Easter Island:
30th March - 5th April 2026
30th March – Monday
It’s been an up and down type of day and right now I am down when I should be up. The taxi to the airport was expensive and I had an expensive breakfast. I am not sure why I gave a 10% tip considering I was not given my croissant and had to go and ask for it. In fact I doubt if I would have been served except for the fact I called the waiter over. I had a window table in the restaurant so I could watch the planes taking off and when I turned in my seat I could see an aerial display practice taking place. It was quite a show with a couple of loops and the planes spinning and falling. I am so glad that I got to the airport early as I had not filled in the entry form for Easter Island, I did not know they had one, and then on top of that had to go through immigration and get another PDF stamp – FFS, I did not understand this at all as Easter Island is still Chile, but who am I to argue?
On the plane, I thought I had a window seat but the guy walking behind me up the aisle, pushed past me and shoved his luggage in the overhead at the same time as I was trying to put mine up there and then threw himself, and I mean literally threw himself, into the window seat. Cool, I happy just to be going to Easter Island and even happier not to be sitting next to him, that was until the guy in the middle seat turned up. Oh boy, his stench made me heave, no wonder he was wearing a mask! He sat with his SLR camera, laptop, games console, bag and coat on his lap, making him sweat and even more smelly. I managed to convinced him to put his coat and bag in the overhead bin, which alleviated the situation a little. Having drank two beers on the flight, as we were landing my bladder was bursting. The moment the seatbelt sign went off I was in the loo. Trying to get back to my seat was fine, all the people stand waiting to get off let me past, all except one. The guy who had been sitting across the aisle from me. The one that pretended to put his seatbelt on when the stewardess came around checking. He just stood there and wouldn’t let me pass, then he pointed that he wanted to pass me. I said, ‘yeah we all want to go that eventually’ but I would like to go past you so I can collect my things. He suddenly did a John Travolta move jumped up in air and bowed to let me pass – what a freaking weirdo. He then proceeded to push past everyone trying to make his way to the front. Anyway the joke was on him in the end as they opened the back doors as well as the front for us alight and he had been right by the back.
I had to wait ages for my rucksack which pissed me off but I found the guy from my hostel, Andres, without any problem and he had a garland to hang around my neck. It wasn’t a pretty flower one as some of the other people were getting, it was made from leaves and not at all pretty, but such is life, I suppose I should be grateful I got one and a free pickup from the airport. Andres took me on a little tour around town before we headed to the hostel. There really is nothing to it, a main street, a free bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. However the drive to the hostel seemed to take a long time from town and I was concerned I had picked a hostel a little too far out. Andres was lovely, he doesn’t speak English so I asked him to speak Spanish really slowly, which he did and I was able to understand him and we had a really good conversation. He assured me that the walk to town is only 20 minutes.
After dumping my bag in my room, which is not what I was expecting, I got some shopping in from the supermarket which is 3 minutes walk away and then decided to do the walk to town
and back. Easter Island is fabulous, so charming, very pretty with lots of beautiful flowers, carvings and moai statues scattered all over the place. It also has a tropical feel to it with lots of palm trees. This side of the island the pacific is quite rough, so I sat in a bar opposite it and watched the surfers and ordered local fish with vegetables and salad for dinner. It was delicious but I wont be eating there again as, along with 2 beers, it came to £30! The walk back up the hill to the hostel was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I did have a 5 minute stop to catch my breath then paced the rest of the way, it took 30 minutes including the break. I thought I was heading back for sunset and came out onto my balcony to watch it but it didn’t happen. FFS, my phone was still on Santiago time, Easter Island is 2 hour behind – lol.
Anyway, this hostel is fab, it has lots of individual units almost like huts. I am sharing an upstairs unit with one other guest, we are sharing a kitchen and bathroom. He left his door open while having a shower and I noticed he has a double bed, but I have two singles. I have pushed them together but one is bigger than the other so that has not worked. Anyway, feeling disgruntled I checked my booking and I had actually booked a unit with one double bed in it, so basically the guy next door has my room. I sent Andres a polite message over an hour ago explaining that the room is not what I booked and asking if he has a double bed room for me – I am still waiting for my reply. I am here for 6 days / 7 nights, I want a double bed. It’s what I booked and it’s what I’m paying for. There are lots of units at this hostel, but it looks like most of them are full.
31st March – Tuesday
Today did not start off so well. Last night I sent the hostel host a couple of messages regarding being in the wrong room. They ignored me, so I messaged again this morning. Oh dear, the host woman, Bea, was not happy and came running up to my room asking me what my problem was. Well, as I had explained in my messages I booked a double bed but have been given twin beds. She showed me her booking details and said that booking.c assigns the rooms and I was in the right room. She said she does not assign the rooms, booking does. This is the first time I have heard of this, not to say that it is not true. However, she refuses to move my room until booking say it is OK – FFS. She actually came up a second time, a bit calmer this time, I think she realised she had been rude and out of order towards a paying guest the first time. Again she showed me her booking details and I showed her mine and together we concluded that booking is at fault, as we both have different information that booking sent us. Anyway we have both messaged booking. Having dealt with booking before I know I am going to be stuck in this single bad for my entire stay, they are not a company that like to admit that they have made a mistake. Things with Bea seem to be OK now, but I was on the verge of booking somewhere else as I am not willing to stay in an uncomfortable situation, even if it does cost me extra money.
Anyway, today is a paperwork day. I bought a bottle of wine and some munchies to help me and so far I have sent out the invites for a certain person’s surprise birthday party and booked myself to see the Kari Kari ballet on Friday evening. Now to book for the rest of the week and also decide what to do between here and the Galapagos islands, I have 6 days to fill, perhaps I should spend them in Ecuador?
Later: So the room I actually booked is now free, I messaged the host asking if i can move in, I even offered
to change the sheets myself – no response, this was at 3pm today, so not even an unreasonable time to expect a reply. So for the second day in a row I have been ignored – you know two can play this game – it only takes one bad review to fuck up a reasonably good reputation – watch this space bitch. All I am doing is asking to move into the room I booked and you are ignoring me. The last flight of the day has arrived, the room is still empty empty and I have enough blankets to make it mine and to stretch my back out for at least one night and I am up early so they wont even know.
I didn’t do much this afternoon except drink more wine in fact the more I drank the less I did – lol Day one of 6 is over, I have plenty of time – lol
1st April – Wednesday
Happy Birthday Appy!
I woke at 3 am with a massive hangover – not sure how I did it but I drank 2 bottles of red wine yesterday before I was comatose. The only good thing was I woke in the wrong bed, well it was the right bed in as much as it was the one I had booked, but it was the wrong bed as I hadn’t been assigned the room….yet. You will pleased to know that as of 1pm today I have been assigned the room, I have a double bed, which is actually very comfortable – lol – and am a very happy puppy.
By the time I got my room I was very sober and had booked myself on a tour for tomorrow. The only thing is that to go anywhere of real interest on this island you need an £80 national park pass – the whole frigging island is a national park and only 4 sites are free and you don’t need a guide for. It really is a proper expensive rip off tourist island. But I am here and it is beautiful and I have no choice but to be ripped off – so I will shut my mouth and enjoy it.
The walk into town to buy my pass took ages, I got distracted by too many beautiful flowers. I think I must now have every flower this island grows in my photo gallery – lol. From the ticket office I went down to the sea and found a nice bar to have a drink and an empanada, which was with local fish and so delicious, and big. The complete opposite to the one I had in Chantel. The lady in the ticket office gave me a local magazine with a map in the middle with the 4 free sites clearly labels. The first was about a ten minute walk from town. So, after seeing see a turtle raise its head from the sea and everyone freak out at how amazing a sight this was, I set off. Google maps had some long road journey for me to follow, but the cliff journey along the coast was far shorter and far more interesting.
OMG, this island is covered with moai statues. I mean I always knew there were some, but blow me down with a feather, there are millions of them and they really are stunning. Some of them are actually quite freaky as they have eyes. So the main one I saw this afternoon was Ahu Tahai, but just before it was Ahu Vai Ure, which consists of 4 moai in a row, a smaller one and a plinth that must have once held a sixth statue. Vert impressive. And so was the cemetery, next time I am in town I think I will have a proper wonder around the cemetery as it looked very colourful, a celebration of life rather than a place of loss.
