Apologies in advance for the paragraph that contains the swearing. Once you get to it, hopefully you’ll understand why.
Oh, and more testing for the Peru vs. Chile pisco sour debate…Peru is still way ahead. Sorry Chile! Better luck next time!
Day 1
What a long couple of days.
Flew into Sydney on the red-eye and had a few hours layover before having to catch the flight out to Santiago. The flight was ok Sydney-Auckland. Got stuck next to this lady who was going to NZ…And (literally) she couldn’t understand a single word of English. We (me and the flight attendant) were trying to ask her if she was going to be staying in NZ or travelling through to Santiago, and she couldn’t understand a word of it. I wonder how the hell she’s gonna deal with immigration and stuff?
So yeah, on LA800/QF321 to Santiago, but it has a short stopover in Auckland to refuel. Not so bad I suppose. Get to get off the plane and use a real toilet and freshen up and wander the shops for 45 minutes before they reboard. Picked up a pair of silver earrings, cos the ones I have in now are pissing me off and I didn’t bring any others with me. Got held up a bit leaving Auckland though, because I think they may have overbooked the flight or something for that segment, because there were several people who boarded and found someone already sitting in their seat who’d been assigned the exact same seat allocation on their tickets. Took a while to get that all sorted out. Dunno if they disembarked anybody or just shifted them up to business though. Speaking of business…I am looking forward to the day when work will pay for me to fly business class!
Ended up watching Avatar…and crying. Again. It’s a brilliant movie, but well, makes you (read: me) think. I mean of course, I know it’s a movie…But I have to wonder if what I do for a living contributes to that kind of thing. Ok, so yes, I know it does. But I try to make up for it in other ways in my personal life. But watching it again (and really watching it, as opposed to just going ZOMG! Look at the CGI!), makes me wonder if I’m still not doing enough. I know if I quit and changed fields that it’d still go on, with or without me. But it makes me feel incredibly guilty that what I do has seriously messed up implications for the natives and for the environment. Cameron probably took it a few steps beyond, but in principle, that sort of thing happens. All the time. Anyway, this probably isn’t the time or place for such a philosophical discussion.
There was this really twat-like Argentine couple sitting in front of me on the plane from Auckland to Santiago as well. And I mean that in the worst possible way. They got into a ridiculous argument with the flight attendants and the guy even got up and looked to threaten them at one point…All because they didn’t have the “special” meal that they forgot to pre-order. Now I know that airlines usually carry a couple of extra vegetarian meals for those who forget to put it into their bookings. But these 2 apparently had some really odd dietary requirement, hadn’t put it into their booking, and so, unsurprisingly, the airline didn’t have any that fit their requirements on board. Now ok, yes, sucks for the couple. But how the hell is the airline meant to know unless you tell them beforehand so that they can let the airline caterers know to put it on board for that particular flight? I’ve seen some very strange dietary requirements over the years, and know airlines can cater to just about anything, if you give them enough warning! 90 minutes out from landing in Santiago is not enough time. Strange that. I wanted to slap them upside the head, but that wouldn’t bode well for the start of my trip.
Just been a really long trip to Santiago. I think I’m counting that I’ve been awake over 48 hours now. I managed to get some decent rest on the plane, but it’s not actual sleep. I expect when I get to the hotel in Santiago, I’m probably just going to crash. I’m already checked in (online – was easy) for the LAN flight to Easter Island, so no worries there.
Anyway, gonna shut the puter down now for a while. Save the battery. Will write more when I get to the hotel in Santiago.
So at the hotel at last. The instructions I was given for the hotel transfer from the airport were wrong. Because of the earthquake at the end of February and the damage done to the airport, they’re still running stuff out of tents and whatnot in some places. The documentation I got said “go to the transvip counter and request the transfer”. Well, the transvip counter doesn’t seem to exist right now. They’re operating in a tent after you leave the actual terminal. Which I didn’t know. Took me ages to figure it out. After having the stupidest taxi driver try to con me well and truly. He saw me wandering around trying to find the transfer desk, and said he could take me to the hotel for 50000 pesos. That’s US$100 by the way. Uh, how about (a) this is not my first time to Santiago, and (b) the hotel is less than 5 minutes drive away and shouldn’t cost more than 2500 pesos and (c) while I fully admit my Spanish isn’t that good, it isn’t non-existent – I can speak and understand some, so don’t treat me like a fucking idiot. Anyway, I think he got the hint after mentioning that figure for the hotel transfer and me literally cracking up laughing and saying NO.
