An Easter Island Wedding and Other Stories

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So its a over month since I wrote my last blog. I've been meaning to write a new entry since I got back from Easter Island but never seemed to have enough time... Its now less than two weeks before I go home, so its likely that this could be my last blog for this trip.

Anyway what has happened in the last month. Well, after leaving La Serena, I went to Santiago. I was there for the Easter Weekend, mainly because I was flying from there to Easter Island on the following Tuesday. This is perhaps the only decision I regretted.
The newspapers suggested that most lots of residents had gone away for the weekend and they were right, there was hardly anyone around and all the shops were closed. To make things worse all the museums and art galleries were closed for the holidays. This is one thing i can´t seem to understand about South America - why are tourist attractions closed on holidays? Surely this is going to be a busy time.

When I got back from Easter Island, I went to Pablo Neruda´s house (the Chilean Noble Prize Winning Poet) - which was very interesting and I had a private tour because I was one of the first people there. I also went to the Museo Chilen De Arte Precolombo - which had lots of artwork of the indigenous people of the whole of South America. I also found time to go on a guided tour of the Concha y Toro vineyard, which was excellend. While I was there I got to sample two moderately expensive wines (both of which were really good) and was given a branded wine glass as a present. This vineyard is famous in Chile as it makes the "Cassillero del Diablo" (Cellar of the Devil) brand of wine. The wine got this name as the vineyard owner found out that some of his wine was being stolen, so to prevent theft, he spread the rumour that the Devil lived in the cellar. The planned worked because Chileanos are supersitous people and there was no more theft.

Easter Island was amazing I was expecting the island to be beautiful, but it was a suprise how pretty it really was. I stayed at Camping Mihinoa . My original plan was to camp but in the end I decided to have a private room. The campsite was located by the sea and you could watch the sunset from there and hear the sound of the sea. At the campsite I met two other couples: Manu and Fabiola (they were a German - Chilean couple) and a British Couple called Becky and Roger. We formed a small group and spent a lot of time together. We rented a car and went exploring the island one day - I even got to drive. I was the unoffical "Guido" of the group because I knew a fair amount about the island due to owning a guidebook on the island published by the Easter Island Foundation.

The island is 2500 km from anywhere else and only about 3000 people live on the island - all in one village (Hanga Roa). Even with a 767 full of tourists arriving virtually everyday, the island seems pretty much deserted outside the main village. You can go virtually all day only seeing a one or two people. I did a lot of walking around the sites close to the main village and often would get stray dogs accompanying me for the journey - they were amazingly tame. The only problem with this was having to say goodbye to the dog when it was time to go back to the village. The islanders are really friendly - I even got offered lifts back to the village a couple of times, even though I wasn´t trying to hitchhike.

Perhaps the strangest thing about the island is that even though there is only one village, everyone seems to have a car. While we there, a container ship was unloading even more new cars to the island. The other main form of transport on the island is horses, which are allowed to roam free during the day. It was not surprising to come across a herd of horses just walking in the middle of the road. More staggering was that they were not afraid of cars and often were reluctant to get out of the way.

I was orginally intending to stay for only five days but I ended up staying for seven. The Chilean airline Lan gets my vote for best airline in South America because it was really easy to change my flights and only cost me the equivalent of 50 US dollars. The reason I decided to change my flights was that Becky and Roger decided to get married on the island, unfortunately the date of the wedding was after my original departure date. Becky and Roger wanted to keep the wedding a secret, I think they were worried that the whole island would turn up!

The wedding was magical, it was front of the moai at sunset, conducted by the local registrar. We also were joined by a cute kitten which appeared to be living in the caves there and a dog, who promptly fell asleep on my feet. The service was fairly brief, about 30 minutes, entirely in Spanish. One interesting thing about a Chilean wedding is that they were given a passport style book to record the wedding and details about any future children.

After coming back from Easter Island I went to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar for a couple of days. Both cities are on the pacific coast, about an hour and a half from Santiago. In the early 20th century, Valparaiso was a major port and there is a lot of impressive architecture from that time. It is also built on a series of hills, with a number of funiculars running up and down the hills. Its a great place for wandering around just admiring the views. However, it has been in decline ever since the Panama Canal opened and this makes the city interesting.

Viña on the other hand is a typical beachside resort, with a nice seaside beach. The beach was pretty much deserted, as its now out of season.

After Valparaiso, I came back to Santiago again, this time for a reunion with Manu and Fabiola (they stayed an extra four days on Easter Island). The two of them were moving to Germany and were having a leaving party - which I was invited to. This took the form of an Asado (barbeque) with family and friends. The asado was held at Fabiola´s parents house, which is a large house in a residential suburb of Santiago. It was a pretty late night - I didn´t get to bed till about 5am and ending up staying the night at the house, as it was too late to get a taxi back.

After that I then went to Mendoza for three days - I didn´t do much as I had a bit of a cold. Getting from Santiago to Mendoza involved crossing the Andes, the highest point was 3100 metres above sea level. The views from the bus were amazing. There was also probably one of the world´s highest traffic jams as you can see from my photo.

I then went to San Luis, to visit the Sierra de las Quijadas national park, famed for its scenery and dinosaur fossils. I had a private tour with David Rivarola, a local professor of geology. I also rented an appartment from him for the weekend. The appartment was really new and it was nice having my own place for a few days. Since I didn´t have any plans on the Sunday, I got invited to an asado given by David, with his family and some of his friends. It was at his parent´s first house, located in a village outside San Luis. It was a really peaceful location and a good way to spend a Sunday Afternoon.

I´m now in Cordoba and will be leaving for Buenos Aires tomorrow, where I will be probably stay till I leave for home.

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Photos

Cerro Cristobal, Santiago
About 1000m above the city

Easter weekend, Santiago
Any other weekend, this road would be packed with traffic

Another breakdown
This time on Easter Island...

Valparaiso
View from my bed and breakfast

Valparaiso Murials
An example of the many in Valparaiso

Possibly the world´s highest traffic jam
One of the tunnels on the mountain pass had roadworks, limiting traffic to one direction at a time, causing this long queue... Luckily the bus could overtake all the lorries. However, it did involve the conductor getting out and running ahead to signal to driver when the road was clear.