FUN-travel: Easter Island to Santiago, Chile
March 6, 2013 by Susan Clarke
The ABC’s of Chile
A = Awesome
B = Bummer
C = Celebration
Clearly a Replica
- A – 7:30 wakeup – good night’s sleep (no siesta & lots of exercise yesterday helped)
- 10:00 – packed up & ready for next big adventure!
- 11:30 – pickup
- 11:45 – hurry up & wait for 2:10 – flight
- B – full & no exit row
- C – airport security is great – shoes, laptops, liquids no problema
- C – no baggage police or baggage nazi’s @ LAN Easter Island – their scales don’t even work
- 2:50 – departs
- A – meal service & wine included no charge
- 9:00 – arrives Santiago (clock ahead 2 hrs)
- A – easy baggage pickup
- A – Hilton Garden Inn is 7 mins – VIP Transit is free shuttle (Holiday Inn is directly across street from aiport)
- B – sit & wait 20 mins for more passengers
- 10:00 – arrive Hilton – very nice & new w/big rooms
- A – restaurant serves until 11:00 – dinner is chicken wrap & hot French fries VG
FF – (FUN-fact) – Easter Island is pretty primitive and our best guess is probably what Hawaii was like in the 60’s. Hanga Roa is the only town and has paved roads. Most of the other roads are bumpy dirt roads.
More FF – It’s part of the Polynesian triangle with Hawaii at the top and Tahiti to the west.
More FF – It’s a New 7 Wonders of the World runner up and makes #15 on our list of the 21 vying for it that we’ve seen.
Rano Raraku
Lesson Learned – Trade off: By going to Easter Island first, instead of Mendoza, because we were in Chile we would have saved the time and hassle of two international flights. Also, I may not have had to pay the reciprocity fee which went up to $160. It was $130 in 2009. If you fly in or out of Santiago on an international flight you have to have the stamp. It is only good for the life of your passport and Chris had his stamp from 2009 because his passport doesn’t expire until 2014.
But on the other hand, by dropping the two bags with cold weather clothes at the Santiago Hilton Airport we didn’t have to schlep them, pay excess baggage fees, or locker fees. We would have also needed bigger taxis which probably would have cost more too.
Bird Man Village Island