So anyway, got to the hotel and all was good. Diego de Almagro is about 5 mins drive from the airport (I would have stayed at the airport Holiday Inn, but it was fully booked out for a conference or something apparently). It’s in an industrial kind of area, so nothing around. But given that I’d been awake for some 50+ hours straight at this point, I didn’t much care. It had a bed and a shower and a tv with hundreds of channels. I must admit, it’s got very comfy beds. Usually hotel beds are pretty crap, but I was impressed by this one. Slept like a baby. And slept through the night, so can’t comment on the hotel restaurant. The breakfast was good though. Coffee, juice, toast and spreads. All I need really. A bit expensive for what it is, but I spose that’s the price you pay for convenience.
Day 2
So got a decent night’s sleep last night. But had to be up at 5 to get ready to go to the airport for the 8.30am flight to Easter Island. Got dropped off at the domestic part of the terminal, since, well, Easter Island is domestic and everything. Also not to mention I was on the straight Santiago-EI-Santiago flight, not the one that does the run through to Papeete (Tahiti). But I go to line up to do the bag drop (since I checked in online in Sydney) and they tell me I have to check in at the international desks. *shrug* beats me. I’m sure there’s some logic behind it somewhere. Maybe 
After that ventured through security which was straight forward and then had a couple of hours hanging round the airport. There’s a small shop and a couple of coffee shops once you pass domestic security. And a Santander ATM (thankfully!). Everyone told me to stock up on Pesos before arriving on EI since the ATMs there have a significant fail rate and exchanging cash can apparently be an issue. I’m not on a tight budget for this trip since it’s only 4 days, but I don’t want to get caught short either.
Anyway, then on to the flight. Got nothing to really say about it. Which I suppose is a good thing. It just went and it landed. Not much more you can ask for. No hijinx or anything. Watched Sherlock Holmes out of sheer boredom. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I heard such bad stories about it that I didn’t bother when it first came out. But yeah, got a few laughs. And then just as we were coming in to land…Holy crap! How clear is that water?!?! At that altitude and you could see the reefs! Damn this diving is going to be epic!
So we landed and got off the plane to a light drizzle. Nothing to ruin a day though. Got some photos of the plane and then give the guy the landing card before going in to the luggage belt. Didn’t have to wait too long. Then outside to see the guy holding a bit of paper with my name on it for the transfer to the hotel. I got greeted with a lei of flowers and thought it was cute 
I’m staying at the Manavai Hotel in Hanga Roa. I don’t think there was any spectacular reason for it. It’s a mid-range type hotel here and wasn’t priced too badly, and it has a pool (in hindsight, that may have been the deciding factor). The Posada de Mike Rapu or whatever it’s called looks really nice, but at almost $1500 a night, slightly out of my price range (about the same for one night there as the total cost of my side trip – including the return flights from Santiago!). The chick who seems to be running the place (Kim) is this really awesome American lady (I think – at least she has a very strong US accent). She gave me the low-down on where to eat, where to visit, where not to bother with and all that kind of thing. Most useful! So after getting the info I needed, I packed up my daypack with a towel and camera and stuff and headed down the road maybe 200m to the shore where the dive operators are to book my diving!
I’d done a bit of research online before getting here, and all signs pointed towards using Orca rather than Mike Rapu. Suggestions were that Orca has better gear, and this far from a deco chamber, I’d rather play it safe. Not to say Mike Rapu has bad gear or anything, for all I know they’re great. But advice was to go with Orca, so that’s what I planned on. Only I get down there, and walk in to the office to make arrangements and the guy (not sure what his name was) was in there having a chat to one of his mates. Didn’t seem to want anything to do with me, like I was some huge imposition. I mean hey, I’m sorry I disrupted your conversation with your mate, but it’s a business, yes? Then he proceeded to get all snarky with me over me wanting to do an afternoon dive rather than a morning dive (something their website says is definitely possible). Sure, a morning dive would be great, but I’ve got tours booked and that doesn’t allow for me to do a morning dive because of the timing. Took a while, but he’s got me booked for a dive at 2.30 tomorrow afternoon. So yeah, booked for a dive, but a little unimpressed with this guy’s customer service.
