Easter Island is exactly as I had expected: a small tropical island with nothing else to see or do except the moai. The "town", capital, Hanga Roa is small enough to walk around in 20 minutes - slowly. The main street, Atamu Tekena, has a supermarket, some restaurants, pharmacy, bank, and tourist tat shops. It's not a place to spend an afternoon shopping. Maybe 10 minutes. Many places, including the tourist office and post office, close for a few hours' siesta midday (I've actually never seen the tourist office open - yesterday they had their hours posted, although it was still closed, today the sign was gone...). Meals seem to fall between 6.000 and 10.000 for a main course, so not extremely overpriced. The beaches here are nothing special either, certainly not worth travelling all this way for. There is only one officially designated beach where you can swim, at the northern end of the island.
Tomorrow I'm going on a full-day mystery tour of the island. I say "mystery", because I have no idea what I will be seeing. The guesthouse owner pounced on me the first night and wanted to sell me a full day and two half days. I said I'm only interested in a full day, but I can't get out of him what it will include. Only that it will cost 20.000 pesos, plus 30.000 park entrance fee.This is the same man who didn't collect me from the airport and asked twice for my name. I've also had another pointless discussion with him which I won't go into detail on. I've read one review online from some French visitors who said that as soon as he realised they weren't interested in booking any tours through him, he completely ignored them. I can believe that. He's never around and he's not interested in giving any advice or making my visit enjoyable in any way. He's only interested in how much money he can get out of me. The wi-fi is deplorable.
I suppose when you live on an isolated island and probably never travel yourself, you take the tourists for granted and don't care about how they experience their very expensive once-in-a-lifetime holiday. It doesn't matter how they treat visitors here, they will still come, and every day a new plane with hundreds of new visitors will replace the leavers and fill up the accommodations. When I went to the Galapagos many years ago, they had put up notices saying "Sonrie al turista, le da vida a tu isla" ("Smile at the tourists, they bring life to your island"). And I must say, the people on the Galapagos were some of the grumpiest I have met, also taking the tourists for granted. Some Easter Island service providers could well benefit from some customer service training.
It's often said that Easter Island is the most isolated island in the world. All marketing and not true. With daily flights, sometimes twice daily, from Santiago, and twice weekly to Tahiti, it is anything but. Yes it's way out in the Pacific, but it's infinitely better connected to the continent than e.g. Pitcairn, Tristan da Cunha, or South Georgia. Take Pitcairn as an example. To get there, you need to first get to Tahiti, then fly on to some remote place called Mangareva, then catch a ship that only runs once every three months! And the sea crossing takes 32 hours! The only way to get to Tristan da Cunha is by sailing for five-six days from Cape Town, South Africa! So I think Easter Island can strike that statement from their brochures.
Ironically I'll be leaving Easter Island on the Thursday before Easter... Looking forward to New Zealand now! Fish & chips, Asian food, and a Wendy's baconator, washed down with L&P! Sweet as, bro!
I landed on Easter Island yesterday, so I'll have to come back later with my impressions. So far I've had a taste of "island time"; it took an hour to get off the plane and get my bag, then there was a mix-up at the airport where the guesthouse owner should have picked me up, so another kind gentleman from another guesthouse drove me instead... It was 26 degrees when I arrived, so temperature is absolutely fine, but it's proper humid here. First the owner wanted to put me in a room with just a fan, but I wasn't having that! Air-conditioning in this climate is not an option, it's a necessity. I'm having my doubts about this man... I was the only guest to arrive yesterday, and I think I may be the only guest resident at the moment. Still he's asked me for my name twice...
Reflections on Santiago: it wasn't as unbearably hot as I had feared. The weather forecast was for around 30 degrees every day, but either it was totally wrong or the cooling breeze made a huge difference. According to outdoor thermometers it was even as low as 19 one day! But a few blocks away another thermometer was showing 29... Either way, the weather was quite pleasant, mostly sunny, and with a nice cooling breeze.
I had some issues with the apartment I'd rented. It was facing the street and it was ridiculously noisy. I didn't sleep a wink the first night. I'd also asked them to leave the wi-fi password for when I arrived - and it was the wrong one! So I had no way of communicating with the outside world. My mobile has only ever had reception twice since I arrived in South America, in the most random places. Despite their page on booking.com saying they accepted credit cards, surprise surprise, they didn't! So a lady came around the following morning and got my money and got me online. I also got to move to another apartment in the same building that was more quiet - and again, they left me with the wrong wi-fi password! I won't bore you with all the details, but I had my issues... Location was however spot on, walking distance to everything in the city centre and a metro station just around the corner.
As mentioned, I have been to Santiago before so I took it easy with the sightseeing. I went up on Santa Lucia hill, San Cristobal hill, walked around the city centre to Plaza de Armas, the Moneda palace, etc. I found Santiago less green than Buenos Aires, perhaps because autumn has started, perhaps for other reasons. The spectacular view of the city from San Cristobal was somewhat diminished due to the pollution. On clear days you should be able to see the Andes in the distance. I wasn't so lucky.
I did save a bundle on cooking my own meals, and only splashed out once on a restaurant meal. I went to a Mexican restaurant called Plaza Garibaldi. The food was OK, not exactly like in Mexico, but close. I had tacos al pastor, enchiladas con mole, and of course, guacamole. However, during the night, most of it came back up again... How ironic that I should suffer Moctezuma's Revenge in Chile! As a result I didn't sleep a wink all night and felt like the walking dead the following day. At least I flew business class so I could stretch out and get some rest on the way to Easter Island, but all I wanted was to put my head down and sleep. So when I finally arrived at the guesthouse yesterday around 4:30 local time, I didn't get out of bed until this morning. At least I've had some breakfast today, so I should be on the mend.
Going back to the airport early Sunday morning, I took a taxi to the airport bus terminal, and then the Centropuerto bus to the airport. Total cost 3100 pesos, less than half the shuttle I took on arrival. But I was happy to pay more for a door-to-door service when I arrived so late. Once I had the lay of the land, I was far more comfortable choosing the cheapest option.
About the flight: although I was flying business class, there is no fast-lane security in Santiago for domestic flights, and no business lounge! Very disappointing as I had to queue up with the riff-raff, and I was looking forward to having my morning coffee in peace in the lounge. They want you to be at the airport 2 hours before departure as Easter Island is considered an international destination (why?), still, it departs from the domestic terminal and there are no special considerations for premium travellers. Only by asking at the check-in counter could I avoid the long queue as there is no priority check-in either, and the counter was shared with people flying to Lima (which is international but departing from the domestic terminal..???). Easter Island wasn't even advertised on the screens above check-in, only Lima. Confused.com! Once on board the Dreamliner Boeing 787, it did have a long-haul configuration with flat beds and proper in-flight entertainment. Although I mostly saw the inside of my eye-lids...
