Easter Island (official name Isla de Pascua) is a 5.5hr flight west from Santiago. If you keep going west, you’d hit Tahiti in another 6-7 hours. Very remote location.
I did think about going to Tahiti (who wouldn’t?!), but the flights obviously weren’t cheap around the holidays. And in all honesty, it’s probably not the best place to go solo. I figured it would be another Mauritius.
LAN Airlines has a monopoly on this route, making getting to the island quite expensive. Unless you’re on the RTW ticket (like myself), LAN’s South American airpass, or book way in advance.
Given that the island is located in the middle of nowhere, I assumed a crappy plane. Nope – a nice 767, topped off with a great entertainment system! From my experience so far, I think LAN has the best in-flight entertainment system next to Virgin Atlantic. I spent the entire flight watching episodes of House.
I didn’t arrange accommodations beforehand. The one place I tried to book online had no availability in the 6 dorm beds. There was a tent option, but that wasn’t my style...
No problem though. A bunch of people were waiting at the baggage area, offering rooms in their homes. I chose Residencial Miru @ 7,000CHP ($13) per night. Luckily, I had the whole room for myself during my entire stay.
When I was signing into Miru’s guest log, I noticed Nao’s name. Yeah, that Japanese guy who I travelled around Belize and Cuba with. Funny!
A Spanish guy on my flight also ended up staying at Miru. Since we were both going to be on the island for the same number of days, we decided to explore together.
First stop – Tourist Information Center to find out about tours around the island. The office was closed for a siesta when we arrived, so we headed towards a nearby shack to grab something to eat. I wasn’t too hungry and just had a glass of fresh melon juice (I hate melon, but that was the only option). My friend, on the other hand, ordered this amazing seafood chorrillana. Basically, it’s a mound of French fries topped with seafood galore! I couldn’t resist a bite...man, it was yummy!!! I can’t imagine the amount of calories in that dish though...
Back at the info center, we found out that there were 2 main tour routes – one that goes towards the volcano, and another that takes a circuit around the island stopping at various moais. Since the volcano could be done individually on foot, we booked the latter one for tomorrow.
From there, we thought it’d be best to check out the museum and some of the moai statues near Hanga Roa (the main village where most travellers stay) that would not be covered by tomorrow’s tour.
And finally.....HOLA MOAI!!!!! My first moai encounter was at the port. I can’t believe it took me a few hours since I landed to see one.
(But I’m not sure if this one is real...)
On the way to the museum, we walked along the coastline for more. Authentic. Cute.
I loved the one with eyes. There aren’t many of them around. Apparently, the eyes are made from white coral and black obsidian (learned at the museum). 
Surprisingly, the museum was very small and didn’t have as many artifacts as I thought it would. A piece of moai here and there. Nonetheless, it’s worth a go for the information. Hey, I came to Easter Island without a clue as to what the moai were. I just thought they were cute to look at : ) Hehe.
For some reason, I’d always thought that they were some sort of religious relic. (Where did I get that from??? ) In actuality, they are symbolic of dead ancestors and have something to do with hierarchy and lineage. That’s why many moai were toppled over when fighting broke out between clans/groups.
For more information, please consult Wikipedia.
On our way back to the guesthouse, we stopped by the tiny supermarket. Very limited selection and super expensive. Pasta was almost 4x what I had to pay for the same product in Santiago! But I guess it makes sense since nearly everything has to be flown in from the mainland.
I did think about going to Tahiti (who wouldn’t?!), but the flights obviously weren’t cheap around the holidays. And in all honesty, it’s probably not the best place to go solo. I figured it would be another Mauritius.
LAN Airlines has a monopoly on this route, making getting to the island quite expensive. Unless you’re on the RTW ticket (like myself), LAN’s South American airpass, or book way in advance.
Given that the island is located in the middle of nowhere, I assumed a crappy plane. Nope – a nice 767, topped off with a great entertainment system! From my experience so far, I think LAN has the best in-flight entertainment system next to Virgin Atlantic. I spent the entire flight watching episodes of House.
I didn’t arrange accommodations beforehand. The one place I tried to book online had no availability in the 6 dorm beds. There was a tent option, but that wasn’t my style...
No problem though. A bunch of people were waiting at the baggage area, offering rooms in their homes. I chose Residencial Miru @ 7,000CHP ($13) per night. Luckily, I had the whole room for myself during my entire stay.
When I was signing into Miru’s guest log, I noticed Nao’s name. Yeah, that Japanese guy who I travelled around Belize and Cuba with. Funny!
A Spanish guy on my flight also ended up staying at Miru. Since we were both going to be on the island for the same number of days, we decided to explore together.
First stop – Tourist Information Center to find out about tours around the island. The office was closed for a siesta when we arrived, so we headed towards a nearby shack to grab something to eat. I wasn’t too hungry and just had a glass of fresh melon juice (I hate melon, but that was the only option). My friend, on the other hand, ordered this amazing seafood chorrillana. Basically, it’s a mound of French fries topped with seafood galore! I couldn’t resist a bite...man, it was yummy!!! I can’t imagine the amount of calories in that dish though...
Back at the info center, we found out that there were 2 main tour routes – one that goes towards the volcano, and another that takes a circuit around the island stopping at various moais. Since the volcano could be done individually on foot, we booked the latter one for tomorrow.
From there, we thought it’d be best to check out the museum and some of the moai statues near Hanga Roa (the main village where most travellers stay) that would not be covered by tomorrow’s tour.
And finally.....HOLA MOAI!!!!! My first moai encounter was at the port. I can’t believe it took me a few hours since I landed to see one.
(But I’m not sure if this one is real...)On the way to the museum, we walked along the coastline for more. Authentic. Cute.
I loved the one with eyes. There aren’t many of them around. Apparently, the eyes are made from white coral and black obsidian (learned at the museum). Surprisingly, the museum was very small and didn’t have as many artifacts as I thought it would. A piece of moai here and there. Nonetheless, it’s worth a go for the information. Hey, I came to Easter Island without a clue as to what the moai were. I just thought they were cute to look at : ) Hehe.For some reason, I’d always thought that they were some sort of religious relic. (Where did I get that from??? ) In actuality, they are symbolic of dead ancestors and have something to do with hierarchy and lineage. That’s why many moai were toppled over when fighting broke out between clans/groups.
For more information, please consult Wikipedia.
On our way back to the guesthouse, we stopped by the tiny supermarket. Very limited selection and super expensive. Pasta was almost 4x what I had to pay for the same product in Santiago! But I guess it makes sense since nearly everything has to be flown in from the mainland.
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