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Published: February 16th 2019
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Today we’re flying 2350 miles west to Easter Island; a tiny dot in the South Pacific. I have a phobia of remote locations, so I’m not sure why I agreed to fly to the most remote airport in the world.
It’s an early start, compounded by the fact that the shuttle bus only runs hourly. We check in for our flight. Easter Island belongs to Chile, so we proceed to the domestic departure gate but are sent away and told to go to the 2nd floor. The old man tells me I’ve misunderstood and we head to the other end of the hall to the international departure gate. Again, we’re sent to the 2nd floor. Again, the old man tells me I’ve misunderstood.
After some dispute, we descend to the 2nd floor, past a range of offices and storerooms and finally find the Easter Island departure area. We have to complete a detailed Easter Island arrival form and pass through immigration. We produce our Chilean departure cards, but are told to put them away until we leave Chile. We are then issued with an identical card to present for our non-departure from Chile. It’s all very confusing.
We
board the plane; it’s a 787 with seat back TV screens showing English films – a moment of great excitement! So I spend the 5 hour flight watching Bohemian Rhapsody and eating the worst cheese sandwich ever. The bread has lumps in. Lumps make me nervous as I worry the lumps might me nuts. So I take a tiny bite and wait to check I don’t react. The next thing I know, the old man has attempted to swipe the remains of my sandwich. He’s already sulking because I won’t let him order food for the woman sleeping next to him and eat it before she wakes up.
We arrive at Easter Island, the runway runs almost the entire width of the island and has cows and horses grazing either side. First, before we can even enter the terminal building, we have to pay our National Park entry fees of $80 each. It’s going to be an expensive few days.
Then, the other 298 passengers are picked up, greeted with flower garlands and taken to their hotels. The airport is locked, leaving us standing alone in the car park.
We are not happy, and find a taxi
to take us to our accommodation. The landlady apologises for failing to collect us and tries to put flowers round our necks in a typical Polynesian welcome while we rant about being abandoned and having to pay $10 for a taxi.
Once checked in, we go for a walk round town. It’s very busy – tonight is the crowning of the island’s king and queen.
We get to see our first statues (Moai), at Tahai; a group of 5 plus 2 individual statues on a cliff above the ocean. Then we find a beachside shack for some dinner; shrimp and cheese empanadas. I appreciate that these are going to contain shrimp and cheese, but didn’t quite get my head round the fact that these are the only ingredients; an enormous blob of glutinous cheese and a few shrimps; cue chronic indigestion.
We walk along the coast and back through town, stopping at one of the island’s 3 WiFi hotspots to contact home, then retire ready for a full-on Moai onslaught in the morning.
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