Old Town Square, Warsaw
Old Town Square, Warsaw
The bay at Hanga Roa
The bay at Hanga Roa

Relaxed.  From what I saw, that sums up life in Rapa Nui.  Almost all of the people on Rapa Nui live in or around Hanga Roa.  The town has a couple of major streets, a small shallow-water harbour, two banks, a post office and plenty of stray dogs.  The stray dogs enjoy chasing cars and sleeping in front of their favorite restaurant or moai.  The island lacks “chain” stores and restaurants because there is a law that allows only people of Rapa Nui descent to own businesses and property.  The only notable exceptions I noticed were the airline, the gas station and the phone company.  This quality of Rapa Nui sets it apart from any other place that I have visited.

The daily flight from Santiago
The daily flight from Santiago

One aspect of Rapa Nui that I found very interesting was how they are connected to the rest of the world.  The island has few resources and most necessities must be imported.  LAN Chile flies into Rapa Nui daily in the high-season and brings perishable foods, the mail, and lots of tourists.  Larger cargo comes by way of a once-weekly ship from Chile.  Since the island lacks a deepwater port, the entire contents of this ship have to be offloaded to smaller boats for landing.  A local told me that this is a one to two day process provided the sea is calm.

The weekly cargo ship from Chile
The weekly cargo ship from Chile

Fuels (gas, diesel and Jet-A) all arrive by tanker ship which anchors near the Vinapu terminal east of Hanga Roa.  They use a big hose to pump the fuels from the ship to shore.  As for communciations, the island is way too far off the beaten track to make an undersea cable financially viable.  Instead, they rely on satellite communications.  Upload and download speeds were impressive (comparable to a cable modem back at home though which much higher delay) and I suspect that the government must subsidize this normally very expensive commodity.  Most internet cafes on the island cost about $2/hour though our guesthouse offered free access (after I fixed it, that is!).

Another strange aspect of being on the island is that fact that new visitors to our guesthouse could only arrive once a day.  I don’t think I have been to any other place where people aren’t free to arrive and depart as they please.  Actually, there was one exception to this.  On our first day we met a small group of writers and scientists who were waiting on a ship to come and pick them up.  They were setting off on a science expedition to study plastic accumulation in the South Pacific Gyre.  They had a multi-week sail to Tahiti ahead of them and they were certainly piling on the fresh fruit and veggies at breakfast time.  Someday I would love to give that a try.  A picture of their boat is below.

All in all, Rapa Nui is a quiet and sleepy place and is a perfect place to unwind.  It has a great mix of history, culture and, most importantly, the chilled-out island vibe.  Tomorrow’s post will be my last on Easter Island.  I will share our tips on how to see Rapa Nui on the cheap.

Two important forms of transportation on Rapa Nui
Two important forms of transportation on Rapa Nui

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