eighth century on Rapa Nui—aka Easter Island; however, there is no mystery about why this dot in the Pacific is a magnet for 21st century globetrotters. Located halfway between Chile and Tahiti, this remote, beautiful place is home to some of the world’s most colossal, stone-carved statues, known as moai. There are around 900 of these big-headed figures, scattered around the island’s 63 sq. miles, some lying toppled and littering the rolling grasslands, others clustered along the shore on ceremonial platforms, their elongated bodies and heads facing inland.

When on the island, you hike up to the extraordinary site of Rano Raraku quarry, which occupies a volcanic crater and is the mother lode of Easter Island’s iconic moai, carved centuries ago. More than 350 unfinished statues remain, some upright, others face down, and others in various stages of completion still hewn into to the rock. The largest is 70 ft. tall and weighs 270 tons. Among other groups of moai, one shouldn’t miss the row of 15 statues at Ahu Tongariki. And for a look at a different side of the island’s past, take another hike, up Rano Kau volcano, whose crater measures a mile in diameter. Clinging to the lip of the crater high above the sea is the Orongo ceremonial village and ritual site, whose basalt rocks and cliff faces are covered with hundreds of Birdman Cult petroglyphs.

It is also no mystery why this archaeological wonderland of ancient stone villages, open-air sanctuaries and great stone megaliths adds up to an official UNESCO World Heritage site. But Easter Island has other visitor pleasures: sightseeing on horseback; gorgeous mountain hiking; first-class scuba diving and snorkeling; kayaking and surfing; sunbathing on white-sand beaches—Anakena, guarded by the seven towering moai, the best; and now, even ziplining. Pack a picnic when making the easy 5-hour hike along the length of the island to Rano Raraku from Hanga Roa, the island’s only town, and a laid-back one it is. Most hotels, with the exception of Posada de Mike Rapu, are in or within easy walking distance of town, where visitors find a good Anthropological Museum, several fine restaurants serving freshly caught fish, and excellent folkloric troupes who showcase island music, costume and dance in performances most evenings.