There are a few places on Earth that are so remote you never think you’ll actually get to set foot on them and experience them for yourself. Without the aid of a history book or the Internet, a place like Rapa Nui, the most isolated populated island on the planet, sitting quietly in the middle of the South Pacific, seems it would be a destination only of dreams. But just because Rapu Nui is so far removed from the everyday doesn’t mean that seeing its wonders firsthand can only be part of some traveler’s far-fetched wish list—at least not anymore. Thanks to LAN Airlines and their new routes direct to the remote island (a six-hour flight from Lima, Peru), Rapa Nui is now readily accessible and yours for the exploring.

Better known as Easter Island (so named because it was “discovered” by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722), Rapu Nui is the perfect destinationfor travel enthusiasts who crave a little culture with their trips and who want to learn about the land and its people while they enjoy the land and its people…oh, and those mystical moai.

RAPA NUI (EASTER ISLAND)
MOSTLY untouched by man, Easter Island is like one big, open-air museum. This tiny triangular island was once just a collection of volcanic clusters that pushed themselves up from the ocean floor to become home to a civilization that thrived on the land for a few centuries…until the Rapanui civilization fell, much like the hundreds of moai—giant sculptures carved from rock—that remain on the island to this day: some toppled, some broken and laying where they fell, others stoic and untouched, and some restored by archaeologists. All 887 of them are a testament to the island’s mysterious, mythical past.

I had the opportunity to stay at explora Posada de Mike Rapu (explora.com), and if you’re going on a dream vacation to a destination like this in the middle of the Pacific, you better do it in style and class, something explora has in spades. Opened in December 2007, it’s the third of the explora properties, and it’s the first lodge in South America to be awarded LEED certification. The property offers experienced guides who will lead you on treks by foot or bike through the breathtaking island landscapes where exciting, in-depth discussions about the Rapanui culture and its ancestry will unfold.

Hanga Roa is the only town on the island (the entire island population is less than 4,000) and it is home to small restaurants, bars, markets and believe it or not, a couple of Internet cafes. But many natives of the island live outside of town, at the ocean’s edge, without modern comforts like electricity and running water. This is almost unfathomable to most, especially when I head back to explora after a long day’s hike for a massage and an opportunity to sit in their “Hare Mahana Ora,” a sauna that is itself a structure woven wholly with local eucalyptus. You sit inside and let the fiery lava rocks open up your pores, your nasal passages and your senses. After the cleansing eucalyptus, it’s time for dinner in the dining room overlooking the island where wild horses roam free by the ocean’s edge. All meals on the explora property were exceptional. They offer the freshest fish you can could ever want, and the super selection of Chilean wines (Rapa Nui is a property of Chile, after all) are paired quite nicely with all their menu items.

For more on South America, pick up the Dec/Jan Issue of Instinct.