In all fairness, this blog post should just be titled "Chile," because technically Easter Island belongs to Chile, but it felt like such a different world. And because the locals there put up signs that said "for the international knowledge of everyone, we never consented to be a part of Chile."
We spent a day in Santiago, a day in Valparaiso on the coast, and 2 days on Easter Island. We LOVED the trip.
It rained during our time in Santiago, which turned out OK because it cleared out the pollution, which is apparently pretty bad there. We kept complaining "Oh, it's raining and we can't see the mountains," but on our flight back from Easter Island, we saw a big, literally black, cloud hanging over the city, and you couldn't see the mountains anyway. Don't worry, we saw them on the plane ride back to Argentina. Incredible.
Our day in Valparaiso (or "Valpo" as the cool people call it. Actually, I don't know who calls it that, but we do. Otherwise it's such a mouth-full), well, it was awesome. It was a very colorful city, in all senses of the word. It's a port town, so a little rough around the edges, but lots of brightly painted houses, and lots of culture. Most of the town sits up on a hill, and you have to take these tiny box "elevator" trams to get up there. Except the first one we found was closed (we weren't the only confused tourists wandering around :). So we started hiking up the hill, and luckily, we hiked right through one of the things we wanted to see -- an "open air" mural museum. Most of the murals were in state of constant change (i.e. graffiti-ed change), but the ones by the most famous Chilean muralist were left untouched. We kept walking up and up the hill until we came to the home of the VERY famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. If you haven't heard of him, he is known throughout Latin America. I first read his poems when I was studying in Guadalajara, Mexico. His home has a great view of the ocean, and it is said this is where he got most of his inspiration for his beautiful poems about the sea.
We ate a lot of seafood throughout our trip, and all of it was good. Grilled octopus and lots of ceviche and crab-almond raviolis and conger eel stew (we thought it was fish stew until we looked up the word later....it was REALLY good).
The next leg of our trip was Easter Island. Everyone has been asking us if it was worth it (it's very expensive and a 6 hour flight from Santiago). We have concluded that yes, it was worth it, but not if you're looking for a Polynesian beach vacation. It was a very quirky little island, and we left it feeling that we had a one-of-a-kind adventure.
Easter Island is the piece of land furthest from any other piece of land (I still haven't found a good way to say it, but you know what I mean). It first became inhabited about 1500 years ago, and most experts agree that the natives arrived there from Polynesia. They were the only Polynesian culture to have a written form of their language, but no one is alive anymore that knows how to read the script, so much of their past is a mystery. They are famous for the giant stone "heads" erected all over the island. These statues are actually not heads, but rather over-sized heads with squat torsos. They are called "moai." They all stood on platforms called "ahus," and all faced inland, sending positive energy to the family or clan that erected them in memory of their ancestors. Unfortunately, at some point the islanders grew to be too many, or got island fever, or something because they started warring and killing each other and cutting down all the trees, and toppling each others moai. Then, most of them were captured and taken to Peru to work as slaves in the guano mines. Then, those that survived the mines were returned to the island, but took smallpox with them, and killed a huge number of the population on the island. In the end, there were only about 110 natives left. They have now intermarried with the Chileans and others now living on the island, and you can see their Polynesian features and names on the campaign signs throughout the town. But the island is devoid of a distinctly Polynesian feel. Everyone speaks Spanish, and almost all the plants and animals are introduced (horses and cows and chickens and dogs). There is one town, Hanga Roa, with 5000 locals. We spent half a day walking around, saw the church, bought the local banana bread across the street (just as the guidebook recommended), and ate at one of the restaurants in town.
The next day was our Indiana-Jones-Adventure day. We rented a little stick-shift SUV and drove around the island, exploring quarries and caves and taking pictures of the mystical moai, while reading their story in our guidebook. It was incredible. You have NEVER seen anything like these statues. You can find a link to our photos below, I don't have the words to describe them.
You may have noticed that the SUV was a stick-shift......and you may or may not know that it has been a life-long dream of mine to learn how to drive stick......well, Mike and I figured that a better opportunity would never present itself (a 10 mile stretch of road that was practically devoid of cars, with nothing to hit but some bushes). So Mike taught me how to drive manual! It was a bit rocky at first, 6 tries to get the car started, and then VROOOM! Mike was a very good teacher. I hope he had a good laugh when he finally caught his breath. His only rule was that I was not allowed to accidentally hit one of the statues :).
Enjoy the photos!
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