Then ventured down the main street for a bit to go visit the supermarket and pick up a big bottle of water and a big bottle of coke. Yeah, even here, I can’t escape my need for sugary caffeinated drinks! Prices aren’t cheap, even at the supermarket, but it’s the price of convenience, isn’t it? Everything must be freighted in. Such is life. There’s a little internet café I saw that I’m going to have to check out a bit later on. And a few little shops. Saw where a couple of café’s and stuff are, one of which was recommended by Kim, so will have to check it out for dinner. Bit lazy to do much right now, so gonna go laze by the pool for a bit!
After my lounging by the pool for a bit and going for a dip, I went for another short wander around the township just to check out where things are. Didn’t venture far to go see moai, since I wouldn’t really understand what I was looking at, and that is, obviously, the reason I’ve hired a guide for the next couple of days. I’ll see it all then. Then came back to the hotel and had a nap for a while. Yes, I know it seems silly when you’re in such an amazing place to have a nap in the hotel rather than going out adventuring, but I’m tired. I’ve had stupid numbers of hours of flights in the past few days. I need to sleep. Then woke up around 7.30pm and went out for dinner.
Wandered down the main street again to the Café Ra’a. Only right next door there’s an internet café. So I ended up in there first to check emails, and update facebook to let the family know I landed ok. Nothing much going on in the land of Oz from what I can tell. I’m missing meetings and whatnot, but meh, whatever. Internet access isn’t too expensive actually. I think it was about 800 pesos for half an hour. Cheaper than most other internet café’s I’ve visited in my travels, so can’t complain. It’s a bit slow, but just don’t do what I did and try to load 5 pages at once, and you should be right.
Then went next door to Café Ra’a for food. Kim from the hotel recommended it as one of the places I should try out. The menu was pretty sparse, but the options looked ok. I got the lasagne marinara. Was pretty good. Came with a bowl of bread and dip. Have to be honest, I liked the dip more than the lasagne I should find out their recipe for the dip though. Was really good! Getting an idea of prices around here though. Not cheap. I paid around US$25 for an average serving of lasagne and a coke. And this is apparently one of the cheaper places on the island. Still want to go out for lobster one night, just have to conveniently ignore the prices while there! The people at Café Ra’a were really nice and attentive and were patient and understanding with my attempts to communicate in Spanish. Might wander back at lunch one day to see if they’ve got a different lunch menu.
Anyway, back in my room right now getting ready for bed. Got a half day tour tomorrow in the morning. Then diving tomorrow afternoon!
Day 3
You know, one of these days, one of my moments of insanity is going to get me killed No joke.
Didn’t get a great night’s sleep last night, woke up around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Probably jetlag. Stayed in bed till around 7 though, then got up and went for a wander down to the foreshore to get some photos.
There’s some problems with the water supply near the hotel with the mains bursting apparently 3 times in the last 3 days. So no water for a shower or anything. Blows a bit, but not exactly the hotel’s fault. This kind of crap happens. Then wandered back for breakfast around 8.30 (yes, I found it a bit strange that they don’t even start serving brekky till 8.30am, but such is life). You get a couple of little dishes of jam and some butter, a toasted crumpet and a slice of what I think was vanilla sponge cake, a banana and some ham and cheese. I stuck with the crumpet and jam (which I later discovered was guava jam). Not too bad I guess. To be honest I would have been happy with a couple of pieces of toast and strawberry jam. Meh. Island life – must get used to it!
Then wandered out the front to wait for my guide to pick me up. I had organised for my own guide and driver on this trip, because I wanted to take some good photos and didn’t want to be rushed by a group minibus type tour! Turned out to be both a blessing and a curse! First ventured off to the cave Ana Kai Tangata to see the bird paintings, and from what my guide said, he thinks it’s actually where the birdman race started. His theory was that they swim out from the cave and round the side of the island to the islets to get the bird egg. Dunno if it’s true or not (but then nobody knows if any of the theories are true – that’s why they’re theories!), but what he said made logical sense.
Then wandered around to the crater rim at Rano Kau…And so began the adventure!
I was standing at the top taking a few photos, and my guide said something about there being a boulder near the bottom that had a petroglyph of a dolphin and a few other things on it. And me, being me, said “oh, cool! Can we go see it?!?!”. Now bear in mind that there’s signs at the top saying “beware, falling rocks”…But yeah, lets ignore that. So the guide says that’s not actually a legal sign, it’s just a safety thing. So we follow this little trail down to the jungle bit and then wander through (I’m only wearing shorts, a t-shirt and trainers, my guide has long pants, long sleeved shirt and boots…). There’s spiky trees and evil spinifex-like grass. So we wander around for about 15 minutes before my guide decides he doesn’t know where it is and we go to head back up. Simple enough, right? Only he lost the trail. Took 40 minutes to get back up. And neither of us took any water with us since we figured we’d only be gone a total of 10-15 minutes. Never let it be said I’m the most organised person around! Anyway, many cuts and scratches later, we found our way back to the top where the driver had been waiting for us. Apparently our guide said we’d be 20 mins maximum…An hour later…So yeah, my insanity/curiosity will probably get me killed one of these days! And after all that, I still didn’t get to see the dolphin petroglyph! Apparently the govt/national park people intentionally aren’t giving the location away cos they want to keep people away and not ruin it. Can’t say I blame them. But damn it would have been cool to find it 
More on this later though, there ended up being more to the whole situation.
Then we kept driving around to Orongo to check out the petroglyphs there and see the islands where the birdman competition took place. So the people who did that were more insane than me. That’s some consolation, right? Erosion from the wind and rain has caused the petroglyphs to be barely discernable to be honest. In some places you really have to squint sideways and use your imagination to see what’s being shown to you. Some of them are slightly more obvious and do look really cool. The theory is that the birdman petroglyphs are kind of like signatures from the winners of the competition each year. Again, who knows if it’s true? But it makes some sense. There’s 50 million places on the net that go into the history of the competition, so I’m not going to ramble on about it here. If you’re interested, I’m sure wikipedia has something to say
So after all that, we ventured back to the hotel where I got dropped off around 12. Got a full day tomorrow out to the other (northern) side of the island to see the quarry and moai and stuff. Should be awesome! Have to psych myself up a bit for diving though, which blows. I’m a bit tired. Hopefully should be fine though.
That was epic! Not a huge amount of marine life, but what I saw was amazing. Went to Anchor Reef just off Hanga Roa bay, viz had to be close to 50m!!! One of the Garcia brothers (Henri iirc) was the guide, but he had another woman with him who seems to be doing her DM training, so she came with us as well. There was one other regular diver apart from me, a chick from Denmark. Anyway, so it’s a 3 minute ride in the boat out to the site. We got to 24m max depth for a total dive time of 45 minutes. Saw so much! Turtles (singular turtle if you want to be technical about it ), heaps of colourful fish, sea urchins, the underwater moai, this huge coral bomb, a massive anchor (hence the “anchor reef”). Got short of air about 40 mins in and did the last 5 mins of the dive breathing off Henri’s spare reg. All really safe practices (safety stops and all) and good gear (though bear in mind that they use full foot fins in their rental gear and so don’t have boots, so if your feet get overly cold, plan accordingly and bring your own). Got a few decent photos, but I really need to do some colour correction in photoshop before I stick them online. So you’ll all have to wait a couple of weeks till I get home to see them all, since my little netbook doesn’t have photoshop installed. And at the end of it, I saw they were selling a small book on the Underwater World of Easter Island (by Michel Garcia) for US$10 at their dive shop. Least it’ll give me a chance to ID some of the marine life I saw! The dive cost US$60 all up for the dive and rental gear and the “guide”. All in all, a brilliant dive, and really glad I took the time out to do it.
Afterwards went and got an ice cream from the little shop next to the 2 dive shops which had a really good reputation as “the best ice cream in the Pacific”. Well who am I to deny them the chance to prove their point? Have to say, it was pretty damn good! And possibly they have made it to the top of that list! Then back to the hotel to nap for a bit before deciding what to do for dinner. Might try the lobster place tonight.
So, what do I find? Lounging around after my nap and reading through the little free pamphlet I got at Orongo today, I find out that climbing to the bottom of the crater at Rano Kau isn’t allowed. So now I’m pissed off. Honestly, while I may have wanted to go down and see that dolphin petroglyph, I didn’t want to break any rules to do so. I wish my guide had of just said no when I asked whether we could go check it out. I probably would have respected him more for saying no rather than letting me break local rules just because I asked to see something different. But on the other hand, they really need better signage there if it’s an actual rule that you’re not allowed down. Because right now, there’s a sign that says “beware, falling rocks”, but nothing that says you can’t actually go down there. And since nobody told me it wasn’t allowed, there’s no explicit signage there, and I didn’t go to Orongo and get the pamphlet until after I’d been to Rano Kau to see the crater, how exactly was I supposed to know any better? I’m more than a little peeved at my guide right now. Because he should know better. And I’d rather be told “no” when asking about doing something like that than to find out later I’m breaking the law. I’ll get over being told “no” pretty quickly. I won’t get over a massive fine or jail time quite so easily.
Anyway, after all that, I crashed pretty quickly. I woke up for dinner, decided I couldn’t be arsed, and went back to sleep.
Day 4
The full day tour. I wanted to sleep, but had to get up. Since I went to bed so early last night, it wasn’t a big surprise when I woke up at 2am. And couldn’t get back to sleep. Stayed in bed, but was pretty much wide awake. Got up at 8 and went to see Kim about going to see one of the Rapa Nui shows tonight (song and dance thingy). She said the only one on tonight is at the Belgian place down near the water, so I guess that’s where I’m eating tonight!
Got picked up at 9am again and this time ventured north up along the coastal road to ***. Here there were some fallen Moai (the statues) as well as ahu (ceremonial platforms). Was interesting discussing potential theories with my guide and all, but honestly, I think we could have done with about half the time actually spent here. It seemed to be my guide’s pet spot, and that’s cool…But at the end of the day, we got next to no time at other sites cos we spent so long here.
From there, we moved on to the quarry at Rano Raraku. My guide actually knows the archaeologists working on excavating and restoring 2 of the moai in the quarry, so we first went to visit them. Have to say this was one of the most interesting parts of my day. Got to talk science with a couple of scientists actually working there (both English speaking – even better)! They’re excavating the bottom of one of the moai there as it’s got petroglyphs on its back. They’re also undergoing a restoration/conservation type project where they’re using certain geochemical techniques to help prevent further erosion and weathering. This will help preserve the moai (and the petroglyphs) all around the island for future generations. It’s a really brilliant idea. So far they’ve only done a few moai, but I understand their aim is to eventually do them all. After that intellectual discussion, we moved on and went for a wander around the quarry (both sides). So many moai, and you can see how they carved them out of the rock as there’s a few still in there that they obviously never finished. Very cool. And there’s also the only kneeling moai on the entire island in the quarry as well. Debate apparently rages as to whether this was done when they first arrived, or just before the culture died out. I’m guessing right at the end, because if it was done right at the beginning, you’d probably expect to see more than one of them on the entire island. Whereas at the end, maybe that was the way they were moving towards just before everything went to hell.
From there we went down to Ahu Tongariki where the 15 moai are all lined up. Admittedly it does look cool, but at the same time, very fake. I give previous people props for trying to restore the site, but in doing so, they really stuffed it up in my opinion. It looks like it’s been built specifically for tourists to go “wow!” and snap photos rather than looking like a traditional religious or ceremonial site. Just very fake looking. Maybe others see it differently, this is just my opinion.
Then we were off to ***, another pet site for my guide. Again, interesting, and some good discussions over various theories, but still spent way too long here I think. There’s this big round boulder there that if you touch and sit there for 15 minutes in total silence is supposed to imbue you with wisdom or something. With all the big noisy tour buses now arriving, the chances of even getting 15 seconds silence, let alone 15 minutes is an impossible task. More fallen moai and ahu at this site.
Then we ventured back in to Hanga Roa for lunch which was provided by the company I hired the guide from. Was soup, pasta and fruit. Not bad, though the pasta did give me a slight stomach ache. Had an interesting conversation with my guide over lunch. Turns out he’s an ex-journalist. And his wife used to be governor of the island. He’s very knowledgeable, not only about the history of the Rapa Nui people, but also about the modern politics and culture on the island. He had some very interesting insights into the conservation efforts and things like that going on, I think mainly from his time working as a journalist.
So after lunch we ventured off to ***. (need to look up map, I really can’t remember where we went).
