Hanga Roa, Chile, South America

I am on Easter Island!!! This is one of the most remote islands in the whole world. I can’t believe I’ve actually made it here. It’s awesome! My day started out with an early wake up call at the hostel, and my taxi driver actually showed up 15 minutes early. This never happens in South America. He was a great driver named Johnny, and it turns out he lived in Canada for a long time, and doesn’t exactly have the South American mentality anymore. His english is nearly perfect, and he’s very very friendly. I even got his card when he dropped me off so that Melissa and I can use him when we get back into Santiago. He said I just have to send him our flight numbers and he’ll be at the airport waiting for us when we get in.

I checked in for my flight and found out it was delayed by about an hour, so I had some time. I went to Dunkin’ Donuts (which I thought was funny) at the airport for breakfast, and then used their wifi until it was time to fly. Almost the entire flight (which was a big plane, formation 2-3-2) were foreigners. This shouldn’t have surprised me, because why would any locals want to fly out to the middle of nowhere. It was about a 5.5 hour flight, and I was very impressed with how nice the LAN plane was. We all had our own little entertainment center, so I had the chance to watch a couple of movies (in English), and got served a decent breakfast omelet.

The flight arrived on Easter Island at about 1pm, and my bag was one of the first ones to come off the conveyor belt in the smallest airport I think I’ve ever been in. Of course, with only one flight arriving per day, there is really no need for anything bigger. I thought about getting a taxi to find my hostel, but I had a look at the map, and Hanga Roa is such a small town, I figured I could walk. I’m glad I did because it was only a ten minute walk from the airport to my hostel.

Hotel Atariki is perfect for what I need. It is right off the “main street” in the town, I have my own king size bed, my own bathroom (with a hot shower), and it’s only $32 a night. Considering where I am, I’m very happy with that price. The only thing I’ve not been thrilled with so far is the weather. It’s been raining on and off all day, which doesn’t really give me the motivation to get out and sight-see.

I took a walk into town, had a bite to eat and found a local dive center that looks really good, so I’ll be diving with them later this week. Not sure how good the diving will be, but I’m always happy to get in the water, so I’m sure it’ll be good. Tomorrow I’m going to rent a bike or walk around the south part of the island. The weather is meant to be rainy again, so I don’t really want to go too far and be caught out in the rain for too long. Hopefully I’ll get lucky and there’ll be more sun than rain. Fingers crossed!