Easter Island!!
Funny, it didn't FEEL like I was in the most remote inhabited place on earth, although the numbers are impressive - 3,700 km off the coast of Chile, 4,000 from Tahiti - WAY out in the Pacific. But "The Good Book According To Carl" says it is, so it must be true.
I've had that 'last place on earth' feeling other places, such as in the jungle in the Amazon River basin of Peru, perhaps some of the places out on the steppes of Mongolia, but even standing on Easter
Island's highest point where you see 359 degrees of impossibly blue ocean stretching endlessly (a small copse of trees on another hill blocks that last degree), it still didn't seem like I was so cut off
from the rest of the world. Perhaps it was the warmth & friendliness of the people. Or perhaps it was because I was so totally thrilled, down to my curling toenails, to be there!! I couldn't stop smiling .
This was a major childhood dream come true, one I'd been holding for, what, nearly 40 years? And here it was, coming true right in front of my eyes.
The only bad part about it was I had to leave Maureen, Olwyn & John to do it. It was a quick decision, having found out from LanChile I had to leave Agua Calientes (where they were enjoying a lovely mineral bath) IMMEDIATELY in order to even have a chance at making the next morning flight. So at 2.30pm we hugged good-bye - thanks for making it easy for me, you guys, and supporting my decision to go.
You helped & soothed my spirit. We will travel together again - and I jumped on a bus for Osorno. My hope was for an overnight bus from there to Santiago. Not good news, the buses leaving Osorno would get me there too late. Just by great good dumb luck an English speaking college student overheard my plight, and told me I could to go to Valdivia & get another bus there. OK. I had no idea if this information was accurate, but I had nothing to lose so I got a ticket
to Valdivia. Wonderfully, he was right; I got to Santiago & on out to the airport at 8.10am for a 9.30 flight, still having to refund one unused ticket portion & buy another one! The agent was great, and got me to the gate as the flight was boarding. A bit tighter than I like! (n.b. if you have to take an overnight bus, do check first to see if the movies play all night...)
And it was SOOO worth it! Easter Island exceeded even all those years of expectation. The only town, Hanga Roa - all 3 or 4 square blocks of the central area - is so low key as to nearly be asleep! The sidewalks can be rocky dirt paths or squares of cement just far enough apart to have brought a few tourists' ankles to grief, I'd bet. Dogs sleep on the street, confident that the vehicles will go around them. A few tin-roofed shacks, nearly overgrown with
bouganvilla, are trying to fall down. Coconut trees drop their coconuts. Locals sell pineapples from the back of their pickups. Things on the shelves in the grocery stores are all higglety-piggelty. Young men ride their horses up & down the street, doing equine wheelies to impress the girls. Some things are universal, no?
The air is scented with flowers and those pineapples, there seems to be not a speck of pollution in either the air or the water. Sea turtles swim in the harbour, you can see bright yellow little fish.
You don't see many vapor trails in the sky. Maybe it IS the Last Place on Earth... The morning I went shopping the store signs said they would open at 9 or 9.30. I was cruising up & down the Main Drag until 11am before they were all open! Having said all that, there are smart cafes, restaurants & shops, too. An example of Hanga Roa lowkey-ness: Kevin Costner came to town, wanting to go fishing with an old local woman noted for her skill. She told him she was busy
cleaning house, he'd have to come back tomorrow! True story, the woman is *Jerome's mother-in-law. (yes, he came back)
Easter Island is bigger than I thought! I'd imagined an easy 3 or 4 hour bike ride around it. Well, it's 7 hours, just to go diagonally across it. There's a lot of uphill & headwind. Trust me on this one! Unless you're feeling really energetic (and have a backside of iron, no gelseats on these rental bikes!), take a tour. Take several. A very good guide I can recommend is *Jerome, a congenial young-ish Frenchman who married a local woman. He does a great all day tour,
you see all the highlights, for 35 US. He takes only 4 people in his truck. Many agencies in town start at 50 US, and you're with up to 20 people. He also has a new B & B. www.chezjerome.net chezjerome@hotmail.com He took us across the island to watch the sunrise behind a line of black Moai (heartstoppingly spectacular, as you can imagine. Beyond my capacity to describe. First, you are sitting in total darkness watching the shooting stars, inches from your nose because there are NO other light sources. Gradually,
gradually the outline of fifteen massive Moai start to come into focus just a few yards away. The blood red sun brings them to life right in front of you, you want to run and embrace them, suck up their energy, know their ancient knowledge. The only sound is the
ocean crashing and your heart pounding. You feel the blood in your veins, such can be the power of this event) as well, and can arrange anything. Really, anything.
I stayed at the Hostelling International Kona Tau, 20 US per night for members, 25 for non-members. (of course you can pay for all this in pesos, too, which is actually a bit less) www.konataurapanui.com It was good.
Of course you are waiting to hear about the Moai! They are wonderful, impressive and mysterious. There are nearly 1000 of these impassive-looking statues, heights varying from a meter or two, to twenty-one meters! Scattered all over the island, in various states of erosion, and positions, one is lying underground, with only his face showing, surrounded by grass. Gave me a start when I nearly trod upon his nose! Only a few dozen have been set upright again. The quarry where they were chisled out has made my Top 10 list of most amazing sights. There is an army of them, marching down slopes of the volcanoe! I had no idea there were so many. You keep looking and
looking, wishing they could speak, and tell you of their long and tragic history.
The small local museum gives lots of good background information, and is a good place to start to have a sense of the history of the island. There are lots of petroglyphs all over, many related to the Cult of the Birdman. The water & reed filled volcanoe crater behind the Birdman village at Orongo is also a breath-taking sight. You can hike the whole way around the rim, but be careful not to get blown in.
Surprisingly - or maybe not, Easter Island is that quirky, magical kind of place - I saw a sign offering massages and facials for a mere 22 US for an hour. This is the only bargain on the island! And it was fabulous. The woman's name is Carolina, and she focuses so intently, and so carefully on you during her treatment that you feel totally, tenderly cared for. I went back twice. Her shop is on the left hand side of the Main Drag (otherwise known as Av. Atumu Tekena, but I never saw a single street sign) as you face the airport, with a small white sign in the window, easy to miss. Carolina's phone number is 551.675, and she speaks very little English. But that's OK, she figures out very quickly what you want. Or perhaps more accurately, what you need.
Speaking of prices, everything is high on Easter Island. Nearly all the souvenirs I saw later in Santiago for less. So just buy what you absolutely HAVE to have, like a small Moai to remind you of that very special place. Grocery prices were 2 - 3 times the mainland. LanChile puts its specials online Tuesday afternoons. The further you can book ahead, the better price you will get on your flight. LanChile doesn't do last-minute walk-up discounts, sadly!
So, read about Easter Island and see if it calls to you. If you can, park up your trucks (I have a contact in Santiago, that info will be in the Santiago story) and fly out to this storied, beautiful, Polynesian volcanic speck. There is no where else on earth like
it. PCW
No comments:
Post a Comment