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September 5th 2008

Published: October 13th 2008

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RovingRitchies

First sighting of Easter Island

We are getting to know Santiago airport really well now, this is our 3rd visit in 4 weeks.

Our first impression of Easter Island was that it wasn't long enough to land our plane. We were later to learn that not only is it big enough but it's built to accomodate an emergency landing of the shuttle and the Concord has also landed there....so much for my knowledge of airstrips!
Up to a day before we arrived we still hadn't booked any accomodation and Jackie was getting a bit worried that we would arrive and have no bed so ended up booking this accomodation from the Lonely Planet book which indicated that it was mid range but I think we have a different idea of what constitutes mid range....at about $200 per night I feel it's a little out of mid range....not to worry we were determined to enjoy ourselves.

Since we were there for only 1 full day and 2 half days we thought we should get on with the sightseeing straight a way. Took a half day tour of 'southern part of the Island' with our host, Bill who originally hailed from Bellingen, Australia and talk about

The airport at Easter Island

Coolangatta looks positively modern compared to Easter Island

small world ...we just happened to have one person in common...a Dr that I worked with in the 70s. It was so nice to be able to converse without having to resort to the Spanish phrase book all the time. It has occurred to us that Aussies have a particular style about them and for some reason people who you may not meet in the normal course of your life are 'instant buddies' even if only for a 5 min conversation.

Dinner was a very relaxed affair at a Lonely Planet recommended French restaurant where we met some 'instant friends' from South Australia who had pretty much completed the same trip as us but just with a bit more 'comfort'. We were able to compare our 'poxy' legs which we got from climbing Waynapicchu...at least Malcolm now knows that there is some legitamacy to my whinging.

The next day was a full day tour of the Island which proved to be a bit too much for Jackie because it involved a lot of walking which she could not do, hence a waste of time for her. As far as she was concerned we could have done the whole

Easter Island looking from the south

island in half a day. Since she is a 'big picture' person she would have been happy to just drive by the Moia from a distance. We did manage to get some really nice pictures of the Moia at sunset.

Another half day twiddling our thumbs at the airport where we waited for our plane back to Santiago. I swear these 'around the world' tickets are really good but boy do you spend a lot of time sitting at airports. It's not so bad if I can gain internet access and even better when I can use their power as well.

Back in Santiago for another day before Jackie leaves to go home. Managed to find a 'collectivo' who was happy take us sightseeing for the day....all it cost us was the money he would have made in one day, about $120 which was cheaper than 3 of us taking tours or hiring a car and having to contend with the Santiago traffic.

Decided that we would drive up to the snow fields...OMG how beautiful. If we knew what we know now we would have extended our stay in Santiago and gone skiing. As it was we