April 6 - Busy in downtown Hangi Roa

April 6 Day 50
We got up, made ourselves breakfast and headed out to the museum on the edge of town.  The maps here are definitely not to scale as it took more than 30 minutes to walk there and it was hard to find, again no street numbers.
It was worth the walk.  It had bilingual information panels and an assortment of artifacts that explained the history of the island better than our guide did.  They also had a temporary display of current artwork and a slideshow contrasting pictures from 70 years ago to the sites now.
We watched a video of western scientists trying different methods of hauling statues around and then the museum closed for the day.  The walk back took us along the coast and we saw an impressive site with a moia which had its eyes put it, which they all had at one point. 
We found a spot on the coast and sat and ate our lunches looking at the waves and the surfers trying to ride them.  The waves were huge and we wondered how they were avoiding the nasty volcanic rocks they were surfing so close to. 
We got some groceries and headed back to our room for some downtime.  We had decided to eat a nice dinner downtown and looked in our guidebook for recommendations.  The place we chose was right on the water, built on the rocks so that one protruded through the floor next to our table.  We had more passion fruit pisco sours and split octopus pil pil and an excellent seafood soup while watching more surfers and landscape.  The credit card had the weird Chilean custom of asking if you wanted to pay for everything or do it in installments.  If you tried the latter, international credit cards no longer worked.  A strange little foible.
We walked up to our dance performance space.  Meg wanted to get in early but I didn't want to wait an hour for the thing to start.  We had a coffee and then got in a very slow moving line to get in.  It took us 25 minutes to get to the front of it but the woman who took our names for us yesterday had saved excellent seats for us, so all was not lost.
We went to the dining area and met up with our New York friends, who had the dinner that came with the show.  We knew it cost more than our meal but heard that it wasn't any good, so we made the right decision.
The show started with a 30 minute documentary on how the group recruits young artists and tries to preserve local culture.  The show had a large band of musicians who were able to sing along and change instruments regularly.  The dancers were very fit and wearing little.  They were able to perform moves that regular people would hurt themselves badly trying.  There were at least 16 dancers and they varied the centre stage performers and were much better than some of the amateur night groups we have seen in other places.
Twice during the show they pulled audience members onstage to dance with them, which was amusing.  At the end they invited everyone on stage to have pictures taken but it was a huge scrum and so we decided to leave with our New York friends.  We hung out at their hotel (much fancier than ours with a garden and hot tub) and had a good talk. 
We said goodbye to them and made our way home in the dark.  This was less perilous than we thought as the streetlights were well lit.  We got home late but well-entertained.

This moai has eyeballs!

Happy hour next to the sea, note rock next to Meg.

The cultural show.

April 5 - Big Easter Island Tour

April 5 Day 49
We got up, had breakfast and waited for our pickup.  We were first, which meant we got to spend lots of time on the bus waiting for people who weren't ready.  A bunch of these people were bringing towels and swimsuits, which surprised us.  Apparently we were to be spending more than an hour at the only sandy beach on the island, but no one told us so we weren't prepared.
Once we got everyone we were told that our first stop had changed from an original site of a village to a recreated one.  We saw a chicken coop, the huts where people lived which were shaped like an overturned boat, plants protected by circular rock walls and simple cooking areas.  It was interesting for a little while but the site was easily explored in a few minutes.  The group was mainly Spanish except for us and a Canadian woman with her son, who started off the day fairly bratty but became more tolerable as he got tired.  She had pulled him from school for a year and was home-schooling him as they traveled.
Since there were only a few of us, our guide did the Spanish explanation first and the English after.  The Spanish tourists were obviously getting a lot more information and even felt for us, as few of the group who could also speak English added details which our guide hadn't bothered to tell us.  It turned out to be an issue that got more extreme as the day progressed.
The next two stops were the most impressive of the day.  The first was a large area with a lone moai at the entrance and a line of 15 down below, some of them huge.  The rain had begun to pick up but it didn't deter the tourists.  We were told that the moai on its own traveled the world as a museum exhibit and raised enough money for a Japanese group to restore the site.  The row of 15 was the largest on the island and they had a variety of sizes and shapes.  Only one had the hat(Hair? knot top?) on.  The rest of the site had some rubble and some petroglyphs we couldn't find but the big line of statues was definitely the star here.
We drove a short distance to Ranu Raraku (Meg likes to pronounce this in her Scooby Doo voice).  This was the quarry where almost all of the moia were carved out and transported all over the island.  Not all of them made it to their final destination, so this has the most moia of anywhere and in various states of completion.   Apparently they didn't contain a soul until they were put on the ahu (platform) so these could face the sea or any direction while the rest faced inland.  Some broken ones were lying on the ground, others were standing in a hole waiting for their backs to be carved and others were still mainly part of the mountain, waiting for the initial carving to be finished.  They weer all over the place, you could get pretty close to them and see details and differences like no where else.
Our guide started to get really annoying here, saying that he'd give the English explanation once we go higher and three elevations later we got a much shorter description than out Spanish compatriots.  On the way back, two members wanted to climb up to the volcano but he tried to deter them and said it was a 30 minute hike to get up there, which we found out later wasn't true.
The lunch was excellent, with bbq meat and fresh juice ad vegetables and a good conversation with several of our group members.  We then headed out for the afternoon part of the tour, which was underwhelming.
One thing I haven't mentioned are the animals on the island.  Wild horses are everywhere, apparently 7000 of them and cars have to stop for them all the time.  They walk around the suburbs of the town and were even coming into our hostel to munch some plants.  Dogs are like Chile, healthy-looking and everywhere in the streets, sometimes in packs.  Cats are rarer but around and cattle and chickens wander where they will.  It's odd at first but you get used to it.
We saw the largest moia, which was lying topped onto its face.  At the same site there was a magnetic rock but our guide didn't know where it came from or what it was used for and gave us another short description.
Our last stop as more than an hour at the beach which we hadn't been told about and therefore weren't dressed for.  There was no information given to anyone here but there was another row of moia and a few other ruins that we read about on information panels.  We walked around the  only real beach on the island but quickly ran out of things to do while the rest of the group swam.
We headed back across the centre of the island and quickly got back to town.  We wanted to be let off downtown so that  we could book with another tour company but we seemed to be zigzagging all over the place so we just shouted for the bus to stop when we were close to their office.  They were full the next day but we booked for Monday and headed back to our place.
On our way back we heard someone shouting something derogatory about Canadians and found our New York friends from the plane at a restaurant.  We had a drink with them and caught up on island adventures (theirs were all good) with a passion fruit pisco sour.  The conversation brightened our mood and we found out they wee going to the same cultural show that we were the next night and so made plans to meet up there.
We walked back, had a reheated dinner and had a good sleep under our fan after confirming with our hosts that we could rent their 4 by 4 on Sunday.

Contemplating across the ages...

The moai who never made it to their pedestals.

Their hats/hair whatevers.

April 4 - First Day on Easter Island

April 4 Day 48
We got up early after a restless sleep and got our cab to the airport.  On the way I realized that I had left my wedding ring and earcuff on the bedside table.  Since we left the key in the room and the owner was elsewhere in the city and we only had his e-mail, there was no point in turning back.  Fortunately, there was free wifi at our gate and I was able to e-mail from there.
At the airport, Easter Island has its own gate, probably because it is semi-autonomous and has an additional security gate unseen on other internal flights.  At the gate we noticed that our fellow passengers skewed much older than any other flight we took and few backpackers seemed to be making the expensive trip to Easter Island.
Our flight was on a big jet with seats in the centre.  We had entertainment panels but they either couldn't or wouldn't get them working for this flight.  We entertained ourselves by talking to an animated couple from New York in front of us and an innocent looking Australian beside us.
Taking off from Santiago, we could see mountain tops peeking out above the clouds.  At the coastline we could see a few tankers and then it was hours of clouds and ocean.
We landed at the small airport and were amazed by the luggage carousel.  Never had we seen so much everyday stuff mixed in with the luggage.  More than a dozen coolers were there, many boxes and a huge bag of dog food kept going around and around amongst the suitcases.  We found our bags and looked for our names on a sign for our airport pick up.  After everyone else had left and a half hour's wait we took a cab to our place, only to have the owners show up behind us 5 minutes later.  No explanation was given (they had little English) but giving us welcome leighs felt a little anti-climactic.
They gave us a glass of juice while we were getting settled and then put a huge platter of ceviche in front of us for lunch.  It was restaurant quality good, but not Meg's favourite dish so we had lots left for dinner.
We were a 20 minute walk from downtown and hadn't dealt with humidity since Columbia.  The town had its charms but was mainly tourist oriented and had frustrating few street names, numbers or signs.  The tour company recommended in our book was full until 3 days later and I couldn't find another recommended one.  We were tired and so went with a place that was open on the main strip as we wanted to see things first with a guide rather than renting a vehicle and seeing things on our own without context.
With the tour settled, we went shopping for a few days worth of food.  There were many places in a row, each with a different selection.   The prices were a little higher than the mainland but the choice was better than in San Pedro De Atacama.  They still had the Chilean custom of weighing fruit and vegetables yourself and sticking the price to your item before coming to the cash.  We forgot but the grouchy cashier didn't seem to mind going and doing it for us.
We walked back with our groceries, made dinner which was eaten with some of the wine we brought over with us and went to bed early as we were still 2 hours behind the locals (time zones, you know).  Showers before bed and a nice fan made for a good night's rest.

