Why I want to visit Easter Island. Mysterious Easter Island. Beach holidays on a wild island

As you probably already know, the road to Easter Island for everyone who wants to get there starts from airports in Chile or Tahiti. Travelers visiting the moai (the famous idols of the island) are usually delivered by LAN aircraft, which fly from Santiago airport every day at twelve o'clock in the afternoon, and from Tahiti (Papeeti) once a week.

Just recently, a plane flew from Lima, but for some unknown reason, it did not justify itself at all, and therefore today the easiest way to get to Easter Island is considered to be an air flight from Santiago. Of course, you also know that tickets must be purchased in advance. Prices start at $650 and up. Oddly enough, the cheapest flights occur for some reason on Fridays. Therefore, you need to look at sites, book in advance and look for cheaper options. In general, you need to carefully monitor all discounts and offers on the LAN airline website.

If you order a tour to Easter Island, then it will cost you fabulously expensive, and long flights will simply exhaust you. In this case, if your flight will take place from European territory, then it is best for you to combine a visit to the island with a sightseeing tour of one of the capitals of South America - Lima, Bogota, Santiago de Chile or Quito. In this case, you will do just fine and find yourself cheaper tickets and at the same time relax after long flights, while diversifying your cultural program as much as possible.

As for organized tours from Moscow with a visit to Easter Island, the most popular here are tours to Chile, of course, because it is to this state that the island belongs. On the second, third and so on place in popularity can be called such tours as - "Peru, Chile and Easter Island", "Peru and Easter Island", and in addition "Chile, Argentina and Easter Island".

As a rule, such tours that combine visiting Easter Island with Latin American countries last at least two weeks (but there are also shorter durations), and their cost is approximately two to three thousand dollars per person. True, absolutely all transfers, domestic flights, visas, insurance, hotels and more are included here.

So, if you flew to Easter Island on your own, then you will need to stay somewhere for a few days. It is best to choose your accommodation places on such a well-known and popular site as Booking.com. There are campsites, and more budget options, and with more comfortable living conditions.

Now, if you want to explore the island on your own, then you will need to rent some kind of vehicle. Of course, the best option is a jeep, but a scooter is also an option. Fans of organized tourism can certainly take part in one of the excursions offered here. Its cost is about 35 dollars, they will take you to absolutely the same places, but they will also tell you a lot of interesting information about the history of the island.

If you inspect everything on your own, then first of all, of course, you need to go to the coast of the island to the Rapa Nui National Park, which, by the way, is under the auspices of the UNESCO World Organization. It is there that the famous stone statues are located - Moai, apparently made from compressed volcanic ash.

The statues, made in the form of human heads, sometimes with headdresses, and sometimes without, sometimes reach a height of up to 20 meters. Naturally, disputes still do not subside over how the statues got to the coast and who could deliver them there. Moreover, many statues remained lying in the quarries, as if someone was in a hurry and did not have time to simply deliver them to their destination.

Then you need to visit another very interesting place on the island - the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano, there are also about three hundred statues here. If you want to visit the crater of the Rano Khao volcano, then do not forget that there is a wonderful observation deck there. And inside the crater itself is a very remarkable lake. Some tourists even make a day hike along the crater.

And don't forget to take a look at the ceremonial village of Orongo, located near the edge of the crater. It has gained popularity in the tourist environment due to its picturesque landscapes. In former times, certain rituals were held in the village, dedicated to the cult of the bird or the bird-man. On the territory of the village you can see a lot of cobblestones with carvings on them. As a rule, it is of two types - with the image of the local deity Make-Make or a bird-man.

You can look at one of the most beautiful beaches of Easter Island - Anakena Bay. It has amazingly beautiful white sand. In addition to the fact that surfers are frequent guests in this bay, tourists often have picnics in the nearby palm groves. Another very attractive beach on the island is Ovahe. It is located in the southern part of the island, but due to the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by rocks (very beautiful), it is not so often visited.

Another very unusual attraction of Easter Island is the Catholic Church of Hanga Roa. It looks very attractive from the outside, and inside you can admire the magnificent wood carvings and samples of the craft traditions of local residents. On Sundays, you can also attend a service with musical accompaniment.

Also on Easter Island you can (and should) walk to the caves, many of them are accessible and easy to visit. But there are also a number of caves that are still very poorly understood, so if you want to become their discoverer, go ahead. And finally, for cultural development, you can go to the Anthropological Museum of the island, named after Father Sebastian Englert, and visit a large library with a huge collection of books dedicated to culture, history and the constant study of Easter Island.

