Easter Island

Easter Island is off-the-beaten-path and expensive. The history of the island is fascinating and the people living there, both the natives and expats from several countries, are friendly, interesting people, all with tales to tell. The tourists are also unique. No tours or high-end tourism, mostly backpacking, ecology-interested people. Of course everyone who goes to Easter Island goes for the moai, the mysterious and enormous stone carvings. We flew American Airlines from Tucson to Dallas to Santiago, Chile, arriving 7:30am, May 7. No problems, one meal about midnight after leaving Dallas. No wake-up coffee/juice/water before arrival-another cutback by AA. Without exception, both Santiago and Easter Island accepted either Chilean pesos or American dollars. This was also true in Peru. One ATM on Easter Island, easy to use if you have Master Card. Any other card must be used inside bank with long lines of people. 5,20 pesos = $1; wine $2.85; Coke, water, etc. $1.75; pisco sour (Chilean/Peruvian national drink made with pisco grapes) $2.50 Upon arrival in Santiago, Chile, you must pay $100 each for entry visa. Taxi to hotel $22. This is standard. Playing it safe we spent night in Santiago at Best Western Majestic City Center ($78) before flying on to Easter Island on May 8 at 8:30am. Friendly, clean, reasonable price, excellent restaurant with India theme. Murgh Shahi Korma $10. Chicken breast w/yogurt, cream, onions, tomatoes, ground coconut, nutmeg sauce. Flights to Easter Island not daily and a visit takes a little planning. LAN Airlines-two meals on 5 ½ hr flight, seats comfortable and roomy, attendants friendly. 5* airlines. Te Pito o Te Henua (Navel of the Earth) Rapa Nui Isla de Pascua Easter Island Whatever name you use, the island is beautiful, rustic and a step back in time. Dirt roads, slow pace, bicycles, motor scooters, walking, friendly people, dogs and horses roam freely. Flights to and from were full. This says a lot about a place that is the most isolated spot on Earth. It is 2,300 miles from nearest land, both Chile and Tahiti. The island is 14 miles long, 7 miles wide. Rainy season is Jan-Feb; May is dry season. It rained off-and-on every day, usually a fine mist. Spoke with many young people backpacking, staying in hostels. Most were on 9-12 month world tours. Had all been to off-the-beaten places such as Tibet, Galapagos Islands . Some stop traveling only to visit family and earn enough cash to travel again. Hanga Roa only town on island. The island is tourist-friendly. Easy to rent a car, take a tour. Town is so small, they bring the car to you and pick it up when they have time. We were only 2-3 blocks from auto rental but the car was not picked up for two days. Arrived Hanga Roa about noon, pick up by young woman from Te’ora Cabins. As in Hawaii we were welcomed with leis. Three rooms on the beach, two small Te’ora Iti ($57); one second-floor w/patio view of Pacific Te’ora Ra’a ($77). Highly recommend. Sharon Diotte at info@rapanuiteora.com. The owner Sharon Diotte was very helpful as was her assistant, Luna. We highly recommend this inn. Hanga Roa: small town, few sidewalks, mostly grassy, muddy, rocky walks or walk in road-some black top, some dirt; grocery stores very small; 1 auto rental, 1 small craft store, few small restaurants. Buildings all look old. Hangaroa Hotel-best hotel on island, $160/night. A Chilean man bought the hotel and will turn it into 5*. Island inhabitants are not happy. They see the end to their idyllic island. Flowers are same as Florida, Arizona, California-periwinkle, hibiscus, bird of paradise, oleander, ferns, lantana, bougainvillea, eucalyptus and banana trees. Dogs and horses roam freely; horses eat the yellow flowers from lupine bushes, destroy their livers and die. These horses are left to die and are carcasses are not removed unless they are in the way. One such horse was on the beach and our guide remarked he would not let horse die on “his” beach (bad for tourism). He guided the horse into the woods to die. Sewer system in town poor, in some places you must put toilet paper in waste basket and use it sparingly. Took a full-day group tour of island which we arranged there. Group was small, about ten people. You can easily see the sights on your own, but highly recommend tour. The history of island is too interesting to miss. Briefly, the moai were constructed between 7th and 17th century. Society collapsed in late 17th century and all moai were toppled by warring tribes. This was before Easter Island was “discovered” by Europeans. Red “hat” signifies the red hair of early natives. Hats and statures were mined from different quarries and moved around the entire island. There are dozens of partially buried moai at the quarry. No one knows how many are entirely