The big moai on the downtown harbour.

Our lodging on Easter Island.

April 3 - Last Day in Chile

April 3 Day 47
We had a slow morning doing laundry, booking flights and hotels etc.  We headed out around lunch time.  We got stuff from a pharmacy (no prescription necessary!) and mailed things at the post office before seeking lunch.
Lunch was at Palacio Del Vino, which had excellent food in an historic old building that felt like you walked back into the 1920s.  We then walked to the Museum in Memory of Salvador Allende, which was a collection started during his time, curated overseas during the Pinochet years and brought back once democracy was restored.  The first floor was activist art and some medals and artifacts of Allende's.  The second floor was an interesting mix of Chilean artist working in sketching, collage, geometric figures and painting, all of which he was pretty good at.  The whole collection took less than an hour to view.  We were then invited down to the basement where the museum library was.  They had some documents in glass cases but also had a room left with listening areas and bundles of wires from when the building was used as an eavesdropping centre during Pinochet's time.
We walked back to our place through a nice park and had a bit of rest.  Meg went out shopping while i relaxed some more and then we went to a local place famous for the earthquake.  This is a drink made of cheap wine, pineapple ice cream, grenadine and some weird spirit.  The place was recommended by our city guide but it didn't look like much.  Since we ordered drinks without food, we were ushered into the back of the place, which was a completely different situation.  This was a large hall with a stage and walls lined with peeling murals and if you looked back form the stage you saw a banner that said this place was the palace of hurricanes.
We were the only ones drinking them, all the other tables were sharing large bottles of Stella Artois.  Our drinks were sickly sweet and the ice cream was weird, almost half whipped cream.   felt it was the sort of drink I might throw up soon after finishing and went about sipping mine.  Meg finished hers and had a fair bit of mine before we called it quits.  We were told that if you survived the earthquake you should ask for an aftershock, which would be a second one, which would then leave you on the ground, shaking.  Pretty accurate, these things packed a sickly wallop.
Meg was too the point where she had to ask if she was acting so drunk that anyone could notice and then denying the fact.  This made our shopping entertaining, as the bakery we were buying dinner at had a complicated system of taking food, paying at another desk and then picking it up which was not explained anywhere and you just had to hope you joined the right line  After picking up some pairs in the local supermarket (Easter Island was known to have ridiculous prices for fresh produce)  we headed back to our apartment.
We ate and sobered up a bit over tonight's terrible movie, which was the awful Jurrasic World sequel.  We managed to get packed before our early wake up and went to bed tired and still under the effects of the earthquakes.

The Palacio Del Vino

One of Pinochet's old listening posts.

With our earthquakes, no one ordered an aftershock (round two).

