Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui by the locals, had been a dream for years – so mystical with its colossal Moai statues, their history shrouded in mystery, wild and impossibly far away. When Luisa spontaneously got a business trip to South America and I managed to take two weeks off, the dream suddenly became tangible – a bit crazy, because after our tour through Bolivia and the Atacama Desert, only two full days remained. The flight from Santiago is expensive and takes five hours, but hey – it’s Easter Island!

A sleepy start and a magical welcome

At five in the morning, still half-asleep, I said goodbye to Luisa – “See you in four days in Germany” – and boarded a fully booked 777 heading to this lonely island between Chile and Australia. Locals welcomed me with music and flower garlands, I quickly dropped off my luggage, rented a worn-out 4×4, and off I went. The first impression stuck: a beautiful, wide, flat landscape with scattered houses, horses everywhere, and laid-back reggae music from the old car radio – a contrast between solitude and life.

Alone among the Moai

With the guidebook A Companion to Easter Island in hand, I planned to avoid the tourist buses, and often had the Moai all to myself – stunning, how they stood there, restored, while old, untouched statues lay scattered around. The two days passed like a film, travel stress forgotten, a dance between history and wonder.

Stars and sunrise

When night fell, I stayed out past midnight – the clear starry sky amazed me, and after kindly asking around, I was allowed to visit the Moai at night. The night was short; at six I was out again for the sunrise at Ahu Tongariki, then on to the group of Moai at Anakena Beach. We cruised along in the jeep, stopped often, and let the drone rise – aerials that captured the vastness, raw and majestic. In the evening, rain rolled in, and I was thankful to be exhausted after the short night and all those impressions – two days are far too short for this island! A whole week, maybe on horseback, would be a dream.

A dream becomes reality

After more than half a year, full of work and moving to Konstanz, the photos are finally going online – slowly it’s sinking in that this dream became reality… intense, an experience that stays deep in the heart.

The only town on Rapa Nui – Hanga Roa – with about 3,000 inhabitants: