Saturday, March 20 This is finally the day. I suffered through a day of smog, friendly beggars and crowded streets, not to mention a definitely over priced hotel. It's all easy now - just take a cab out to the airport and wait for my flight…Read More

Saturday, March 20
This is finally the day. I suffered through a day of smog, friendly beggars and crowded streets, not to mention a definitely over priced hotel. It's all easy now - just take a cab out to the airport and wait for my flight to Rapa Nui.

Checked out of the El Conquistador Hotel around 7am to catch a taxi out to the airport. The flight is scheduled to leave at 10am, but not knowing the vagaries of domestic Chilean travel, I figure I should get there a couple of hours early. I'm stunned at the silence of the streets and the lack of traffic. Compared to the bus ride in on Friday morning, the city appears vacant. Mr. Taxi driver seems to think we need to get there in record time. I glanced briefly at the speedometer and am pleasantly terrified to learn we're doing about 140 km/h on the Alameda. Lentamente, lentamente, I think to myself, but my silent urging only seems to make him go faster.

As we near the turnoff to the airport, he asks me where I'm going. At the mention of Isla de Pascua, he nods knowingly and advises me that I'll need to go to the international terminal. Having clarified with LAN Chile when I arrived that the flight in fact leaves from the domestic terminal, I'm quite insistent that he's wrong. With my limited Spanish, and his non-existent English, however, the complaints fall on deaf ears and we go to the international terminal. As we unload my bag and start to settle up the fare, I casually ask another cab driver 'El avion a la Isla de Pascua - aqui?' (The airplane to Easter Island - here?). He immediately scolds my driver for bringing me to this terminal, and so we hop back in the cab and head over to the domestic terminal. (It's not like it's miles away, maybe a five minute walk - but hey, it's the principle of the thing, right?)

Buddy cab driver lets me off and we try and settle the fare. I've confirmed with the hotel that it's 6,500$ CLP ($22 CDN) before we leave, but now the fare seems to have gone up to 9,500$. I politely refuse to pay him this amount, and carefully count out the exact amount. Ah yes, I've made another friend in Chile.

The domestic terminal at Santiago airport is not exactly the place you want to be with two hours to kill. After check in, the view of the runways and planes is blocked by a row of buses - as there are no boarding bridges, everyone is taken out to their plane by bus, to board on the tarmac. There is a small coffee shop, and a bookstore (where I pick up a copy of the Economist, which costs me about $12 CDN). Nothing much else to do but people watch. The crews also board through here - I will note, however that the hiring practices and uniforms for stewardesses on Avant Airlines, a domestic Chilean carrier, would probably not pass muster with most North American carriers. I just hope those tall, gorgeous women don't have to pick anything up on their flight…

The LAN Chile 767 climbed out of the smog-shrouded city and banked out over the Pacific, westwards towards Easter Island. We flew over Isla Robinson Crusoe, another place I'd like to visit sometime. The plane was surprisingly deserted - maybe 40 people in economy. While I have to complement LAN Chile on their punctual service, their Vegetarian meal left a bit to be desired. It's not that I don't like asparagus and pita bread for breakfast… (bad choice of movie, as well - La Puerquita Va a la Ciudad.)

..to be continued

Yes, it's a long way from anywhere... and yes, it's worth the journey. From the amazing Moai shifted and raised by the Rapa Nuians, to the quarry at volcano Ranu Raraku, to the single but exceptionally beautiful beach, Easter Island rewards every traveler who manages…Read More

Yes, it's a long way from anywhere... and yes, it's worth the journey. From the amazing Moai shifted and raised by the Rapa Nuians, to the quarry at volcano Ranu Raraku, to the single but exceptionally beautiful beach, Easter Island rewards every traveler who manages to make it that far.

No top-flight hotels on the island, but two adequate ones. Lots of cheap souvenirs, and some nice t-shirts. Horseback riding, so-so scuba diving.   Close

The Catholic church of Santa Cruz parish, at the top of the main street in Hanga Roa, is a bizarre mixture of religious pageantry and pagan rite - beneath a classical Christian banner praising the Lord stand lectern and font made of carved wooden representations…Read More

The Catholic church of Santa Cruz parish, at the top of the main street in Hanga Roa, is a bizarre mixture of religious pageantry and pagan rite - beneath a classical Christian banner praising the Lord stand lectern and font made of carved wooden representations of Tangata Manu, the mythical, mystical birdman of Rapa Nui.

Built between 1954 and 1964, it's a pretty little white-walled church whose graveyard contains the coffins of some of the first missionaries who came to the island, including Sebastian Englert (who devoted his later years to registering and counting up the statues and artefact and whose memorial is the anthropological museum). It's pretty unusual to find ecclesiastic tolerance of what might elsewhere be considered "mumbo-jumbo" but the integration of Polynesian traditions and iconography into traditional and recognised local belief is so complete as to seem almost natural. Look out for the 7 carved statues of angels (including archangel Michael) standing cheek by jowl with the birdman.

Try to get into the church for a Sunday 9am service to enjoy the blend at its best, including the sound of familiar Catholic hymns sung with an unmistakable Polynesian rhythm.