My moai visit generated a thirst that needed quenching so I found a bar / restaurant that had beautiful views, downed a bottle of water and several cocktails. A couple came and sat at the table next to me and the woman had such a pooh face, I really couldn’t stop looking at her, that was until she had her first mouthful of beer. Her whole demeanour changed, she signed and smiled a humongous smile – yes I know that feeling. I laughed and she immediately realised why and laughed with me. Then I got jealous, she and her fella ordered a delicious plate of sushi, so, even though I had not long had an empanada and knowing I have food to eat in the fridge, I had no choice but to order sushi – OMG, it was so delicious. I think I will return to that restaurant one evening to watch the sunset, drink cocktails and eat even more sushi.
Looking at the sunset from my apartment balcony I really should have stayed in town to watch it from the sushi bar. It is so beautiful tonight, the sky is alight with every shade of red and orange, it looks delicious. But alas I walked up that bloody hill about an hour too early, but such is life. I have a full day tomorrow and I also officially have a double bed awaiting me – I so cannot wait, I hope I sleep in it tonight as well as I did last night.
2nd April – Thursday
Today has been fabulous, but it could have been even better if we had been given more time at the beach. But such is life. I was the last to be picked up and jumped into the van with the joy of life and for a change was met with similar. It makes such a difference when you’re on a tour with happy sociable people. The guide Emily was also lovely but very firm as we had a heavy itinerary and not long to get through it. She spent the first part of the journey telling us about the history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and the moai statues and how Polynesian people were renowned for settling on an island, depleting it’s natural resources and then moving on the next island. The moai statues represent the leaders of the clans they were from and face inwards to the clans and sit on platforms called ahu. Due to intense unsustainable consumption and deforestation, among many things, there was a social change and a shift to the birdman (tangata manu) faith and the moai were toppled. In 1966 the islanders were granted Chilean citizenship and the islandis now a UNESCO World Heritage site, with many of the maoi having been re-erected.
Obviously we visited several of the main archaeology sites, but first we visited a reconstructed village, Hanja Tee Vai Hu, and learnt about more about the history and life of the Rapa Nui people. From there we followed the coastline which is stunning, so much volcanic rock, literally everywhere, to Akahana, where the moai are still fallen. She told us three versions of why they were fallen so basically no one knows the real truth. I asked her loads of questions, for example how many people would live in one of the villages and how many elders / leaders would there be – she could not answer. In then end, and probably much to her relief, I gave up asking questions, which is a shame because I was genuinely interested. Tonariki was my favourioa stop, here there are 15 moai lined up on their ahu with their backs to the sea. Only one had a pukao (red hat) and I asked why and all Emily could say was the clan probably didn’t have the money to pay for them all to have pukao. Anyway I have just researched and the pukao, which is carved from a single red volcanic scoria. located from the Puna Pau crater, symbolises spiritual power and a high status. Emily did inform us about the eyes and these were added for important ceremonies and then removed after. The eyes were to bring the leaders back and empower their spirits. We also went to the quarry / mine and learnt how the moai were carved directly from the face to the mountain. The ones that were there were imperfect which is why they had been left there. It was quite amazing to see half carved moai sitting in the face of the mountain. Each clan had it own area for their moai, so there were many places to see them. Once carved they would be moved to the villages and placed on the ahu.
Lunch was good, and it was nice to have time to chat and get to know some of the other people on the tour. They were all very interesting and also well travelled, so it was good to share storied. After lunch we wasted time going to Te Pito Kura, the worlds belly button. It was not impressive, a stone well with a large stone in the middle. The story has it that the stone was supposed to be magnetic and hold powers, but this was an invented story that has stuck. Really we should have missed this stop as it was not impressive and had longer at the beach, which was stunning. Most of the coastline has large waves and is extremely rocky but this bit was calm, the water was clear and the bach sandy. Unfortunately, by the time we got there we only had 35 minutes to enjoy the water. It is such a shame it is so far from town as I would really love to spend a day there chilling, swimming and drinking beer.
Let’s see what happens over the next three days. Maybe I can get a taxi there?
3rd April – Friday
Today, or rather this evening was lovely and made so by meeting a guy called Tom, from Scotland. I spent the day researching and booking more of the last of my trip. I am now all booked, including all transport, until 19th April when I arrive back in Quito after the Galapagos cruise. I just need to think about how long to stay in Quito before I go Cusco. I’m getting all excited as it is now just one month exactly until I meet mum and Mike at Lima airport. It is going to be so awesome to spend time with them.
