Earwig Motel

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Our first flight for a while and it was surprisingly comfortable, brand new Lan Chile plane with individual TV screens and self-select videos - big deal!! I got straight into the films and watched "No Country for Old Men" and some comedy with Steve Carrell. Nige spent the first hour or so watching "2 and 1/2 men" re-runs, an error he lately paid dearly for. After i had watched and been completely traumatised by "No Country for Old Men" i urged Nige to watch it too... unfortunately they switched off the video system 20 minutes from the end leaving Nige "in limbo" as it were and forcing me to have to button it about what happens.... in addition the landing was extremely bumpy, double whammy!

In this way we arrived on Easter Island and were greeted with the obligatory flower necklace (please someone, what is the technical term?) by our landlady, Claudia, who took us for a city tour (3 minutes) before showing us our accomodation. The first thing we noticed about our cabana was the reek of damp - suffocating, second thing was the squishy floorboards - this place was floating. We nicknamed our new accomodation "earwig motel" and spent the first afternoon on Easter Island holding our breath inside it whilst we watched the woodlice throw a party and the rain tumble down... and down... and down.

A poor night's sleep dreaming of water, boats, drowning etc - could we find a way out of this hole, and if so where could we go? We needed to have a walk and think it over. During a break in the clouds we started exploring this wonderful Island and were spellbound by how beautiful it was. We stopped for lunch and met Sarah Turner from Crawley who amongst other things told us about her wonderful, reasonable hotel (Easter Island is very expensive compared to rest of South America) - this was our out. We concocted some story, made our exit from the EM and found ourselves a dry, clean room. Hoorah! Thanks Sarah for seeing us right.

So, the highlights:
1.Easter Island is all about the Moai, the 880 giant human statues which litter the Island, in a very good way. They are extraordinary - larger than life, mystical, dominating, fearsome almost and they make Easter Island a very unusual, unique place. Step on the "Ahu" at your peril (Easter Island gag)
2. The people, very laid back, very cool - like their food - Deep fried pie with chips and cocunut milk anyone? Great place to feel thin...
3. Sunsets.. pics should explain!
4. Quarries - two of them, both ex volcanoes... stunning.

Lowlights:
1. Deep frying doesn't always make food taste better.
2. Dead dog - the words "blown up" spring to mind.
3. Louise's off road driving; " Which way do i go through this?".

We hired a guide for the day and she claimed to have carved up some of the best walking trails on the island and then proceeded to blow a gasket after 20 steps, we had to leave her behind whilst we tramped up and down the Island.. hmmm

Special award to the stealth cleaner in the O tai hotel, she was like the scarlet pimpernel. We'd go out for a 5 minute breakfast and would come back to a completely clean room, literally spotless. We tried to trick her with some extra speedy excursions but she'd still nail it... and we never saw her, she was like the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Interestingly as we checked out at 7pm, 2 1/2 hours before our flight and 1/2 hour before our transfer, the guy in reception informed us that our plane had actually already landed and if we wanted to be "safe" we should rather get a taxi as the plane would probably leave in 45 minutes (there was only plane to Tahiti a week and lovely though Easter Island was, we had done it in 6 days). I indignantly pointed to our itinerary which stated that the plane would leave 21.25 - he laughed. We took a cab. Flight left at 21.25pm.

Happily for Nige, same plane as one over, able to complete "No country for old men" - still some explanation required - can anyone help?

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