Those who know me know I love to dance- I've been known to search for any sign of a disco even in the smallest towns. I didn't see anything on Easter Island that was open- granted, I was there Sunday through Wednesday. Who knows…Read More

Those who know me know I love to dance- I've been known to search for any sign of a disco even in the smallest towns. I didn't see anything on Easter Island that was open- granted, I was there Sunday through Wednesday. Who knows what's happening on a Friday night there. Two out of the three nights we were there we did manage to get a taste of the local culture, by means of live music/dance performances. One was held on the patio of a hotel restaurant, the other in a hotel lobby.
The indigenous people of Rapa Nui are Polynesian. If you've ever seen a cultural show of the Hawaiian people, the Tahitians or the Maori of New Zealand (hmmmm Maori, Moai... very similar) you would instantly recognize the similarities. The first show had music and dance representing many different parts of Polynesia, the second featured music and dance specific to Rapa Nui. Thus far on my trip, I had done the Tango in Argentina and the Salsa in Chile but I never would have guessed I'd be doing a native island dance! Actually I more or less just stood around and giggled nervously as half-naked men in grass skirts surrounded me. The rhythmic music was fantastic but there was no way I could swivle my hips like those beautiful native women. When I have time to sort through all my stuff I will try and find the name of the group that I saw and post it, but until then...
(If you are heading there, just remember to ask at the front desk of your hotel or at a tourism office- actually many of the locals will probably know if there is anything special going on while you're there).   Close

Soon, they received a call to their buses and off they went. As the buses trundled off into the distance, we suddenly realized that we were completely alone to explore this magnificent site. The fifteen moai [46K] you see in this picture were all restored by archaeologists…Read More

Soon, they received a call to their buses and off they went. As the buses trundled off into the distance, we suddenly realized that we were completely alone to explore this magnificent site. The fifteen moai [46K] you see in this picture were all restored by archaeologists in the sixties and seventies. You can see some moai have 'topknots' on their heads, representing an island hairstyle. This particular moai [41K] is over 30 feet high - note the fine carving detail of fingers on the stomach

As with all South Pacific islands, Easter Island has its share of rain squalls, and we experienced a nasty one at Tongariki. I gave up trying to stay dry.

The next stop on our itinerary was Rano Raraku. Rano Raraku is called 'the nursery' in most guidebooks. It is a small volcanic crater, rising perhaps 600 feet. The inner and outer crater walls had served as the quarry for all of the statues. Work on the statues had stopped abruptly sometime during the 17th or 18th centuries - I say abruptly because there are still around 400 moai in various stages of completion scattered around the crater. One of the largest is still attached at the spine - you can get a perspective on its size, as I am breaking several Chilean antiquities laws by sitting on it in this photo [64K]. Note the smaller moai in the foreground of the picture. This moai is positioned seemingly looking out to sea [48K]. We experienced several more rain squalls here - in fact wherever we were on the island, it always looked like it was raining at Rano Raraku.

We had crested a hill at Rano Raraku and encountered about 20 Canadian/US high school students hiking. They'd arrived the previous day, and were on a hike all around the island as part of their curriculum. (?!). We ran into them several more times, in fact I even ran into the mother of one of them back in Santiago four days later - she was coming down to rescue her son. Apparently he had contracted appendicitis, and they wanted to return to North America for the surgery. Don't blame 'em.

There is another historic site on a large volcanic crater overlooking Hanga Roa - the Orongo ceremonial village. As the lighting was perfect for pictures, we decided to tackle Orongo today. After a brief stop at the airport to use a pay phone to call home, (the airport was closed, by the way), we drove through a eucalyptus forest and up the crater to the village. Maybe it was the time of year or something, but once again there was not one other person here. The crater is positioned right at the edge of the island, overlooking a couple of other very small islands. The lighting was spectacular - shadows on the crater wall provided a great picture. [41K] You can see Isabel sitting on the edge of the crater on the far right.

The village was the site of an annual ceremony which came in vogue sometime around first European contact. The ceremony was quite simple - it was a contest amongst the males of the village to be the first to retrieve an egg from a group of sea terns which nested on small islands [46K] off the coast. (If you look carefully at that picture, you can see a 15 foot fishing boat - its wake is between 2 and 3 o'clock from the upright island.) While a seemingly easy task, there is about a 300 foot sheer cliff in front of where this picture was taken. The man who retrieved the egg would be the leader of the 'cult of the birdman' with all the wine, women and song for the ensuing year. Needless to say this wasn't a very equitable way of determining a leader, and many tribal wars (and moai toppling) ensued. There were many intricate carvings [53K] atop the cliff face; all part of the ceremony.

After Orongo, we returned to Cecelia's to clean up, then headed off to Taverne de Pecheur for dinner. We had a great meal, fresh Mahi Mahi for me (ok, I'll eat fish once in a while). Unfortunately, after dinner, we decided to drink the better part of a bottle of pisco. Pisco is a grape brandy, with alcohol content anywhere from 20% to 40%. We were drinking 40%, I suspect, as I remember very little after the 5th or 6th glass. Somehow we found our way back to the residenciale and I, quite simply, passed out.    Close