April 2 Day 46
We got up and headed to the tours4tips Santiago version, which we were happy to find out actually existed!  We had an English speaking guide and the tour was really good, focusing on the Santiago that the citizens see rather than the main tourist attractions (that tour was the 3 pm one).  We had a Venezuelan guide who was animated and informative and a small group of American, Australian and German tourists besides us.
We went to the central market, which only had fish stalls and tout-heavy restaurants but he pointed out good restaurants and told us that the central area with high ceilings and nice metalwork which was made in England contained the most overpriced places.
The day before we were told that for fruits and veggies we had to use the few stalls outside the fish market.  Today we crossed the street to the busy market which had everything and went on for 6 city blocks.  We were told to put our backpacks onto our fronts and hide our jewelry but the place was more busy than threatening.  There were lines of restaurants, much better fruit and veggies than we saw yesterday, a Peruvian area with special peppers and potatoes and great smelling herb vendors.  Our guide told us about several local foods and drinks and gave suggestions as to the best places to find them.
On the way out our guide bought everyone XXX, fried cornbread with spicy salsa which was filling and tasty.  He then organized everyone onto the subway and we went to the graveyard, which covered 22 football fields.  We saw the stacks of condo graves, looked at the absurdly extravagant mausoleums in the shape of the Alhambra and Egyptian temples and the children's area, which was full of toys and party decorations.  We went to Salvador Allende's tomb and had a long description of Chilean politics.  Our guide conceded that nothing is black and white and short descriptions leave out complicated details but we felt he was a little hard on socialism since he had fred from Venezuela 5 years ago. 
We also went by a grave of little Conchita (?), who apparently had died innocently and so was considered a vector to god and was a major spot for prayers and thanks.  Our guide then told us that it was all a lie, the grave was of an adult woman but someone working at the cemetery made up the story and set up an offering can which he emptied for himself.  He was caught after several years of doing this but the legend persisted so the site is still full of offerings.
We said goodbye to our guide and our group and headed to the Concha Y Toro vineyard, which sounded like a simple trip in our guidebook but turned out to be a marathon.  We headed to a stop close to the end of the subway system and looked for a shuttle bus that was impossible to find.  Eventually we asked a sidewalk vendor who called someone and got the van to come for us. We purchased a bar of chocolate and almonds from him for his trouble.
The van came and we were the only ones on the 15 minute ride to the winery.  We made it in time for the last English tour of the day with our guide JC.  He was another Venezuelan and had only been working as a guide for a month and was very entertaining and personable.  He gave the history of the winery and led us in three tastings, which were positioned at various spots along then tour. 
The vine garden was interesting as they had a circular setup with all of the grapes they use available for tasting off the vine.  behind this were rows from an actual vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes but he told us that 75% of their production was from Chile, 20% from Argentina and 5% from California.  He also said that they were a top 10 winery in the world for total production.
We got to see some equipment and some cool cellars, one of which had a fun but hard to see multimedia presentation about the history and legend of the winery.  Meg has asked me to copy these quotes from the literature:
"At Concha Y Toro we learned about development of the vines including the story of the extinct carmenera grape that died in Europe during the plague and was rediscovered in Chile falsely as a malbec vine.
We visited the ancient cellars including the Casillero Del Diablo which is devil's cellar and heard the legend about satan protecting the cellar from thieves and earthquakes. "
We ended up in the wine shop which featured their best wines (the stuff I had been picking up in the supermarkets was nowhere to be found).  We got 3 bottles of pretty good stuff and headed out.  We're used to Canadian wineries with free tours and tastings, but we paid $32 each for teh tour and 3 tastings so again, Chile is no bargain.
We had to wait 45 minutes for the shuttle, again the only ones using it, before our long subway ride home.  They whole thing was 4 tiring hours long and we figured it wasn't worth it.  On the subway ride back, a young woman stated playing loud music through a speaker.  She then gave a long speech, danced around the subway car in an amateurish way, gave another speech and then went around collecting money.  She must have picked her route well as later on she would have had no room to move in the subway cars as we got closer to the city centre.
We walked a different way home and checked out a restaurant we were considering for our next night's dinner.  It was a sprawling place at the back of a children's arcade inside an old monastery.  It was closed on a night it was supposed to be open but the arcade was buzzing with a little ferris wheel, video games, funhouse mirrors, foozball and even air hockey!
We got home tired and microwaved our dinner and wanted to turn out brains off.  Luckily, we found The Rock's Skyscaper movie with Spanish subtitles which required no thought at all.

The "budget" cemetery condos that go on for blocks.

Meg with our guide enjoying some of the good stuff.

Distorted but happy.