Easter Island can only be reached from Santiago. I really liked the installation at the Airport of the Chilean capital. I wonder if they glued them or screwed them?

Only the Chilean airline LAN flies to Easter Island. I had never heard of them before and got ready for a long flight in the cornfield. However, my fears did not come true. After 2 flights on LAN, I can confidently put her on the same level with Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Beautiful planes, comfortable cabins, excellent service. The next day, tossing and turning in an uncomfortable Air France seat, I repeatedly remembered LAN with a kind word.

Thanks to the Americans, who use the Easter Island takeoff as a backup runway for the shuttle, the airfield of the small island can receive large planes:

The plane is driven directly to a small terminal and passengers walk to the exit past meeting relatives and friends:

In the terminal hall, if you can call it a small hut with a toilet and a couple of racks, all new arrivals are met by travel agents, so if you did not have time to book a hotel in advance, then you can do it immediately upon arrival:

Easter Island is the most remote island in the world. The nearest inhabited land, Chile, is 3,700 kilometers away. Less than 4,000 people live here and there are no harmful industries. The water here is the cleanest and most transparent in the world. It was named so by a Dutch navigator who discovered it on Easter Sunday in 1722:

The island has the shape of a right triangle with many volcanoes, the largest of which are nestled in its peaks. Island of volcanic origin. There are practically no beaches and the entire coast is indented with sharp basalt rocks:

Despite the fact that tourism is the main source of income for the local economy, the infrastructure is developed at an average level. All hotels with a level not higher than 3 stars:

We quickly checked into the hotel, rented a car and drove off to explore the island. On the advice of the concierge, we decided to start exploring from the farthest beach (see map). Our hotel was a stone's throw from the airfield, and we had to cross the entire island. It took less than 20 minutes. In general, the roads here are quite useless. There is almost no asphalt, and where there is, it is full of holes and potholes. Most of the roads are unpaved. The central road that runs through the entire island is a pleasant exception to the rule:

On the way we played the game: "who will be the first to see the idol." At the very end of the road, we ran into a palm grove and Small was the first to shout: "I see!"

We went to a wonderful beach with white coral sand:

It was a terrible heat of +36 degrees and the beach beckoned to itself with unimaginable strength, but we only had one day, and I dejectedly trudged to the idols, trying to maneuver from one thin palm shadow to another:

The locals call these idols Moai. There are a little less than 1000 of them on the island, and all of them, except for 7 figures, which I will talk about in the next series, are installed on the coast and look inside the island:

Some of them wear hats, but most stand bareheaded:

Read about the meaning of hats, as well as about the place of their manufacture, in the next series.

In this place, Moai stand in a group of 7 warriors, and one more stands separately, a little to the side:

After the photo session, we could not resist and nevertheless plunged into the Pacific Ocean:

Apparently 20 kilometers is a long distance for tourists and they all stay on the beach near the airfield. There were only a few swimmers here:

I assumed that the local cuisine is replete with seafood. Assumed wrong. The locals' favorite dish is chicken. They run right between palm trees and tourists. It is chicken that is served in local kebab houses:

Next to them they sell miniature idols for $80 a piece:

Refreshed and covered with salt, we left this bounty and drove along the coast. Now the idols met at every step. Unfortunately, most of them were in a supine position and did not bring much aesthetic pleasure:

After 10 minutes of shaking on the dirt road, we drove to the place marked on my map as "15 idols". This is the largest and most famous sculptural composition on Easter Island (see title photo):

There is a small mound next to them. Everyone who comes to Easter Island must climb onto it, take the pose of an idol and take a picture as a keepsake. We also couldn't resist:

Tomorrow I will continue my story about Easter Island. A quarry awaits you on the slope of the volcano, where all the idols were carved and to this day there are many unfinished blanks, sea fishing and a magical Pacific sunset. Stay Tuned!

Easter Island (or Rapa Nui) is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, and due in large part to its isolation, Rapa Nui's history is unique. There are many scientific hypotheses and conjectures regarding the time of the settlement of Rapa Nui, the racial affiliation of the locals, the causes of the death of a unique civilization, whose representatives built huge stone statues (moai) and knew the script (rongo-rongo), which has not yet been deciphered by linguists. With the discovery of the island in 1722 by the Dutch traveler Jacob Roggeveen.

