Easter Island
- RetiredCormac
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Day 1
The flight from Lima, followed by an overnight stay in an airport hotel in Santiago, was fairly uneventful – mostly just a lot of waiting around. The only thing of note was that the Chilean wine was good, but the local dish called Pastel de choclo wasn’t really for me. It is made of sweetcorn ground into a paste with beef, chicken, raisins, black olives, onions and slices of hard-boiled egg - this all sounded fine, but why, in God’s name, was there sugar sprinkled on top and baked until caramelised?
The flight out to Easter Island was long – over five hours – but at least it left on time. When we landed we’d only lost three hours thanks to the time change.
Our hotel on the island was good, right on the main street. After checking in we grabbed lunch and a few beers at one of the many restaurants nearby and began settling into island life.
Day 2
A grand tour of the island – exploring everything it has to offer, but more specifically the Moai statues that are synonymous with Easter Island.
The tours all seem to follow roughly the same route, covering the same key locations, so price is probably the best guide when choosing one. You can never quite tell what sort of guide you’re going to get.
We booked through Viator with what appeared to be a small company – two sisters, one driving and one guiding. The tour ran from 09:30 to 17:00 and covered everything at a nice, gentle pace.
Note:
You must buy a national park entrance ticket.
You must have a guide to visit the statues.
We chose a group tour rather than a private one. We’re interested in the history of the island, but not fanatical about it.
I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, though honestly it’s far better to experience it in person.
SPF 50 and plenty of water are essential.
We headed out for food and drinks in the evening to watch the sunset.
The sunset didn’t happen.
Day 3
Breakfast, followed by a hike up to the volcano crater. Just over 13 km, UV index of 10, and about 25°C.
Bizarrely, we were accompanied by one of the many stray but friendly dogs that roam around the town centre. Scruffy (that’s what we called him after about 3 km) had a good sense of direction and would constantly look back for us, occasionally trying to herd us along if we were going too slowly.
We didn’t encourage him – but he followed us the whole way and even came back to the hotel gate with us, where the gate was promptly closed in his face.
Bye Scruffy.
After showers and more sun cream we headed out again for a late empanada lunch and a couple of well-deserved beers.
While we were out we also booked a cultural dance show for that evening.
The dance show itself was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, I had a short person sitting in front of me which gave me a clear view of the stage – but she felt the need to record most of the performance on her phone.
So for much of the show I was watching the dancers through the silhouette of a phone-shaped head.
Day 4
A chill-out day.
We spent the morning browsing through the shops during a long walk around town, then went for a swim and watched the turtles down at the harbour – including one enormous one.
Food for the day consisted mainly of empanadas.
Day 5
A late start and an excellent lunch at a seafood restaurant.
Then it was a quick five-minute drive to the airport before settling into the sunshine at the departure gate whilst waiting for a late flight back to Santiago, where we have five nights booked.
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