Claudio's connection with Easter Island dates back to 1976, when he arrived to participate in the restoration of the famous birdman cult ceremonial site of Orongo. In the following years he excavated and restored several other monuments. In 1978 he co-founded the Easter Island Studies Institute of the University of Chile at Hanga Roa and was its first Director until 1985.

From the mid-80s to 1990, Claudio lived and worked in French Polynesia associated with the Department of Archaeology of the Centre Polynésien des Sciences Humaines, contributing to the organization of the Archaeological Survey of French Polynesia and was involved in several major restorations of ceremonial sites (marae) at the Papeno'o, Aiurua and Vaihiria valleys (Tahiti). He also explored and studied in several islands of the Societies, Marquesas, Australs and Tuamotu archipelagoes.

From 1990 to 1993 he was Director of Easter Island’s Anthropological Museum. From 1992 to 1996, he was the Field Director in charge of restoring Easter Island's largest ceremonial site at Tongariki.

He is currently writing and living between Easter Island and Santiago, Chile where, as Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Prehistory, he teaches at the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences and at the School of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile.