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Published: January 2nd 2009
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Well, it´s the 2nd January and I´m lazying around Punta Arenas so maybe I should update this, shouldn´t I?
I finished with Mendoza, the most chilled out part of the trip. On we went over the Andes mountains into Chile. The journey was quite amazing, going in this very old, half broken bus at breakneck speeds accross winding roads and altitudes going up to 4000 meters. The bus driver was insane and kept poining out things along the way while holding the wheel with one hand and cutting corners above a cliff. I´ve been on some crazy bus rides before but this was one of the more interesting ones. The Argentinian side of the mountains is very dry, arid and desert-like. The minute we crossed into Chile, the countryside turned green as if to forecast a richer, more fruitful country. In a sense this is probably true but the ocean influences have something to do with it, as well as the presence of a wide river, the name of which I can´t for the hell of me remember. Vineyards came into sight, all green and healthy looking, maybe too much. Didn´t look like the vines had anything to stress about
there. They all seem to use the Geneva Dbl Curtain and alike pruning systems and high density planting. It will be interesting to see what Colchagua looks like by comparison.
But anyway, arrived in Santiago, not quite sure which bus station we were at. Nobody seemed to be willing to help us but as this was the 23rd December and Xmas madness was in full swing, I sort of don´t blame them. After about an hour of searching we found a very simple but nice hotel on the main street and proceeded to go out for drinks. We soon learned what it feels like to be a celebrity. I could swear we were the only two blond girls we saw all evening and it seemed some of the locals have never seen a blondie before. People were taking sneaky photos of us, asking us to pose with them to take pics on their mobiles and videoed us. That was very funny. We shared some drinks with a group of local guys and they probably took about 100 photos of us, as if they´d never met any Europeans!
Next day we took an early morning flight to Easter Island.
Yay! The plane was great and the service was fantastic, so far Lan Chile is probably the best airline I´d flown with. Highly recommended.
We arrived on Easter Island and the minute we touched down, it started to pour down like crazy. A proper tropical monsoon! The owner of the place we were staying at (Te´Ora - much recommended apart from the fact you´ll be picked up by a crazy scary American woman who talks a lot of rubbish and could, quite frankly, use some gagging!) said it hadn´t rained for 4 months so the rain was much welcomed.
As it happens, I wasn´t very happy about the rain and it put me into a slightly foul mood, which was followed by a stomach cramp that I developed either from the local water (which is sparce) or eating a sandwich there. So I was not myself for the next two days, which greatly influenced my experience of the island. Hiking when you´re sick is not fun, the strong sun doesn´t help, either, and I was getting tired of Eva´s childlike enthusiasm and constant chatter. I really wanted to be on my own to soak in the atmosphere, I
really went there to get away from people. On Christmas eve we went on a hike to a volcano, which turned out to be twice as long as what the owner told us, a total of 5 hours, at the end of which I run out of water and felt quite sick. Fun fun. We had our Xmas dinner at a private restaurant for a typical polynesian dinner, which was interesting as the owner took so long to seat us, prepare and serve food and take our money for it, it was a 4 hour long affair, not to mention expensive. London prices. On the bright side I had probably the best mashed potato I´d ever had and the fish was sublime.
Christmas day was, however, completely wonderful. We rented a car and drove to Rano Raraku, the stone quary where they carved the Moai. The place is a volcano and the hill is dotted with Moai statues in various stages of completion and various sizes. It´s quite spectacular and really the highlight of the island. Hiking boots are recomennded, of course, we had flip flops. I felt better though, except for the usual lack of water in the
blistering heat.
After Rano Raraku, we went to see a couple more Moai sites, all equally interesting, before arriving at Anakena beach in the north of the island. Probably the nicest beach I´d ever seen. There are no developments on the beach, just Moai statues facing landwards, palm trees, horses, white sand and impeccably clear blue water. Just amazing. We had some grilled chicken, a beer and proceeded to swim and sunbathe in paradise. This is what you imagine when you think of a tropical beach paradise, there are no hotels, restaurants or anything there and it´s not full of people so you have plenty of space to appreciate it. Unfortunately this being Rapa Nui, the sun is very very strong and high UV rays mean that you can´t really lie in the sun the whole day, a couple of hours is quite enough as you otherwise risk a severe sunburn and possible sickness.
The 26th was our last morning before taking a flight back to Santiago, we were quite sad to leave the hot weather as we knew we were heading to cold Patagonia but I was ready for another adventure and was yearning for the mountains....
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