Easter Island is a piece of desert land belonging to Chile, lost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is known all over the world for its unique stone statues-giants, as if keeping its secrets. And one of the main ones: what catastrophe had to happen for the island civilization to die out? For centuries, scientists have been trying to find the answer to this question.

Dutch Admiral Jakob Roggeveen, who set off from Amsterdam in search of Davis Land, was certainly not the first European to discover Easter Island. But he was the first to describe it and determine the coordinates. And it was Roggeveen who gave the name to the island, whose ships (and there were three of them) moored to it on the day of the great Christian holiday of Holy Easter, April 5, 1722. As Roggevene reported in his notes, when they went ashore, the sailors saw that the locals “lit fires in front of very tall stone statues ... which amazed us, because we could not understand how these people, having neither a timber tree nor strong ropes, could bring them up." At that time, about two or three thousand natives lived in the territory discovered by Roggeven, who called the island Rapa Nui, that is, "the navel of the earth."

Captain James Cook landed on the island in 1774 and was as astonished as Roggeven, noting the incredible contrast between the magnificent giant statues of Rapa Nui and the squalid life of the indigenous population: “It was hard for us to imagine how the islanders, deprived of technology, could install these amazing figures and in addition to put huge cylindrical stones on their heads.

Four years before Cook, the Spanish colonial administrator of Peru, seeking to annex Easter Island, sent a ship under the command of Felipe González de Haedo to its shores. This step was explained simply: Spain, wanting to secure its American colonies, decided to seize the territories that lay near them. A few days of Gonzalez's stay on the island allowed him to draw up his first detailed map.

Approximately 200 giant stone sculptures - "Moai", located on massive pedestals along the coast of the island with miserable vegetation, far from the quarries, seemed completely inexplicable. Most of the statues were placed on massive plinths. At least 700 more sculptures, in varying degrees of completion, were left in quarries or on ancient roads connecting the quarries with the coast. It seemed that the sculptors suddenly left their tools and stopped working..

Distant craftsmen carved "moai" on the slopes of the Rano-Roraku volcano, located in the eastern part of the island, from soft volcanic tuff. Then the finished statues were lowered down the slope and placed along the perimeter of the island, at a distance of more than 10 km. The height of most idols is from five to seven meters, while later statues reached up to 10 and up to 12 meters. Tuff, or, as it is also called, pumice, from which they are made, resembles a sponge in structure and crumbles easily even with a light impact on it. so that the average weight of "moai" does not exceed 5 tons. Stone ahu - platforms-pedestals: reached 150 m in length and 3 m in height, and consisted of pieces weighing up to 10 tons.

At one time, Admiral Roggeven, recalling his journey to the island, claimed that the natives made fires in front of the moai idols and squatted next to them, bowing their heads. After that, they folded their arms and swung them up and down. Of course, this observation is not able to explain who the idols really were for the islanders.

Roggeven and his companions could not understand how, without the use of thick wooden rollers and strong ropes, it was possible to move and install such blocks. The islanders had no wheels, no draft animals, and no other source of energy than their own muscles. Ancient legends say that the statues walked by themselves. There is no point in asking how this actually happened, because there is still no documentary evidence left. There are many hypotheses about the movement of "moai", some are even confirmed by experiments, but all this proves only one thing - it was possible in principle. And the inhabitants of the island moved the statues and no one else. That's what they did it for? This is where the divergences begin.

It is also surprising that in 1770 the statues were still standing, James Cook, who visited the island in 1774, mentioned the lying statues, no one had noticed anything like this before him. The last time the standing idols were seen was in 1830. Then the French squadron entered the island. Since then, no one has seen the original statues, that is, those erected by the inhabitants of the island themselves. Everything that exists on the island today was restored in the 20th century. The last restoration of fifteen "moai", located between the Rano-Roraku volcano and the Poike Peninsula, took place relatively recently - from 1992 to 1995. Moreover, the Japanese were engaged in restoration work.

In the second half of the 19th century, the cult of the bird-man also died. This strange ritual, unique for all Polynesia, was dedicated to Makemake, the supreme deity of the islanders. The Chosen One became his earthly incarnation. Moreover, interestingly, the elections were held regularly, once a year. At the same time, servants or warriors took the most active part in them. It depended on them whether their master, the head of the family clan, Tangata-manu, or a bird-man would become. It is this rite that owes its origin to the main cult center - the rocky village of Orongo on the largest volcano Rano Kao in the western tip of the island. Although, perhaps, Orongo existed long before the emergence of the Tangata-manu cult. Traditions say that the heir to the legendary Hotu Matua, the first leader who arrived on the island, was born here. In turn, hundreds of years later, his descendants themselves gave the signal for the start of the annual competition.

In spring, the messengers of the god Makemake, black sea swallows, flew to the small islands of Motu-Kao-Kao, Motu-Iti and Motu-Nui, located not far from the coast. The warrior who first found the first egg of these birds and delivered it by swimming to his master received seven beautiful women as a reward. Well, the owner became a leader, or rather, a bird-man, receiving universal respect, honor and privileges. The last Tangata-manu ceremony took place in the 60s of the 19th century. After the disastrous pirate raid of the Peruvians in 1862, when the pirates enslaved the entire male population of the island, there was no one and no one to choose a bird-man.

Why did the natives of Easter Island carve "moai" statues in a quarry? Why did they stop doing this? The society that created the statues must have been significantly different from the 2,000 people that Roggeveen saw. It had to be well organized. What happened to him?

For more than two and a half centuries, the mystery of Easter Island remained unsolved. Most theories about the history and development of Easter Island are based on oral tradition. This happens because no one still can understand what is inscribed in written sources - the famous tablets "ko hau motu mo rongorongo", which roughly means - a manuscript for recitation. Most of them were destroyed by Christian missionaries, but even those that survived could probably shed light on the history of this mysterious island. And although the scientific world has been agitated more than once by reports that ancient writings have finally been deciphered, when carefully checked, all this turned out to be not a very accurate interpretation of oral facts and legends.

A few years ago, palaeontologist David Steadman and several other researchers completed the first systematic study of Easter Island in order to find out what its plant and animal life was like before. As a result, data appeared for a new, surprising and instructive interpretation of the history of its settlers.

Easter Island was inhabited around 400 AD. e. The islanders grew bananas, taro, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and mulberries. In addition to chickens, there were also rats on the island, who arrived with the first settlers.

The period of manufacture of statues refers to 1200-1500 years. The number of inhabitants by that time ranged from 7,000 to 20,000 people. To lift and move the statue, several hundred people are enough, who used ropes and rollers from trees that were available at that time in sufficient numbers.

The painstaking work of archaeologists and paleontologists has shown that about 30,000 years before the arrival of people and in the early years of their stay, the island was not at all as deserted as it is now. A subtropical forest of trees and undergrowth rose above shrubs, grasses, ferns and turf. Tree daisies grew in the forest, hauhau trees that can be used to make ropes, and toromiro, which is useful as fuel. There were also varieties of palm trees, which are not now on the island, but there were so many of them before that the foot of the trees was densely covered with their pollen. They are related to the Chilean palm, which grows up to 32 m and a diameter of up to 2 m. Tall, without branches, trunks were ideal material for skating rinks and canoes. They also provided edible nuts and juice, from which the Chileans make sugar, syrup, wine, and collected honeycombs. A unique subspecies of Apis mellifera has developed on the island. Conducting DNA analyzes of local bees will clarify this issue. But already today, according to P. Aldea, it is clear that local bees are a valuable biological material for scientific research and experiments, as well as a unique resource for the development of practical beekeeping. Local bees are distinguished not only by their good health, but also by their exceptional industriousness: they can produce 90-120 kg of marketable honey in a season that lasts 11 months a year on Easter Island. What is the difference between honey in combs and ordinary honey can be read. The number of beekeepers and bee colonies on Easter Island is not reported. Apparently, we can only talk about a few dozen beekeepers and several hundred bee colonies. According to researchers, there are also wild bees on the island that live in caves and rock crevices.

The relatively cold coastal waters supported fishing in only a few places. The main marine prey were dolphins and seals. To hunt them, they went out to the open sea and used harpoons. Before the arrival of people, the island was an ideal place for birds, because they did not have any enemies here. Albatrosses, boobies, frigatebirds, fulmars, parrots and other birds nested here - a total of 25 species. It was probably the richest breeding ground in the entire Pacific.

Around the 800s, the destruction of forests began. Increasingly, layers of charcoal from forest fires began to occur, less and less tree pollen became, and more and more pollen appeared from grasses that replaced the forest. Not later than 1400, the palm trees completely disappeared, not only as a result of cutting down, but also because of the ubiquitous rats, which did not give them the opportunity to recover: a dozen surviving remains of nuts preserved in the caves had traces of gnawed by rats. Such nuts could not germinate. The hauhau trees did not completely disappear, but there were not enough of them to make ropes.