buried. All moai face inland except one, all are standing except one. Only one still has original “eyes”. Red hats weigh up to ten ton each; moai up to 32 feet tall and weighing up to 82 tons. Interesting areas are Tongariki (originally 35 moai) where 15 re-erected moai were destroyed by a tidal wave in 1960. Pieces were scattered in rock piles on the large plain. In 1992 a Japanese trust gave money to restore one moai to be shipped to Osaka for World’s Fair. Since then all 15 have been re-erected. The moai was returned to Easter Island. In 1955, on Anakena Beach, Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl re-erected the solitary moai in an experiment to see how long it would take. It took 12 islanders 20 days. Below is a moai that we saw in the Kon Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway. Orongo, a ceremonial village built possibly as early as 13th C. and used until mid-19th C. Nearly 50 oval stone huts stand together overlooking the sea. Nearby is Easter Island’s greatest concentration of petroglyphs representing birds, sea animals and boats. Most frequently are images of the birdman, a cult that developed because of the civil unrest. Every year each village chose a person to compete for the honor of being chief. They swam through shark infested waters to an island. First one back with an intact tern egg would be chief. We arranged our Jeep rental before leaving home because of the limited number of vehicles on the island. When we were there, most visitors rented motor scooters. Cost for Jeep was 30,000 pesos for 8 hours. It was dropped at our cabin early morning and picked up 2 days later. Driving was a challenge because of the mud and dirt roads. Four-wheel drive necessary. Typical road: We drove around the island stopping at Crater Volcan Rano Kau and Orono Park. Also the red hat quarry that we had visited with the tour. Eight hours is more than enough time for rental car. Easter Island is easily seen in two days, but to truly experience the uniqueness of the island, we recommend 3 full days minimum. Don’t lament that daily flights are not available. We flew over on Tuesday and back to Santiago on Saturday morning. Evening meals were times to visit with other tourists and local people. All restaurants had outside dining areas literally right on the roadside. We started alone at a table and asked people to join us as they walked by. We usually ended up with 4-8 additional tourists, all with tales to tales to tell and experiences to share. We had our first taste of ceviche, raw tuna, onion and tomatoes coarsely ground. Served in bowl. At table, waitress squeezed lemon juice on mixture. Eat immediately. The lemon juice cures the raw tuna and it’s safe to eat. You betcha! We did not not believe it but at the insistence of our new friends, we sampled from their plates. It was very tasty and neither of us became ill. We had it several more times during our vacation. It was always tasty and we never got sick. Carpaccio is another raw fish experience. The raw tuna is thinly sliced, served and sprinkled with lemon juice. No other ingredients. In Peru we had it with several kinds of fish, octopus and shrimp. A small bowl of ceviche cost 5,500 pesos, carpaccio 4,000 pesos. One night we had wine and cheese with other guests staying at our place. Two guests were living in Bolivia (spoke German, Spanish, some English). She was from Chile, he from England. Another woman traveling the world alone, picking up new friends along the way. She had been traveling for nine months. A man from the hostel next door came over and begged to use our washing machine. He was from Wales. No problem. Check in for flight to Santiago 9:00am for 1:00pm flight. Important because they overbook. Even though you have a reservation and seat assignment, seats are first-come-first-served on morning of flight. Since airport is right in town, it’s easy to find something to do. Also many tourist gift shops in airport and outside in parking lot. Every bag was hand checked because machine is usually broken. We ran through rain, mud and wind to board plane, then up 21 slippery steps. After more than an hour on runway, announcement stated that Minister of Health would be coming through spraying a non-toxic insect spray. We saw on one but did smell insect spray. Spent two nights in Santiago, Chile at Best Western. Took ½-day city tour ($37/each). 14 May flight to Lima, Peru. Exciting day! LAN Air could not find our reservation. Duh! It was for 15 May. Minor delay, just ante up $100 each, no problem, we’re on our way to Peru. We could have saved several days by not spending night in Santiago. Staying over was consideration of our age and health. We’re trying to slow down. Also gave us a chance to reflect on Easter Island before massive overload in Peru.