Archeological treasures, natural beauty, and traditional culture on one small island

The Gods of Easter Island
Walk among mysterious statues

March 6-11, 2010

Easter Island has fascinated adventurers for years. Over 2000 miles from the nearest population center, this remote island remains an anomaly in the history of the South Pacific. It is famous for its giant moai, the stone statues that continue to intrigue and puzzle visitors. Once speculation included aliens and other fantastical possibilities for the presence of the moai on this isolated site, but now we know the Rapa Nui people (Easter Island natives) most likely built the statues themselves from the surrounding volcanic stones. Dating from the 9th century, their size, positioning and placement on the island are still amazing to witness. The faces, although similar to each other, often seem to portray different emotions: some sneering, some diffident, some even amused.

Today, Easter Island remains one of the most exotic places you will ever visit in the world. It is like a large open-air museum filled with history, archeological treasures, art and a culture that clings tenaciously to its rich past. The Rapa Nui people were the only Pacific Islanders to have a written language, but unfortunately, it has been lost. A few tablets remain but not enough to decipher the code. However, the rich cultural traditions of Rapa Nui have been handed down orally and by example to the current generation.

We are pleased to be among the few companies that offer an in-depth expedition to Easter Island, as we have done for several decades. With a friendly and independent spirit, the people of Easter Island offer warm hospitality each time we visit, and we hope you can join us for this journey.

Highlights of this trip include:

• Spend four full days and two half days exploring Easter Island.
  
• Wander this remote island which is over 2000 miles from the nearest civilization.
  
• See the famous "moai" stone statues dating from the 9th century.
  
• Explore the island, a virtual open-air museum of history and archeological treasures.
  
• Enjoy the hospitality of the Rapa Nui people.
  
• Swim in clear ocean waters, picnic and relax in this unique island in the South Pacific.
  
• Join our Chile Post-tour Extension and explore Santiago, Valparaiso, Vina del Mar and the vineyards of the Maipo Valley.
  

Dates:
March 6 to 11, 2010: $1,995: A trip for gay men, lesbians & friends.

Travelling Alone?
So are most of the people who travel with us. You do not need to pay extra to travel by yourself. Prices are per-person, and the single supplement applies only if you'd like a room by yourself. For selected trips, especially if the trip includes a cruise, we charge half the single supplement if you request a roommate, but we are not able to match you with someone.

Location: Starts and ends on Easter Island. Airfare can be added to tour package on request.

Price includes: All transportation on Easter Island; Five nights in intimate Easter Island guesthouse, in shared or single occupancy; Five breakfasts, four lunches, three dinners on Easter Island; Services of Hanns Ebensten Travel tour director and local guides; All hotel services charges, government taxes, porterage, and meal gratuities.

Not included: Flights between home and Easter Island; Meals not included in tour fee; Airport departure taxes; Chilean visa (obtainable upon arrival); Personal items including: alcoholic beverages, snacks, laundry, and telephone calls.

1: Arrival on Easter Island

Unless spending some time in Chile enroute to Easter Island, most travelers will depart from home the day before the first tour day, and take an overnight flight via Miami, New York or Los Angeles to Santiago. These flights have a convenient connection to a LanChile non-stop flight to Easter Island (about five and a half hours), arriving in the early afternoon.

After landing at the large airstrip on Easter Island, Chile's most remote outpost - we check in at the small Aloha Nui Hotel, where the Rapahango-Edmunds family has welcomed Hanns Ebensten Travel groups for over three decades.

Following is a tentative itinerary for exploring the island. The daily agenda will depend on weather and the interests of the group, but we will visit each of the locations described here.

In the afternoon, we visit the ceremonial village of Orongo and inspect its large basalt rocks with petroglyphs of birdmen and the god Make-Make. This is a famous site for the cult of the birdmen. Each July until 1866, men raced down the steep cliffs and across the rough seas to the islets of Motu Nui, Motu Iti and Motu Kao in a quest to secure the first egg laid each year by the sooty tern.

2: Easter Island Discovery

We begin with a trip to the Ahu Tahai, an excellent introduction to the island's archeological sites, exhibiting five statues restored by Dr. William Mulloy and Mr. Gonzalo Figueroa in the early 1960s. An ahu is a large outdoor altar, usually bearing statues, and often used for burials with rubble-filled platforms containing tombs. We will visit the fascinating museum of Father Sebastian Englert, the island's parish priest from 1935-1969, and an inspiration to Hanns Ebensten when Hanns escorted the first group of American travelers to Easter Island in the 1960s. Lunch is a special picnic served at Anakena Beach, where it is believed that the first Polynesian settlers arrived on the island over 1000 years ago.

In the afternoon we drive to Puna Pau to see the slopes from which dark red cylinders of stone were quarried. They were placed on top of the statues either to resemble the tuft of hair that ancient Easter Islanders knotted at the top of their heads, or as ceremonial hats. Our tour continues to the island's south coast to view the Ahu Vinapu. Time permitting, we will then explore the Ana Kai Tangata, "the cave where men are eaten." With the surf breaking below, it is a forbidding place and a reminder of the period when islanders practiced cannibalism.

3: Free Day on Easter Island

Today offers a chance to leisurely explore Easter Island's only village, or perhaps to take an optional horseback ride across the island's rugged meadows or a guided hike to a remote headland. Late this evening, we are likely to be able to watch a cultural performance, complete with pageantry, musicians singing both Rapa Nui and Spanish songs, and amazingly energetic dances, performed by young men and women wearing primarily body paint.

4-5: Ahu Akivi, Faces to the Sea

During the next two days, we will enjoy two more leisurely half-day tours, as well as have time to try individual activities. Our touring will include a trip to see Ahu Akivi, the seven statues facing the sea. Legend says they represent the seven princes who came to Easter Island from mythical Hiva, to prepare the island for the arrival of King Hotu Matu'a. We continue to Ahu Tongariki, where fifteen moai have been re-erected along a dramatic coastline with deep blue waves crashing against a stark cliff and the rocks below.

Later, we explore Rano Raraku, the most fascinating and dramatic site on the island with hundreds of stone figures, many unfinished, on the outer and inner rims of the extinct volcano. Its bowl-shaped crater is filled with water and tortora reeds, and is often used as a watering hole by wild horses. A picnic lunch will be served nearby.

On our last evening, we will have our farewell dinner.

6: Homeward Bound

The morning is free to rest until our early afternoon flight back to Santiago. It arrives in time to connect to overnight flights home, via Miami, New York or Los Angeles. Most North American and European travelers will arrive home on Day 7 of this tour, with Day 1 being the day we arrive on Easter Island.

Please see our FAQs for this tour for details about our post-trip 4-night tour of Santiago, Valparaiso, Vina del Mar and the Andean foothills, including stops at a couple of Chile's most thriving vineyards!