Thinking About Easter Island

Queenie and I were chatting the other day about where to go next year on our annual trip. I suggested the crazy idea of going to Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world. However, a trip there seems to be extremely difficult and the marginal benefits of going to an island that can be covered in a day by car might make it not worth it at this point of our lives.

(Picture by Nicolas de Camaret)

Just thinking about the route, there are two (maybe three options). The first is to fly from Taipei to Taihiti, and then from Taihiti to Easter Island (I hear you say why not just stay in Taihiti). The second option is to fly either to Lima (Peru) or Santiago (Chile) and then take a flight from there to Easter Island (and here again I hear you - why not just stay in Peru/Chile). The problem with the South American options I believe is that we would need to still fly to the Western seaboard of the United States and then from there head to Lima or Santiago. And from Santiago to Easter Island the flight is apparently something in the region of six hours. We would really have to spend a lot of time in the air to get there and back. Not sure how long but certainly more than 30 hours.

The main reason to go to Easter Island are of course to see the Moai statues carved out by the original Polynesian settlers on the island. The second reason to go would be to experience the remoteness of the island and see a part of the pacific at its wildest and most remote. Below I have linked to a five part play list of Richard Attenborough's documentary: The Lost God's of Easter Island. Its pretty interesting

The Lost God's of Easter Island - Richard Attenborough

I recently became interested in Easter Island again after reading Jared Diamond's Collapse where he uses Easter Island as an apocalyptic parable warning against the inconsidered and unhindered use of both renewable and unrenewable natural resources arguing that the Easter Islanders completely used their resources which led to a ccatastrophic collapse in their society. Diamond argues that they (stuck on a remote island with no contact with anybody else) like us (stuck on a single planet with no contact with any other intelligence) were all alone and completely self sufficient. They got it wrong and the consequences were tragic in the extreme. Will we get it wrong, or right?

Anyway to get there seems to be quite a challenge and would need to be coupled with a week in Santiago or some other place in Chile. The distance is too far to go without staying for a longer period of time. I can also imagine that the cost of the airline tickets would be pretty high and not sure what the hotels would cost. Anyway, we are thinking about it but still not sure.

If anybody has any suggestions or ideas, let me know. Hopefully we will make up our mind soon.