Rapa Nui and Robinson Crusoe, islands of the far Pacific

Two Chilean islands, with three thousand kilometres of Pacific between them. On the first, Rapa Nui, life fits into a single village, Hanga Roa, and everything else belongs to the moai: the seven watchmen of Akivi facing the sea, the fifteen giants of Tongariki you watch emerge from the night, the Rano Raraku quarry where unfinished statues still sleep in the rock. You cross the island on foot along the Poike ridge, by kayak along the Anakena shore, and by night, with a telescope trained on the stars that once guided Polynesian navigators.

On the second, Robinson Crusoe, another lone village, San Juan Bautista, and the true story of Alexander Selkirk, four years alone scanning the horizon for a sail from the lookout that now bears his name. You follow his ridge from one end of the island to the other, through giant ferns and endemic hummingbirds, then slip beneath the surface: fur seals, lobsters, drop-offs and a wreck from 1921, in waters few divers have ever seen.

Santiago, the Casablanca valley and the hills of Valparaíso link the two crossings and give the journey room to breathe.

At a glance

An island journey where you walk, paddle and dive more than you sightsee, far from any crowd. Rapa Nui is explored privately, at the pace of its sites and sunrises; Robinson Crusoe takes a little more earning, with a light aircraft, ten kilos of luggage per person, at the mercy of the weather, and a week set to the rhythm of the sea. For active, curious travellers who like an island to be won.