Then finally, late in the afternoon, we ventured to Anakena beach. Now I’d really wanted to go for a swim here, and based on the itinerary I’d discussed when booking the guide, I thought we were going to be there around lunch time to go for a swim and whatnot. But we got there around 4.30. And by the time we’d gone and seen the moai, got the rundown and had a look at the petroglyphs, it was 5pm and time to head back into town. If we’d spent less time at some of the sites this morning, the “pet sites” of my guide, then we would have had the time to spend at Anakena. A bit peeved about that, since I won’t have time in the morning to come back and go for a swim before I have to pack up and head to the airport.
Anyway, so got back to the hotel and said goodbye to the guide and the driver. My guide was great – extremely knowledgeable. But at the same time, I’m still pissed off that he knowingly let me break the law at Rano Kau. And that he constantly was snatching my camera away from me when I was trying to take photos (yes, I get that he was a journo and wanted to take photos), but it’s my fucking camera, and if I don’t want to be in the photos that’s my choice. There’s now a ton of photos on my memory card with me shielding my face from his constant “let me take your photo” shots. I’m sorry, but it’s incredibly fucking rude to take someone’s photo without their permission. And even more so to just keep snatching someone’s camera away from them while they’re in the middle of taking photos without their permission. And finally, I had agreed to a certain itinerary that was not matched. Sure, I probably got to see some things slightly off the beaten track, but it’s not what I agreed to and I’m a little disappointed that I had to miss out on some sites I wanted to see because my guide wanted to spend more time at his favourite places.
So after that I ventured up the road to the craft markets. What a ripoff. While I know people here need to make a living, the prices are outrageous for what they’re selling (attempts to bargain get you almost nowhere). Not to mention that 95% of it isn’t even made on the island. It’s imported from mainland Chile. How to I know? Those little souvenir statues they sell…Most of that wood isn’t native to the island, and the stone the majority of them are carved from (onyx ffs?) isn’t found on the island either. But they try to convince you it’s all local, which is why they say it costs so much. Sorry, but FAIL. I know rocks. I gave up in the end. I couldn’t find anything in there that I actually liked. Which is rare for me. So I ventured back down to the small “Easter Island Foundation” shop a couple of doors down from the hotel. I believe a portion of the profits go towards conservation efforts on the island. I bought a small 10-15cm high vesicular basalt moai statue for 12000 pesos. I don’t like it that much, but in case I don’t find anything at the airport, I couldn’t very well head home without at least one souvenir!
Then back to the hotel to get ready to go out for dinner and a show! At Au Bout Du Monde (the place run by the Belgian woman) for the show and to eat. It’s apparently a bit fancy, so I put on clean jeans and a nice top. Don’t know why I bothered though since when I got there, there were people happily dining in shorts and tshirts. Must admit I was a little disappointed by the menu options: fish, salmon, fish, fish, salmon, prawns, lobster (“oh, sorry. We don’t have any lobster right now”), fish, salmon, salmon or salmon. Now ok, I love fish and salmon, but something else would have been nice. And dammit, I wanted lobster. This was my splurge night. Don’t get me wrong, the food I ordered was superb! Had a smoked salmon entrée, and ginger and coconut milk prawns for main. Both were excellent, but yeah, some other options would have been nice – like LOBSTER It wasn’t that bad price wise despite it’s reputation for being one of the pricier places on the island – think I paid around the equivalent of US$55 for the food and a couple of pisco sours, including the service charge/tip. I’d been expecting roughly double that.
The show was actually next door to the restaurant, which I wasn’t aware of. Which meant the drink I’d just ordered couldn’t be taken next door. Bah. Wish they’d have told me that earlier. So went and watched that. Was a bit of fun. Like the music. Then ventured back to the hotel when that finished and just crashed. Gonna try and get up in the morning for sunrise – and good photos.
Day 5
So was awake at around 5.45am. Doom. Got up and started organising my stuff to pack back up for the flight at 1. Getting picked up at 10.30, so didn’t have the opportunity to do much this morning. Left the hotel around 6.30 and walked down to the moai site at ***. Was still pitch black and had to walk past the disco. Fun times. Think I got some good photos, or at least I better for all that effort. On the way back to the hotel one of the guys leaving the disco decided to have a go. Took a good 10-15 minutes, but he eventually stopped following me and left me alone. That’s always the least fun bit of travelling alone. So anyway, back to the hotel to pack and grab breakfast. And update this travel diary! Almost 10.15 now, so I should probably pack up my backpack and head out for my transfer.