In the 15th century, not only palm trees disappeared, but the entire forest as a whole. It was destroyed by people who cleared areas for gardens, cut down trees for the construction of canoes, for making skating rinks for statues, for heating. The rats ate the seeds. It is likely that the birds died out due to polluted flowers and reduced fruit yields. The same thing has happened that happens everywhere in the world where the forest is being destroyed: most of the inhabitants of the forest are disappearing. All kinds of local birds and animals have disappeared on the island. All coastal fish were also caught. Small snails were eaten. From the diet of people by the 15th century. dolphins disappeared: there was nothing to go to sea on, and there was nothing to make harpoons from. It turned into cannibalism.

Paradise, opened to the first settlers, 1600 years later became almost lifeless. Fertile soils, abundance of food, plenty of building materials, sufficient living space, all the possibilities for a comfortable existence were destroyed. By the time Heyerdahl visited the island, there was a single toromiro tree on the island; now it is no more.

And it all started with the fact that a few centuries after arriving on the island, people began, like their Polynesian ancestors, to install stone idols on platforms. Over time, the statues became larger and larger; their heads began to adorn red 10-ton crowns; a spiral of competition unfolded; rival clans tried to outdo each other by displaying health and power like the Egyptians building their gigantic pyramids. On the island, as in modern America, there was a complex political system for the distribution of available resources and the integration of the economy in various areas.

The ever-increasing population harassed the forests faster than they could regenerate; vegetable gardens occupied more and more space; the soil devoid of forest, springs and streams dried up; the trees that were spent on transporting and raising the statues, as well as on the construction of canoes and dwellings, turned out to be insufficient even for cooking. As birds and animals were destroyed, famine set in. The fertility of arable lands decreased due to wind and rain erosion. Droughts have begun. Intensive breeding of chickens and cannibalism did not solve the food problem. Statues prepared for moving with sunken cheeks and visible ribs are evidence of the onset of famine.

With food scarce, the islanders could no longer support the chieftains, bureaucracy, and shamans who ran society. The surviving islanders told the first Europeans who visited them how the centralized system was replaced by chaos, and the warlike class defeated the hereditary chiefs. On the stones appeared images of spears and daggers made by the warring parties in the 1600s and 1700s; they are still scattered throughout Easter Island. By 1700 the population was between a quarter and a tenth of its former size. People moved to caves to hide from their enemies. Around 1770, opposing clans began to overturn each other's statues and cut off their heads. The last statue was overturned and desecrated in 1864.

As the picture of the decline of the Easter Island civilization appeared before the researchers, they asked themselves: - Why did they not look back, did not realize what was happening, did not stop before it was too late? What were they thinking as they cut down the last palm tree?

Most likely, the catastrophe did not happen suddenly, but stretched out over several decades. The changes taking place in nature were not noticeable for one generation. Only old people, remembering the years of their childhood, could realize what was happening and understand the threat posed by the destruction of forests, but the ruling class and masons, fearful of losing their privileges and jobs, treated the warnings in exactly the same way as today's loggers in the northwest: " Work is more important than the forest!

The trees gradually became smaller, thinner and less significant. Once the last fruiting palm tree was cut, and the young shoots were destroyed along with the remnants of shrubs and undergrowth. No one noticed the death of the last young palm tree.

How to get there:

Getting to Easter Island from can only be reached by plane. There are a lot of options, but tickets are not cheap. You can buy from Moscow before Easter with transfers, you can buy from Moscow - St. Petersburg to North America, then to South America, and from there until Easter, you can immediately go to South America, and from there until Easter. In general, in any case, you will have to spend money on tickets. There is also a very good option when airlines offer special offers and reduce the cost of air tickets by half or even three times.

Here is my suggestion on how to get to Easter. It is certainly not super cheap, but not as expensive as one airline offers (the cost of a flight before Easter is 118 thousand rubles =))

The flight is carried out by Iberia from Moscow to Santiago de Chile (I indicate the cost of tickets there and back) for 28,934 rubles. This is one of the cheapest flight deals. But from Santiago de Chile we buy a ticket to Easter Island. It will cost 199 euros through Lan Airlines.

