Just as it’s an island of many names—Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Isla de Pascua—it’s also an island with many stories, histories, and much mystery. (At one point, the Rapa Nui population dwindled down to just 111 people—due to slavery, conflict, and imported disease.) It’s a complicated story and tensions remain. But it’s also a beautiful story of perseverance, and that beauty, then and now, is as undeniable as its landscape—at once reminiscent of the ends of the world as well as its very early beginnings.

 

A taste of it all: Mo’ai statues, the rocky Pacific coast, off in the distance the village of Hanga Roa, where the majority of the island’s inhabitants live, and the freedom we had to explore this island-wide archeological site.

 

Some of those stories and that air of mystery will no doubt find their way into posts for weeks to come. It’s that kind of a place—it doesn’t leave you, nor do you want it to. For now, I’ll share facts and photos… of the mo’ai sculptures that represented the ancestors of the Rapa Nui people, of the comforting Pacific Ocean we love so, of the many animals that roam free over this lush landscape, and of course a heart or two.

 

Standing at ease at Ahu Tangariki. These, like all mo’ai, were once toppled. The ahu (sacred burial platform on which the mo’ai stand) was also destroyed in 1960’s tsunami. Japan led the restoration of this site.

 

Doing so feels in line with the spirit ‘Notes from the Southern Hemisphere’ was founded in—to chronicle all the amazing things we have the opportunity to see living on the other side of the world. Along the way, we’ve had adventures and made adjustments, and our hearts have been broken.

 

On Rapa Nui, Ryan is a tourist first, surfer second.

 

While the ultimate kind of “travel” inspired this blog, it’s also become a coping mechanism in its own right—a way for Ryan and I to journey right to the present moment, where we step outside and feel fortunate for a brand new view. For most, getting to Rapa Nui means days of travel. In our case, all we had to do was take a five-hour flight to the most isolated inhabited island in the world (it’s halfway to Tahiti). Here are several more angles on the magnificent view from there:

 

Morning view from our incredible oceanside cabaña at Te’Ora, which means something like: “the start of a new beginning.” I love that.

 

Only to be rivaled by sunsets like this.

 

You’ll notice a reddish “top knot.” It represented the often red hair of the ancient Rapa Nui people. Like all mo’ai, it was carved from “tuff,” or compressed volcanic ash, but from an entirely different volcano to achieve the color.