Easter Island is the the right place to take a little time to explore and you will find that we can provide complete personalized solutions for your time on Rapa Nui.
One of the reasons to come to Easter Island is to get to know personally this now famous and almost lost civilization including the sights, sounds, and history.
The Rapa Nui people left enormous iconic landmarks, subtle hints to a special way of life. Behind and through the Easter Islanders is a special way of looking at the world we live in today. After taking the time and effort to actually make it tour our green island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it is important to learn more than you can scrape together from books and videos by taking a tour with someone with years of experience on Rapa Nui before exploring on your own.
Although we have a number of sites that we always visit so you get to know the important stories and aspects of Easter Island, our tours are not fixed with a set order and amount of time at each site. We will take a moment to find out what you already know, want to know before starting. Of course we have a recommended set things to see. We will give you insights into each site, various theories and and encourage you to ponder the reasons for one point of view or another. After knowing a little more, we hope you come to your own conclusions and we love your questions.
Don’t-miss Traditional Easter Island Festival
Taking place an early weekend in April, Easter Island Festival welcomes spring with a celebration of art, music and culture. Started in 2010 as a grassroots movement, Tapati Rapa Nui Festival, the event has grown every year in patrons and popularity.
A mix of Carnival, sports and theatre, Rapa Nui is Easter Island’s showcase of culture. For a few weeks at the end of January, hotels are so booked that local residents actually have to rent out their houses to accommodate all guests. What started in 1963 in celebration of the first time residents could vote in the Chilean presidential elections has grown into a heritage event complete with dance competitions and a crowning of the festival queen. Ancient games like haka pei, sliding down a cliff on a banana tree log, rowing across the river on a reed tortora raft and balancing a bushel of bananas over your shoulder are highlights.
The dates of 2017 Tapati festival is confirmed on Friday 27th January – Sunday 12th February.
The festival began in the 1970s as a way of maintaining and promoting the Rapa Nui culture amongst the islanders, and in particular for generating interest and a sense of identity amongst the children. Only in the last few years has the travelling community woken up to this unique event, and February is now very much high season on the island.
The festival consists of numerous dancing and singing competitions, as well as traditional sporting events such as swimming, canoeing, horse racing, haka pei and the island triathlon. Each year, two young female ‘candidates’ compete with each other to become the Queen of the Tapati for that year, and all of the above competitions carry points, meaning that the candidate with the most points at the end of the fortnight is crowned the Queen.
The main events take place each night on the stage at Hanga Vare Vare, while daytime competitions such as horse racing take place at different locations all around the island. It is a fabulous festival that involves everyone who is on the island at that time, locals and visitors alike.
Festival activities take place both during the day and each evening, and we can provide you with details of the exact timetable of events nearer the time. Highlights include the Haka Pei (sliding down the island’s steepest slope on banana trunks), the Rapa Nui triathlon, horse racing and the group dance competitions in the evenings.
Brief of Other festival—-Easter Island Marathon
Held every year in May/June, the Easter Island Marathon, half marathon and 10 K is one of the most exclusive running events in the world. Only accepting 150 participants, about 50 of those are locals. A fairly flat track, the race begins in the center of Hanga Roa, the main town, continues on to the center of the island and then circles back to Anakena Beach.
Easter Island
Even through there are 30 good sites to visit many of our guests have asked for a more defined list of sites for various tours:
Half Day Tour A – 1:
Tahai Archeological Complex the reconstructed Site with its Moai with and with out eyes, Pukao, Ramps, Hare Pianga (boat house) and much more give you a chance to ground yourself in the culture of Rapa Nui. – Rano Kao, with and overlook to understand the geology and location, botany of Isla De Pascua,- You will see its enormous and beautiful Crater and Orongo Village where the famous Bird Man Contest was held
Half Day Tour A – 2:
Vai Hu This unrestored site shows the effects of warfare, the future of our Moai if we can’t protect them, the renovation the Rapa Nui themselves took on – Rano Raraku, The famous quarry where almost 300 Moai are in the process of being carved and finished – A family cave where less than 50 years ago Rapa Nui lived and still spend their time enjoying life as “it used to be” -Tongariki the iconic 15 Moai Ahu destroyed in 1960 and partially restored in the 90s.
Full Day A ( A.1 + A.2) Stopping for a lunch break in Hanga Roa
Half Day Tour B – 1
Te Pito Kura – Papa Vaka – Ana Kena Ahu Nao Nao with its 7 Moai are the best preserved as they were buried in the white sands for centries – Ahu Ature the first ahu restored in 1956. Time for beach
Half Day Tour B – 2:
Ahu Akivi Ana Tepahu Puna Pao Ahu Vinapu
Full Day B (B-1 + B-2) Stopping for a lunch break in Hanga Roa
Rates:
Semi Private/Small Group 2 – 9 people
Full Day $100.00/Person
Half Day $60.00/Person
Private Tour
Full Day: $120.00/ Person
Half Day:$80.00/Person
Package Discounts Available