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Well one day back in early April, I decided to take a peek at the LAN Chile website (www.lan.com) to get a ballpark figure how much it would cost me to go to Easter Island while traveling around South America. Easter Island is somewhere that I have always wanted to go, but the cost of the flight sets most travelers back around $800. I searched for flights at the beginning of when I had planned to head back to South America, and the price that I could back was absolutely amazing... $350 round trip for a week on Easter Island. I immediately went to the Air Canada website, where I had been many times before in the past month, reserved a ticket to fly from Ottawa to Santiago, then went back to the LAN website to book my ticket to Easter Island. Basically, that is the whole reason why I am starting my trip in Chile.
After a four hour delay in Santiago, we were finally off and flying to Isla de Pascua (however if you are Chilean, you will pronounce this as Ila de Pascua). The reason why we were delayed was because of technical issues. Somehow the
four hours waiting in the airport goes by relatively quickly when the airline says they will give you an update every hour and there are lots of people to talk to 😊 Walking on the the plane was a complete surprise for me...being in South America I was expecting the standards to be a little lower for the inside of the plane but I was definitely wrong. This is the nicest plane that I had ever been on and I am pretty sure that it was really new. Every seat had its own personal television screen with a huge selection of movies, tv shows, music and games (more than anything I have ever had on Air Canada). As Easter Island is a part of Chile, even though it is 3700km off the coast, this is a domestic flight, but unlike another airline that I fly with quite a bit, I was served a meal with alcoholic beverages, a snack near the end of the flight, and the attendants were by plenty of times to refill our glasses. Pretty much the best service I have ever had in the air as well. Way to go LAN Chile!
So finally after
a four hour delay and a five hour and twenty minute flight, I was finally on Easter Island. I can't tell you how excited I was... and how worried I was as I hadn't reserved at place in advance. No worries though because I met the owner of Residencial Apina Tupuna in the airport lobby where beds were going for only $15 US a night... pretty cheap for Easter Island! As I arrived later in the afternoon, I went to see the moai close to the town to get a sneek peak for what was to come in the days to follow. Needless to say I was very impressed by the moai outside on the town of Hanga Roa, the only town on the island.
Until Tuesday afternoon, I was alone on the island until my friends Alejandro and Linnea would show up. I kept myself occupied though by hiking north of Hanga Roa is search of caves known as "Dos Ventanas" (Two Windows) but never found them. Along the way there were more ruins as well as some more caves that I wasn't expecting at all. Good thing that I brought my head lamp along to make the
exploration of the caves much easier.
On Monday, I rented a bike to do a tour of the island. I couldn't believe that the first sign told me that it was 18km to the beach, which was my first stop of the day, and looking up ahead it looked like an ascent for most of the way 😞 At the beach, known as Anakena, there are seven moai standing on a platform and in the background, the ocean. After taking a break for a quick snack, I was off again to the next beach to check it out before making my way to other sites on the island if I wanted to get around it all on this day. I stopped by to see the largest moai ever erected, but know fallen and never put up again. Then I saw a car parked near the coast so I figured it was more tourists looking at some other site, it wasn't. Two local women were out fishing and started talking to me. Conversation led to a piece of lemon cake and coffee while listening to the waves crashed upon the rocks below us. What a pleasent surprise. So on my
way again, I made it to the platform with the most moai on the southeast portion of the island, then I decided to make one last stop at Rano Raraku, the volcano used as a workshop to gather the stone and build the moai. There are many moai surrounding the volcano and within its crater. Some fully completed, our half carved out, and some other carved but still not chiseled out of the mountain side. Pretty amazing I must say. I watched the sun set from the crater of the volcano and then realized I was the only one on the site of the volcano and still had another 13km of biking to do along as ok road. I pushed and pushed the bike as fast it would go, but failed to make it home before darkness came about. Luckily the last few kilometres of the bike ride was down hill and probably around 7:15PM, I pulled into the driveway to the hostel, totally exhausted beyond imagination. Because of lack of time, there were plenty of sites along the southern coast that I did not have the chance to see. How I ever thought I would make it around the
island in one day on bike to see all the ruins was beyond me. And the best part is, I slept so well that evening 😊
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james st. james
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Linea Aeria Nacional de chile (LAN-Chile)
LAN is latin america's largest airline and one of its best run companies. every year it wins the title of "best airline in latin america" from whoever doles out such prizes, and it has the most modern plane fleet in the hemisphere (this inclueds the US and canada). it used to be called LAN Chile, but they've changed the name to just LAN b/c now there is also LAN Peru, LAN Argentina, LAN Republica Dominicana and there are plans for LAN Brasil as soon as brazil deregulates their airline market, all controlled from Chile. in chile's last presidential election, the owner of the LAN airlines barely lost out to the current president Michelle Bachelet. i'm not some marketing rep, just a chilean geek with a love of infrastructure and developement. anyway, enjoy the rest of your time in chile and south america. cheers!