I can offer another option. We fly to Madrid, the cost of a round-trip ticket will be 179 euros through our Aeroflot, and from Madrid to Easter Island for 490 euros by Lan Airlines.

A small island with a total area of ​​165 km2, located in the Pacific Ocean, actually on the edge of the earth, keeps many mysteries and secrets. No one still knows which peoples carved 887 sculptures from hardened volcanic lava scattered throughout the island. What amazing natural attractions there are in those parts and what are the features of holidays on Easter Island, the reader will learn from this article.

A few decades ago, Soyuzpechat's kiosks sold an amazing book by the famous traveler Thor Heyerdahl about Easter Island. In it, in great detail, the researcher shared with readers around the world about his impressions about this place remote from civilization, where it was very problematic for ordinary tourists to get to.

This island got its name from the fact that the Dutch sailors, who found it in the ocean, set foot on its land on Easter days in 1722. So an unnamed piece of land in the eastern Pacific Ocean, which had a triangular shape and was formed as a result of volcanic lava frozen in water, was called Easter Island.

The indigenous population of the island owns only 40 square kilometers of land, the rest of the territory is a National Park, protected by law.

The climate on Easter Island is subtropical. There are no snowy winters here, there is warm air and warm ocean water all year round.

The highest daily air temperatures occur during the winter months. In February, for example, the thermometers can show up to + 26 degrees Celsius, at night it will be somewhere around 23-24 degrees, and the water temperature will be between 23-25 ​​degrees.

Due to the fact that the territory of the island is open and not protected by mountain ranges, evil oceanic winds often rage here, sometimes unfriendly rains pour. But the small continent does not lose its charm and exoticism.

From Chile, whose territory it is, the island is separated by 3.5 thousand kilometers.

Another interesting fact is that there is not a single tree on the island, but only desert vegetation. There are no rivers or streams. All fresh rainwater accumulates in three lakes of volcanic origin.

Easter Island on the map:

How to get from Russia to Easter Island?

If Russian tourists are going to fly from to Easter Island, they definitely need to find a website for cheap air tickets and purchase it online there.

From the capital of the Russian Federation you can fly to Chisinau, Paris, Rome, Santiago, Frankfurt am Main, from where airliners of foreign companies will take travelers to the "mysterious island".

The cost of round-trip tickets starts from 120 thousand Russian rubles.

All foreign aircraft allow baggage up to 23 kg free of charge, in case of overweight, you will have to pay extra for it.

Easter Island has its own international airport, located at a distance of 7 km from the capital Hanga Roa. It is called Mataveri. Due to the fact that a large number of tourists from all over the world began to arrive here, the local authorities undertook a hasty reconstruction of their airport terminal so that it would meet all modern technical requirements and standards.

Where do tourists live?

Unlike other resort areas, there are no sanatoriums and clinics on Easter Island. The local authorities, taking care of the landscape beauty, did not allow the owners of large and world-famous hotel complexes to their land, reserving the right to decide for themselves what and where to build here.

There are hotels for guests to stay at Easter. The highest star rating of these guest houses is equal to the number "3". In addition to them, bungalows are rented to guests in full swing, as well as rooms and beds from local homeowners.

Russian tourists who have already visited the Pacific island say that at the airport you can easily find a kind-hearted owner of a private house who will accept guests "for cheap" at home.

However, not every traveler will be satisfied with this option, so let's visit the booking portals of island real estate and hotels, let's see what they offer.

The eyes of a fast tourist will not scatter in all directions: there are only 22 hotels on the island.

More or less decent hotel on the island per day will cost from 100 - 350 US dollars. It won't suit everyone.

Bungalows - one-story panel houses - are rented for a day. Depending on the furnishing of the premises, prices start at 40 and end at 120 USD.

In the private sector, as some Russians write on the forums, you can negotiate up to 25 and even up to 20 dollars per night.

Chain of cafes and restaurants on Easter Island

The capital of Hanga Row has cafeterias, restaurants, inexpensive McDonald's eateries and a chain of private small eateries.

Since the island lies in the middle of the ocean, most of the local dishes are made from marine life: fish, poultry, shellfish meat. Curanto, which is cooked on charcoal, is considered a national dish.

It includes vegetables, poultry, fish and sweet potatoes. Minced meat and vegetables are wrapped in banana tree leaves and baked over a fire. Eyewitnesses write that the preparation of the delicacy has turned into a whole ritual that gathers dozens of curious travelers around.

