I cannot say enough good things about Easter Island! I
seriously did not want to leave the island and I am already thinking about how
I can get back there as soon and as much as possible. So far, I’ve considered
marrying into a nice Rapa Nui family or working as a LAN flight attendant, but
I’m open to suggestions.
On a serious note, I highly encourage anyone who studies
abroad in Chile to take a vacation to Easter Island. That’s right, this trip
didn’t feel like traveling, but like vacationing. Taking a trip to Easter
Island is really not as expensive as I had thought it might be, and I promise
it’s a great value trip all around. The flight is certainly the biggest cost,
as it is only LAN that flies from Santiago to the island. Interestingly, LAN
still thanks passengers upon landing for “choosing” to fly with them.
Apparently, July is off season so we managed to purchase reasonable flight
tickets. And though it is technically winter, it certainly felt like summer to
me as I was swimming in the ocean and wandering around in sundresses and
shorts. I must say that my hostel (which I thought of as more like a luxury
B&B) was the best value for a hostel I have ever received. For a cost
somewhere in between what I would have to pay for a night in a hostel dorm bed
in Valparaiso and San Pedro de Atacama, my friend and I got a private room and
bathroom, airport pickup (with flower lei) and drop off, a nice breakfast every
morning, a clean towel every day, and the room cleaned every day. I have only
the best things to say about Hostal Petero Atamu and I would gladly stay there
again! Let’s be honest, I would gladly stay there forever. To keep costs down,
we came prepared with food from Santiago and made our fair share of pasta and
peanut butter sandwiches in the spacious hostel kitchen. But even when we did
eat a nice meal out and buy snacks and drinks in town, we weren’t at all
shocked by the prices! Unfortunately, I think that says something bad about the
cost of living in Santiago rather than something good about the cost of
vacationing in Easter Island, but even still, at least over paying in Easter
Island bought me an ocean view or some traditional Rapa Nui music.
There are some things I wish I had known before going to
Easter Island, so of course I will share them! First, I wish I had known that
most things tend to be closed on Sundays (restaurants, dive shops, some tours)
but that full day tours tend to still run on Sundays, so I sort of wish we
would have saved our full day tour for Sunday. However, we did get to go to
church on Sunday, where hymns were sung in Rapa Nui and the priest wore a
feather headdress, so that was quite the fun cultural experience, and we were
able to wander around the museum for a little while before it closed early. The
rest of Sunday was a relaxing day, which is actually pretty funny to say
considering that every day on Easter Island was a relaxing day, but Sunday was
the day when we took a nap at home and then lounged on the beach. I also wish I
had known the schedules of the dive shops (ie no snorkeling and diving on
Sundays) and that you cannot, for safety reasons, fly and dive on the same day.
Of course I didn’t know this and booked scuba diving for the morning of my
flight back to Santiago, even though I am almost certain the dive shop employee
I booked with knew of my flight, but thank goodness that there was a storm
which prevented me from diving on time and at least one responsible employee
who finally informed me about the risk of diving and flying on the same day.
(Also, can we just reflect on how, though I love the ocean and want to be near
it all the time, it hasn’t exactly been my friend this year? No boat passage to
see the penguins up north because of ocean conditions, no scuba diving because
of a storm... let’s hope this bad luck doesn’t continue!) Anyway, I also wish I
had known that some handicraft souvenirs actually are truly unique! In the
beginning of the trip, I didn’t want to purchase any souvenirs until I had seen
and price checked everything, which didn’t really make sense, because I knew I
would not actually return to many of the attractions where items were sold, but
I guess I assumed everything was everywhere. I wish I had bought some stone
handicraft in the shape of the island, because I did not end up seeing anything
like it again.
I think my photos can say more than I can about the gorgeous
sites and sights, so I’ll let them do the rest of the talking!
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| Arrival day with lei and some of my first Moai at Tahai |
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| The site of the Birdman competition - competitors would have to jump and swim to the far island and return with an intact egg of the migrating frigatebird, which could take days |
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| The Birdman tribe lived in these while training for the competition |
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| Volcanic crater |
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| The only sandy beach, Anakena, with Moai in the distance |
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| I still can't get over how blue the water is! |