Check out was simple enough, except my guide showed up to wish me goodbye. Under any other circumstances, I’d think it nice. It just seemed creepy. He wanted email addresses, phone numbers etc. I gave him the email I use as my “spam” account. I check it once a month or so for anything remotely legit. I know it may seem harsh, but despite the fact he knew his stuff, I really wasn’t happy with him. But them’s the breaks I guess. You win some, you lose some. Then got dropped at the airport and checked in. Simple agriculture screening of bags before you check in – fruit and veg mainly I think. The island doesn’t want bad things from the mainland and vice versa.
Had a couple of hours to blow since the flight was about 40 mins late landing. There’s a few little souvenir stalls there, but prices are just as horrendous as they are at the artisinal market in town. I did find one thing I liked though. And was prepared to pay the price on the sticker attached to it. But when I went to pay, all of a sudden it was “oh, that not right. Real price twice that. You give me twice as much money!”. Yeah, NO. So after all that, the only souvenir I’m coming away with is that little basalt moai statue. Maybe I’ll find something nicer in Santiago on the way out tomorrow.
Flight was pretty uneventful – the guy next to me snoring like a log. Kept the entire cabin awake I think. We made up time on the way, and only ended up landing 15 mins late. Bag came out pretty quick and got the transfer to the hotel pretty much straight away. There’s a major football team staying at the hotel though, cos there’s kids running around asking for autographs and stuff. Not sure which team it is though. Ate in the hotel restaurant for dinner – burger and chips. Sometimes you just have to do it Was good though, so not McD’s style.
Anyway, I now have to be up in 4 hours to go to the airport for the flight out for work. It’s been fun. I’ll write a short summary of the good/bad/ugly on the plane tomorrow! Night!
Day 6
So I wake up at stupid o’clock to get to the airport and check in for my international flight, and guess what? There’s no bloody hot water to have a shower. And it’s like 3° C outside. Doom. Much doom. Got packed and waited for the transfer to the airport at 3.30am, so I could be there 3 hours early for my 7am flight. Because, well, that’s what the airline says to do. But I get there, and checkin doesn’t even open until 4.30am. Bah. Finally get checked in and through immigration, and then airside, I can’t buy a bloody coffee. Starbucks is shut. Dunkin Donuts doesn’t open till 6. The restaurant doesn’t open till 6. Oh, and the foreign exchange place is still shut – I need to get rid of these pesos! Hopefully it’ll be easy enough to change them when I get to the other end. Yes, I’m deliberately not mentioning where the other end is, since it’s work related, and I’ve signed non-disclosure agreements. Joy, huh?
I’m tired and in a crappy mood *sigh*
So anyway, Easter Island final thoughts? It was a brilliant place, and the amount of time I had there (half a day on the first day, 2 full days, then a couple of hours on the last day) was almost ideal. I think one more full day would have been about right for me. I would have liked to have had the extra day to do a couple more dives around Moto Nui or a bit further up the coast on one of the wrecks or something. I think 1.5-2 full days of land-based stuff would be enough for me, but more water time is good. My hotel? Really good. It’s quiet. The rooms were great, they’d just been sprayed, so no bugs. Everything was clean and neat. Kim, the property manager was excellent – even in the face of the water main bursting a few times. My only minor complaint about the place was that the breakfast left a bit to be desired. My guide? As previously stated, he was really knowledgeable, but I had serious issues with some of the things he did. I wouldn’t hire him again. The food? Good – but you gotta love seafood, since there aren’t always a whole lot of other options! A little overpriced, though not to the point I’d been expecting from what I’d heard, but that’s what you get for being in the middle of nowhere I suppose. The people? Lovely – with the exception of a couple of creeps hitting on me – but then that can and does happen all over the world. Easter Island isn’t unique in that regard!
Lasting thought? It was fun for the most part, glad I went, but probably wouldn’t go back again unless work took me there. It’s not cheap, it’s small, and there’s not a huge amount to do unless you’re a serious (and I do mean serious) archaeology nut who wants to see every single statue/ahu and every single petroglyph on the island. Some people say 4-5 days isn’t enough. Seriously? As someone who does have more than a passing interest in archaeology and anthropology, I still think 4-5 days is plenty.
*** refers to places I can’t remember the name of off the top of my head. will fill in later on!