Being an international tourist center, the capital's restaurants can please visitors with dishes of various cuisines, including Russian and Ukrainian. But the food familiar to us for other tourists is exotic, so it costs a lot of money.

Being on Easter Island, it is more desirable to try their dishes than to be nostalgic for domestic food, giving a lot of money for it.

In the restaurants of the island, tourists write, they serve rather slowly. But such is the local tradition, where they are guided by the principle that in life there is no need to rush anywhere.

Each catering establishment has its own prices, so it is premature to indicate any price for fish or vegetable dishes in the article. Once on the island, tourists themselves will figure out what to eat or get a little hungry, studying local attractions.

What is interesting for tourists?

The symbol of Easter Island are 887 stone idols, which are scattered throughout the island. Today no one knows who sculpted them, but everyone knows very well that they cannot be touched, only looked at.

Of no less interest to foreign wanderers are two extinct volcanoes Rano-Raraku and Rano-Kau, to which group excursions are organized. Ana te Pau Cave and Anakena Beach are also two mysterious and intriguing places in the vicinity of the capital of Easter Island.

There are many legends about the monuments of Moai. Modern science is completely unknown and incomprehensible who built these sculptural rows on the land of Chile: either aliens, or the disappeared population of the island, who lived there several thousand years ago.

They also say that you need to see the mysterious statues with your own eyes in order to feel all the energy that they radiate.

The customs, rituals and traditions of the local population, which can be seen while traveling to a piece of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, will leave an unforgettable and indelible memory for everyone who has visited Easter Island.

The island can be explored with local guides or on your own. To do this, people rent cars, scooters or motorcycles and set off on routes of interest to them.

In addition to the above, you can also:

• Go to the Tapati festival. It has no analogues in the world. It is held at the end of winter. The peculiarity of the holiday lies in the fact that natives take part in it. They sing and dance. You can also see competitions between representatives of the indigenous population.
• It is worth visiting the world-famous place "Navel of the Earth".
• Come up with your own theory about where the stone idols came from. The indigenous people are very fond of hearing new stories about where the statues came from. Who knows, maybe later this story will be immortalized.

Prices

The cost of a holiday on Easter Island depends on many factors. First of all, it is worth noting the features of the tour. Many travel companies offer last-minute travel packages to the population, which allow them to visit the countries of Latin America. The duration of this trip is about two weeks. During this time, you can visit not only Easter Island, but also Argentina, Peru, Chile and other countries. The cost of such a trip is more than 3 thousand dollars. This includes the cost of flights, accommodation and insurance.

Easter Island Beach Holidays

Here is surprisingly light sand, crystal clear water and a gentle slope of the bottom into the depths of the ocean.

This bay and its beach are intended exclusively for lovers of silence and communion with nature. For those who know how to listen to how the surf rustles, how light sand rustles under the breath of the wind, for those who know how to admire the cloudless heights of the sky and the blue water of the boundless ocean.

However, diving and other extreme sports like surfing are also available here. Ocean waves in this area in stormy weather can reach a height of five meters, which is quite dangerous for boarding for inexperienced athletes. Their recklessness can end in tragedy.

Yachting enthusiasts have the opportunity to rent a motorboat, a regular rowboat under sail or a small yacht from local rental companies. There is a rental of catamarans, water bikes and motorcycles.

Travel Precautions

Being on a long journey from home, you should always think about your health and safety. On a trip, you need to take hats, creams for sunburn and local winds that dry out the skin of the face and other parts of the body.

It is necessary to have a first aid kit with the necessary medicines in case of a severe headache, diarrhea, which can be caused by local delicacies, as well as those medicines that this or that traveler often resorts to.

We should not forget about the insurance policy, which can be a "lifeline" at the time of an unexpected illness or theft of a tourist's personal property on Easter Island.

The subtropical climate of the Pacific Ocean can cause various ailments in weather-dependent people. Therefore, it is better for this category of citizens not to risk their health and life, going to distant lands from home in order to get acquainted with stone idols and craters of extinct volcanoes.

Diving and surfing enthusiasts should think about their safety when some are on the surface of the seething ocean, and the latter are exploring the depths of the sea, which are full of octopuses, sharks and large jellyfish that can burn bare skin.

The Pacific Ocean and its inhabitants do not forgive the inhabitants of the earth for frivolity.

These are the parting words to tourists who are going to visit Easter Island - a place whose amazing and even mystical history will not leave anyone indifferent, perhaps.

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