April ! - Santiago - No Fooling

April 1 Day 45
Morning off typing, booking stuff, writing and relaxing.  The best quote we saw was that April 1 was the only day of the year that people will actually question what they see on the internet.
After lunch we went for a stroll to the central market as all the museums were closed on a Monday.  I sent us in the wrong way which turned out to be good as we avoided using the subway at all and had a nice walk.  Meg was going to go to a far away mall to shop for clothes but once she saw the selection and prices of the shops in our neighbourhood she cancelled that plan.
On the way to the market we saw a fist fight between two drivers who had a collision that resulted in them rolling on the ground fighting before inconclusively driving off.  We also looked at the book exchange shelf of a really nice hostel but the English book selection was poor.
We headed to the market which was a bunch of fish selling stalls surrounded by a bunch of heavily touted restaurants which crated a gauntlet of saying "no gracias" to dozens of touts between fish stalls.  We wanted some fruit and veggies too, but they were limited to  few small stalls outside of the market proper. 
We got a few things and then chose a fish stall that sold us 1/2 kilo salmon filet that turned out to be amazing.  We walked back along the same busy pedestrian streets we took before back to our place.  Close to our apartment was an alley filled with eccentric piles of books and we asked if he had any any English ones, and he produced some ya books and a few adult ones but we had our arms full of groceries and told him we would be back later.
Before dinner, Meg went shopping for clothes and went through his English books, finding a few definite finds a a decent price.  While she was doing that, I cooked the excellent salmon and found BBC World on the tv where we had previously been watching a Spanish dubbed version of the awful King Kong remake.

Fish market, source of an excellent salmon dinner.

After dinner we went out to some very Italian looking coffee places we spotted in the afternoon.  he pedestrian street was much quieter, with most shops shuttered for the night.  In the evening religious groups take over the area and we saw a band, a large rally and small groups holding hands and praying together.  When we saw the large groups we worried that they might be a political protest as we saw Chilean police in riot gear close to a university which had slogans plastered over it but no violence erupted.  In the main square it looked like there were many trans prostitutes about and we wondered what they thought about the speaker surrounded by a large group who appeared to be railing against homosexuality.
On the way back we stopped for our coffees.  They had stand-up tables on the pedestrian street which everyone was using and a large inside area which just had employees.  The standing up bit was reminiscent of Italy but it was a little creepy as at our place Meg was the only female there and the waitresses all wore tiny skirts and shiny leggings.  The coffee was good, if a little overpriced, but the vibe wasn't far off from a strip club.
Back at our place there was no loud music that night so we slept soundly.

March 31 - Tulur and goodbye to the Atacama

March 31 Day 44
We told Javiera we wanted a tour with her before we went so we decided to go to the Tulur historic site.  We got everything packed up, had a big breakfast and said goodbye to the dogs and cats before leaving.
Tulur is essentially an office area followed by a long path leading to a recreated house.  Beyond this is a short walkway leading to a platform overlooking the ruin.  The ruin is a series of foundations and walls from a cluster of roundish adobe houses.  Without any context, you would spend 5 minutes looking at it and turn around again.
On the platform was a ranger who gave an overview of the site, which Javiera translated for us.   What the houses were used for, where the animals and tools were kept and what they were made from were some of the facts that we were given.  Only when Meg asked what she would like to see as the future of the site did she get a long answer.  She balanced the "leave it" argument with wondering how much could be found there and referred to modern ways of using lasers and such to see what is under surfaces without disrupting them.
We walked back and looked at the decent displays at the main office, some of them in English as well as the usual Spanish.  Javiera then dropped us off at the bus station and helped us find our ride, who was early as well.
We quickly picked up the rest of our group and headed to the Calama airport to grab our flight to Santiago.  The desert around the city had many wind turbines and solar farms as the land is more suitable for these alternative energies than most of Canada.
At the airport we were hungry but the sandwiches looked nasty so we got two $3 bags of chips, only to find out later that they would have been cheaper on the plane.  At Chilean airport they group you by your seat, loading in the order: preferential, window, centre then aisle.  They also checked some of our boarding passes in advance so we just had to hand in a card to board the plane.
The flight was uneventful and we decided to pay a few extra dollars to get a cab after the confusion around our shared van last time.  We had to give all of our data to the concierge before she let us into our building to meet our host's representative.  We booked the place on booking.com but it felt like a creepy airbnb rule breaker.  It was obviously an apartment building and the woman representing the owners had a credit card reader, not something everyone has.
At least the place had everything it was supposed to and was close to a supermarket.  We got and cooked food for dinner and complained (with several other of our floormates) about our next door neighbours for cranking out the music.  They turned it down a bit but a local club seemed to be channeling live music into the neighbourhood.  They quieted down by about 11 and we slept well.

The Tulur ruins.

Saying goodbye to Javiara.