8
Easter Island, Chile
On this day, you can enjoy your breakfast with a view of the mystical Easter Island - a unique experience. Afterwards, an exciting programme awaits you for the day. You will delve deeper into the history and culture of Easter Island and get to know this remote island in the Pacific Ocean. You can especially look forward to seeing the numerous moais. The enchanting statues bear witness to Easter Island's great past and the heyday of Polynesian culture.
Following in the footsteps of the Rapa Nui culture, you start the day with the dwelling caves and moai platforms in Akahanga on the south coast of the island. Here you can see the extent of the destruction. The platforms have not been restored and the moai are still lying on the ground just as they were when the cult sites were destroyed.
The journey then takes you to Ahu Tongariki. 15 moais, rebuilt to their full size, are enthroned on this largest and most beautiful of the Ahus. With the ocean behind them, they watch over their island from here.
The highlight of the day lies ahead of you at the next stop: Rano Raraku. Numerous moais are still scattered around the mountain slopes of the extinct tuff volcano. The gigantic figures were carved out of the rock in the nearby quarry. Further up the volcano you can still see some unfinished moais, some of which are still attached to the rock. It looks as if the rock figures were abandoned from one day to the next.
From the birthplace of the Moais, you continue to the navel of the world. Te Pito o Te Henau in the Ahu Te Pito Kura bears this name. Why? According to legend, King Hotu Matua himself brought it with him when he first colonised Easter Island.
With all these new impressions, you finally return to Anakena beach, the last stop on today's excursion. Here you will have lunch and enjoy a picnic under palm trees on the beach.
In the evening, you can look forward to a delicious Umu dinner and traditional Polynesian dances.