It took five hours to fly from Santiago to Easter Island. The name of the island is Isla de Pascua in Spanish, but was known as Te Pito O Te Henua (navel of the world) to islanders in the past, and is usually called Rapa Nui today. As we approached Rapa Nui we circled around the tiny island, giving me a panoramic view. Then we landed. As the plane turned around on the runway, I noticed that the runway seemed to go on forever, disapearing over the horizon. I thought to myself; "Welcome to the Space Shuttle emergency airstrip." I am not joking. NASA built the runway at Mataveri airport, Rapa Nui, so that the Space Shuttle would have an emergency landing strip in the middle of the Pacific. That would be quite a picture -
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