Chile

25 January - 31 January 2010

Santiago

Arrived in Santiago quite late after a few flight delays. There was a massive lighting storm as we were sitting on the plane due to depart in Rio, so were actually quite pleased we had our take-off delayed. The plane was shaking from the thunder! Eventually arrived in Santiago around 11:30pm and caught a cab to our hostel in the area of Santiago called Bellavista. Straight to bed before heading out in the morning to enjoy our only full day in Santiago. Due to the fact it was our only full day there we decided to cheat and be lazy tourists by catching the hop-on and hop-off tourist bus. It took us all around the city so it was actually quite good. We played our role of lazy tourists quite well too by not even hopping on or off of the bus at any stage.

After doing that for the morning we decided to have lunch at the Central fish markets. Basically a lot of fishmongers around the edge of the market and then restaurants in the middle with a lot of staff trying to talk you into eating at their place. We opted for the dodgy looking place down a side passage and had a yummy meal of seafood (I had a seabass ceviche and Clint had a mixed seafood soup which was choccas with shellfish). Thought it was a bit of a risk after the effects of our last fish meal in Ilha Grande but all went well! Went out that night to an area which had stacks of bars along the street and hundreds of people sitting outside drinking cervezas. Stopped at one place for a few drinks then went to a decent looking restaurant for dinner. Had massive serves of ribs and bottle of good red wine for about a quarter of what we'd pay in London.

Next morning we decided to go to the Chilean Natural History museum and get our fix of culture. After that we made our way back to the hostel and caught a cab to the airport, as we had a 2pm flight to EASTER ISLAND! Got stuffed around in the airport bit due to some language barriers (got told we could check in at International business check in, then they told us we had to go to domestic check-in, so lined up for 45 minutes and then got told we had to go to normal international check-in, so had to line up another 30 minutes there). It was lucky we gave ourselves extra time. But all good in the end and had another good flight with LAN. They have really new planes so the entertainment system etc is top notch.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

After a 4 and a half hour flight from Santiago we arrived in Hanga Roa, the main town of Easter Island. The airport was only slightly bigger than Port Lincoln's and we got to walk across the tarmac like Lincoln too. We were greeted in the airport by Marta the host of the Mihinoa camping ground we were staying in, who put fresh flower lei's around both our necks. We then got thrown straight into Island life as our backpacks were slung into the back of a ute and we jumped into a seperate van to drive the 5 minutes to the campground! We'd decided to go for the camping option as all other accommodation on the island was pricey as. They provided the tent and mattresses and we just had to bring sleeping bags which was great, as we didn't want to be lugging even more stuff around for 5 weeks. The tent we got was a decent size and set up right at the front of the camping area, only about 50 metres from the water, so we got to hear the waves breaking on the rocks during the night. The other benefit of Mihinoa was that it had a kitchen with fridges and pots and pans etc for everyone to use. It meant we could cook our own meals and save a bit of cash, as food on Rapa Nui was also pretty pricey (the have to have everything flown in).

First full day on Easter Island we went for a walk to see some of the Maoi's (the big head statues) that are near the town, and watched some surfers catch a few waves. Had a lazy afternoon back at the campground reading in the shade. Made some dinner then ventured down the foreshore to see if the festival had gotten underway yet but not much was happening. The next day we hired a car....I had to drive as Clint lost his wallet a few months back so has no license on him. So we hired an auto of course and then spent several hours driving around the island and seeing all the Maoi sites. There are apparently 887 maoi's on Easter Island, and I think we managed to get a photo of each one.... Stopped off at the main swimming beach for a little while then headed back to town.

Made some dinner then caught a lift in the back of a ute down to the foreshore to see the opening of the Tapati Festival - the annual Rapa Nui Polynesian cultural festival. Basically there are two teams rivalling to make their candidate the Queen of the festival (kinda like Miss Tunarama), and they spend 2 weeks competing in various activities such as boat races and dancing, and are also scored on things like tattoos and who has the most traditional costumes. We pulled up a couple of seats at one of the temporary bars they'd set up and watched the festivities get underway whilst enjoying some Chilean red and massive BBQ'ed shaslicks. Was great people watching as all the locals are out and about and catching up with each other.

Had a pretty chilled day the next day and did a bit of souvenir shopping, then treated ourselves to a nice seafood lunch at a restaurant near the water. After relaxing for the rest of the afternoon we went back down to see the second night of Tapatio competition. We resumed the same seats and ordered the same red, and enjoyed more people watching. We even managed to spot the Chilean version of the fat kid from Hey Dad!

So now I'm writing this on the bus on the way to Mendoza, Argentina! Stayed in Santiago last night after flying back from Easter Island. We had a bit of a stressful and amusing start to the day though. We had to catch our bus at 8:30am from the big station called Alameda. Our hostel guy told us to catch the metro 3 stops to the university and get off there. So we went to the station thinking it was 7:30am, but all the clocks in the station said 8:30am. So we realised we must have got the time difference wrong coming back from Easter Island and hence we had missed our bus, but got on the train anyway to go there in the hope of getting a later bus (had already bought tickets). Ended up catching train 3 stops in the wrong direction to the wrong university....when we realised we got off and jumped in a cab. The cabbie spoke no english but seemed to know what I meant when I explained 'Estacion Alemada'. However he took us across the other side of the city, then yelled at us when he realised we hadn't told him which way to go! He finally got us to the station about 45 minutes later, and we had a big argument about not paying the full amount, but he was still adamant it was our fault for not knowing where we were going. Anyway, got into station and realised the clocks were saying 8:40am! What the?! For some annoying reason Chileans like to show different times on all of their clocks to confuse tourists. Anyway to cut a long story short we legged it to the departure bay and just made it onto the bus!! Couldn't believe it!

Argentina update to come! Here are a few photos below of Chile and have also added some Brazil picks to the posts below!!