I headed out at 4pm and went and had a sushi dinner and a cocktail. This only took an hour so I had lots of time to kill before the Kari kari ballet performance. I had a little walk along the coast and then back again when I bumped into the German lady that I had the swim with yesterday. We sat chatting for a while and spotted a couple of turtles and then I disappeared to find the location of the performance. It is a good I left early as I thought the venue was just along the coast, but I was wrong and the receptionist there sent me back into town to the high street.
While waiting at the venue to be let in an extremely tall guy from Scotland, Edinburgh, started up a conversation with me. He is in the wine business and had a work trip to mainland Chile but extended his visit to fulfil a lifelong dream of visiting Rapa Nui. We ended up sitting together and having a couple of drinks while watching the show. On the other side of me were a couple of
guys from Santiago and we all got chatting. It was so nice. The show was good, but not as good as I was expecting. I went to a similar show in Siem Reap with Rita and it was far better. The show was supposed to be a dance to show the history and culture of the Rapa Nui people. They certainly did a lot of tribal style dancing with more hip swinging / hula hula than I could keep my eyes on, and the men were simply eye watering to watch. On several occasion they got people up from the audience and had them swinging their hips, one Latin American girl and one SE Asian guy were actually really good. However the stories / dances representing their history and culture were not explained and so I do not feel I learnt much from the show.
After, Tom and I went for a drink and chatted for well over an hour, he is 4 years younger than me so we have had very similar younger years and, this is amazing, he lived in Crystal Palace, on Woodland Road, I lived on Woodland Hill! But the years we spent there did not match, I had left long before he moved there. But how mad is that. I travel half way around the road to chat to someone who lived around the corner from me! Anyway we have swapped contacts and arranged to meet tomorrow evening for dinner and drinks.
It was very dark by the time I walked up the hill back to my room. However there was the occasional street light so it was not too spooky and the two shops that are on route were open, which was cool as I was able to buy stuff for breakfast.
4th April – Saturday
Uhm, today I really overspent and I blame it all on Tom – lol – he is a bad bad influence. This morning he went on a tour and I went for a walk. My aim was Orongo volcano, or at least the look out just before it. Uhm, I didn’t even get half way. Like a fool I decided to walk a different way, which avoided town, along the airport road. I didn’t realise how long this route was and also how boring the airport road would be. However, the walk to the airport road was nice and it was good to see a less touristy side to the town. At one point, just before I turned onto the airport road about 6 horses came running towards me, it was quite scary and I moved into the ditch so they could avoid me. Anyway, I had nothing to be worried about as a guy on a motorbike was herding them into his field. And he turned them all around before they came too close to me. By the time I reached the coast I was in need of a drink so I stopped at a restaurant and had a beer and fish in mushroom sauce with a salad. It was so delicious, and so healthy! It was here that I decided to abandon my trip, I was perusing FB and saw Tom’s post from his morning trip to Orongo and so decided to book the same trip for tomorrow.
After my food I had a slow stroll along the coast and into town where eventually I met up with Tom. This is when it all started to get a bit messy and very expensive. The first thing we did was find a bar and we had a beer and 2 pisco sours each. Tom introduced me to a pisco sour last night at the performance. Talk about delicious, it is the national drink of both Chile and Peru and it is extremely strong. I was saddened to find out that Tom is leaving tomorrow so we decided to head out for a meal of his choice. I wasn’t even hungry! We found the ceviche restaurant that Andres recommended on my first drive through town. OMG, it was delicious and so was the bottle of white wine we had with it. I had a coconut based ceviche and Tom had one that turned up in a humongous cocktail glass and had huge prawns in it. I admit, his was far nicer than mine but mine was amazing and I was well stuffed by the time we had finished.
There was only one thing we could after eating and that was go for more drinks, more pisco sours! I was so pissed by the time we departed company I don’t even remember saying goodbye but I do remember hitching a lift up the hill – as for the conversation I had with my driver and friend, I will never know, my mind is blank – lol. One thing is for sure I am very upset with myself, I lost my hat. Tom said I had it on my head when we departed company which means I must have left it in the car. I loved that hat, it came all the way from Cambodia with me and had such a fabulously wide brim. So now I have to shop for a new hat.
5th April – Sunday
I don’t have a diary entry for today. I thnk I was too humg over to write it! I went on the tour and we visited three sites: Orongo, which is only mine for the Pukao, Moai hats, and underground lava tunnel where the people of the island used to live, the air was so stale I almost threw up and the guide cut the visit short, I felt very guilty for ruining it for everyone else; finally we went and saw more moai statues.
