Easter Island travel guide

While the moai are bound to be the focus of attention on any Easter Island vacation, they are far from the only attraction here. Don’t neglect Rapa Nui culture which can range from learning about the fascinating Birdman cult at the Orongo Ceremonial Village to Polynesian dance performances, or a visit to the ethnological museum in Hanga Roa. And of course, trips here will often use local guides, always the best way to get a deeper understanding of the culture of a destination. Speaking of exploring traditional culture on Easter Island, don’t skip dinner – an Umu meal uses an ancient form of cooking, the earth oven, steaming food using fire-heated rocks. They can often take hours, if not an entire day to prepare, and some tour operators are able to organise for you to enjoy one with a local community. When packing, don’t forget your swimsuit. Easter Island has several gorgeous beaches, including Anakena, ideal for a refreshing swim, while you can also snorkel in the Hanga Roa harbour. Scuba diving is another very popular activity here with several dive sites available, but don’t be taken in by the underwater moai, it’s a cast-off from a film shot here, not an original.

By the early 19th century all of the moai statues had been knocked over, and it remains a mystery why. The rise of the Birdman cult, and belief in the god Make Make, is thought by some to be the reason the Rapa Nui people discarded their ancestral protectors.

One aspect of the cult was an annual competition to determine who would be Make Make’s representative on Earth, involving a dangerous race to secure the first egg of the season laid by sooty terns on the nearby islet of Moto Nui. Young men of the village, known as hopu, would swim across with the aid of reed floats, a distance of some 1000m through rough, shark-infested sea. Bringing provisions with them, they would then wait days, sometimes weeks, for the birds to lay.

Once a hopu had claimed the first egg, he would climb to the top of the rocks and wave it at his sponsor waiting back at Orongo, shouting: “Go paint your head, you have got the egg!” If he survived the swim back to Rapa Nui it was a scary climb up the sea cliffs to present the egg to his sponsor, who would then be named Tangata Manu, and retreat to a ceremonial house to spend months in seclusion. The Tangata Manu shaved and painted his head red or white, wore a headdress of human hair, and grew his nails, perhaps to take on a birdlike appearance, doing little else but eat and sleep. Eventually the cult was suppressed by Christian missionaries but not before many hopu had perished, either by drowning, falling from the cliffs or being eaten by sharks.

So all completely normal there then.