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Published: August 24th 2010
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Saturday 31.7.2010 day 290
Fly from Santiago to Rapa Nui
We had a 8:20 flight to Rapa Nui today so we got up early lucky we stayed in the Holiday Inn across from the airport the night before so we just had to walk across the road to the airport. When we woke up we saw that it was foggy and were worried about our flight. We got to airport and checked our bags in and then went to the service desk to see if we could change our flights back home to stop in NZ for a few days but they told us we had to call the office. We then went to security and then got another coffee each before going to the boarding lounge. When we got to the boarding lounge we noticed that our aircraft was not there waiting for us which is never a good sign. It came to the time we should have been boarding but nothing was happening so we went up and asked and found out that our flight was delayed until 11 am so they gave us a free bfast and coffee at the nearby coffee shop. Pithy we had already paid
for a coffee and had one in our hotel before we left! Then the flight was delayed till 1am. We are glad we did 4 days not 3 on Easter Island as we will be there a lot later than we expected even with the 2 hour difference between Rapa Nui and the Chile main land. They also changed the gate but did not announce that in English. I noticed that another flight left and the lounge seem to be empty so I went up and asked they said that the gate was now Gate 20 so we went there and found there was a gate 20 A and gate 20B so we asked the LAN worker at the counter if this was the gate for Easter island he said it was up on the board and we asked him again as when we looked the board it was still showing the old gate number and the sign on the counter was not updated as well. The guy was very rude and would not tell us if we were at the right gate or not so we went back to the other gate where the closest departure board was as
most of the departure boards were blank and it was still saying the old gate. So we went back to where the rude guy was again and asked someone else as the guy we first asked was so rude. He actually really upset me as we had waited patiently for 5 hours while the flight was delayed and did not complain or anything but when we wanted to know what gate to go to and it was not on the board or above the gate as it should have been the guy would not even tell us what gate we should be at. With our round the world tickets we have 16 flights and have added 5 flight extra making a total of 21 flight that we have done only 5 of them have been LAN flight and everyone of them has been a problem with poor check in procedures so you could not get to our flight on time, unscheduled refilling stops, too much luggage, ect, act so far LAN has been the worse airline that we have been on.
So we arrive at about 4pm. The first thing you notice about Rapa Nui is the very long runway
that was built by NASSA as an emergency runway for the space shuttle which is due to be decommissioned soon so I do not know what they are going to do with it after that. When we got out of the aircraft lots of people were taking photos on the runway then we got our bags and found our lift to our accommodation. He had two Lays for us so that was very nice and gave us a hand drawn map of the town and drove us around the sites. When we got to our accommodation Te oroa we settled in and got a glass of wine and then the manager told us all about the island and showed us were things were on the map. We went and got a few more supplies from the supermarket and then cooked dinner and went to bed we were so tired after our big day.
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