The most remote inhabited place in the world yet easily recognized by anyone is Easter Island. The island with an area of Newcastle city is located in the Southeastern Pacific Ocean and belongs to Chile.
While the name associates directly with the upcoming holiday, it’s nothing more than a sheer coincidence – the island was discovered by Dutch traveller on the 5th of April in 1772, and the date happened to fall on Easter Sunday.
Besides the well-known name, the island is called by at least 4 others, one of which is Rapa Nui. That is the original name that indigenous people of the Easter Island still call it today. Although the island mainly functions on tourism, there are around 8,000 permanent residents on the island.
Keep in mind, getting to and from the Easter Island is not that easy, which makes the number of residents even more impressive. The only way to travel to see the monumental statues of the Easter Island is by flying, though it is quite of a journey. Alongside of your initial departure place, you must take a 5-hour flight from Santiago de Chile or 7-hour flight from Tahiti in French Polynesia.
While all of this might seem like a lot of effort, it is worth the trip. Not only will you get to see the iconic moai (statue in native Rapa Nui language) carvings, but you will get a lot of time to rest and have a quiet week or so. The island has very little if any cell phone reception, not to mention internet connection. Therefore, you will certainly have a blast immersing yourself in local culture and stepping away from your daily routines.
Since the most popular pictures from the Easter Island are of the semi-circle of the monolithic stone statues, not everyone knows that there’re nearly 900 of them around the island. Additionally, the famous pictures have created an illusion that when visiting you can only see the ‘heads’ of the giant carvings when all of them are full body statues that were submerged in 2012.
The temperature in the island is quite consistent throughout the year, although, ironically, you should try to avoid the usual Easter month, April, if you don’t want to get caught in rainfall that drags on for days.
