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Published: November 21st 2010
So after a magnificent week on Easter Island, it was a 5hr flight back to the mainland .. a few days in smoggy Santiago - not a city that i would put in my top 5 and then an onward journey to Pucon.
I am writing this as i await for my overnight bus to take me south to the fjords as my Tour Group kindly departed without me this morning - a day earlier than originally indicated. I am so not impressed by the poor communication from Kumuka but heh..what can i do. I can speak a bit of a Spanish, I have a back that will take my rucksack (albeit not for long as it weighs a ton) and i know where ive got to get to so after venting my spleen, i took a few deep breaths and started a plan to catch up with my wayward truck.
However, let me just talk a bit about Easter island for one final time. Hopefully, youve seen the pictures so i shall refrain from a long description of dawn - watching the sunrise behind the silouetted statues of Ahu Tongariki or the eery graveyard of fallen moai in Rano Rakaru or even the giant cauldron-like crater of Rano Kau. You can see from the photos (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7644910&l=267f1d72d6&id=691995235) that here you got a real sense of the sheer mighty power of the Earth. An explosion millions of years ago created this 400m deep hole....im not sure whther the cone blew off or it collapsed inwards but standing on its rim looking down, i just had this overwhelming urge to shout boom. BOOM!!!! BOOM!!!! I mean really, this view was visceral. Eva and a super dutch couple (Meik and Ans) and I hired a car for the day and had the white sands of Ana kena beach to ourselves whilst we improvised some sausage cooking on a makeshift fire. Real robinson cruesoe stuff.
My last sunset on the cliff edge watching the waves pound the solidified lava flows gave me time to reflect on what has been a truly incredilble first week back in South America.
Easter Island is like a potential microcosm of humanity and sadly tourism will destroy it if its not kept under control. To my horror I discovered that there are plans to build a larger airport to accommodate more visitors as the economy is totally based on tourism. It seems to have lost its agricultural way and as everything is imported from the mainland, costs are ridiculously high for both tourists and the Rapa Nui themselves, Everyone wants a cut of the tourist $ as it appears the only way to make decent money. I really dont understand how the locals here can sustain an existence here with the cost of living. I have inevitable traveller guilt for coming here with my tourist $$$ and contributing to the problem. Why the island doesnt become more self sufficient is beyond me. Tragically, if the influx of visitors continues it wont be long before the moai become like Stonehenge. Fenced off and guarded with little magic about them...
Understandably so, commercialism is winning and development (of the airport, of more hotels etc) and the yearning to expand economically makes people think short term not long term about the ramifications of such changes on the environment, on the culture and on the people themselves.
Call me naive but i so wish that a 1st world consumerist society wasnt the ultimate goal for humans.....
So back to the mainland and the backpackery but charming La Casa Roja where I had an evening of cerviche and cervezas with Meik and Ans. Very sad to part company with both them and Eva - we have had a blast! However, my new roomie was Robyn the Canadian (i shall not go into details about the 3 drunk irish girls who had spread their crap across the entire dorm. The room looked like it had been burgled) and we hung out for a couple of days...including a trip to the coast to see the furnicular cable cars and hilly town of Valparaiso. My god, your legs hurt wandering the sharply undulating passageways and streets of this place. Wasnt totally taken with it nor with Santiago - a city still suffering the effects of earthquakes. Delapidated churches with their roofs propped up.....and the perenial smell of urine on every corner. Ive never actually seen someone taking a leak but my god, the place stinks of piss. Howevr with public banos costing 200 pesos a pop, i can understand wanting to relive yourself elsewhere.
After my diastrous discovery this morning ... (i honestly thought the receptionist at the hotel was pulling my leg when he said the trip had departed at 6am. Nooooooo!), i managed to meet up with Robyn for some pescado con papas fritas and of course a hefty cerveza to ease the frustration.... she has joined her tour with Tucan Travel and I ...will be joining my guys tomorrow. Its a good 10 hour overnight bus journey down to Pucon so i ahve an exciting evening ahead of me. I mean, its a good job Im not some naive 18yr old just off the plane who has discovered the company who are supposed to be looking after her have changed the plans, not communicated that clearly and fecked off without her!
Anyway, I better go as i got to drag my sorry arse and rucksack to the bus station...Im soooo getting a taxi!
Hasta luego and stay in touch.
Han
xx
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Julie Harriss
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If its going to happen - it will happen to you and for good reason!! You wanted adventure!!!!! Jxx