Moái, Pisco and Desert – Rapa Nui and Northern Chile

We spent most of December between the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, the capital Santiago and the remote Polynesian island of Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island.

Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Rapa Nui is located 3,686 km west off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific. Though politically part of Chile, it is a Polynesian island. It is only 25 km by 12 km and has just under 8,000 residents. Sixty percent of the island is a National Park and a UNESCO site. It is best known for the massive stone statues (Moái) carved by the original inhabitants a thousand or more years ago. The largest employer and source of revenue is tourism. The island was closed down and cut off from the rest of the world for two years during Covid. It only reopened to tourism in August. Tourism is slowly starting to return, though we had most of the sites to ourselves.

The only town on the island is Hanga Roa where the few small hotels and restaurants are located. There are limited paved roads on the island. After an hour of driving you have seen the island and run out of road. In a day and a half we toured pretty much every site and drove every road on the island with our guide.

Getting There is Half the Fun

Part of the adventure was the craziness of flying there. LATAM currently flies there three times per week. Pre-Covid it was 14 flights per week. We got to the airport just over three hours ahead of the flight, with dreams of relaxing in the lounge. Instead the three hours were spent in crazy line-ups. The first line-up was to prove we were vaccinated and had paid the entry fee (the same documents we’d already provided online). Then we joined an hour-long line-up to have the same paperwork checked and get issued a boarding pass. Then we lined up to be checked by the International Police (even though it’s a domestic flight) and finally security.

It was staggering to see the amount of luggage people had. We felt out of place with just small carry-ons. One couple had five luggage carts full. Many others had three or four. People had sets of tires, furniture, rolls of carpet, large ice boxes and all sorts of cardboard boxes, plus cats and dogs. There was so much luggage it delayed take-off by over an hour as airline crews tried to balance it in the hold of the plane. After almost three years of lock-downs the locals were on major shopping excursions to Santiago.

Santiago

Santiago is a city with a bit of a European vibe, but an edgy feel to it. According to people we met, the city changed dramatically in 2019 when the streets were taken over by protestors. 1.2 million people took to the streets, initially to protest metro fare increases. That morphed into general anti-government protests across the country.

The neighbourhood where our hotel was located was the epicenter for the protests. We had booked into the Crowne Plaza, looking forward to a few days in a nice hotel. We were shocked to arrive to what looked like a prison compound. It is surrounded by a massive Berlin Wall style barrier with metal gates. To this day the surrounding area looks like a war zone, with burnt-out buildings, trashed bus stops, 20’ fencing around buildings and lots of razor wire. Boarded-up buildings in the graffiti-riddled district have been ignored and left as eyesores.

The nearby historic downtown core fared a bit better. It is easy to navigate on foot. Most of the tourist attractions are within a small radius. We found a great pisco bar – Chipe Libre – not far from our hotel. We whiled away a few evenings being tutored on the differences between Chilean and Peruvian pisco and washing down ceviche with some of the hundreds of piscos they serve.

For anyone visiting Santiago, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights is a must. Most of the narration is in Spanish but the short films and pictures of the human rights violations during the military dictatorship led by Pinochet are self-explanatory and easy to navigate.

To get away from the bustle of the city we did a day trip to the Canyon del Maipo just outside Santaigo. The lush canyon and the glimmering turquoise waters of the El Yeso Reservoir that supplies water to Santiago were a perfect escape from the city. The biggest treat was seeing a large committee of Andean Condors circling overhead (yes that’s what a group of them is called!).

Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a smallish seaside town two hours from Santiago. It was a perfect respite from the 35C temperatures of Santiago. The old quarter, where our B&B was located, is a UNESCO site and is famous for its old buildings covered in brightly covered murals. Other sections in the lower quarters of the old town are covered in graffiti and are run down. Valparaiso is mainly a port town, and very much feels like one. The neighbouring town of Vina del Mar is a complete contrast. It is a trendy beach town. The beaches are nicer but we preferred the grittiness of Valparaiso.

Atacama Desert

A short flight from Santaigo to Calama and an hour’s bus ride across a desert road gets you to the small, dusty frontier town of San Pedro de Atacama. Dirt streets, adobe buildings, a deserted plaza and lots of stray dogs are the highlights of this town. You expect Clint Eastwood to step out at any minute.

The town mainly serves as the launching point for desert tours. The terrain of the desert is varied – from moonscape valleys, salt flats, lush oases, miles of sand and lava, to sparkling turquoise lakes. The jarring red and white rock formations in Valle de Luna were created by tetonic forces about 4 million years ago. There are few signs of any life in the harsh wind blown crevices. The salt flats, though not as phenomenal as those in Bolivia, were still beautiful to visit and watch the flamingos devour their scrumptious (and smelly) algae. The beautiful lakes with varying shades of turquoise were pristine. The most beautiful was Piedras Rojas, surrounded by volcanic mountains and red lava rock. The contrast in colors made for good photography.

The Atacama desert is famed as one of the best places on earth to stargaze, because of its high altitude and lack of light pollution. It is almost always clear – except of course when we visited. We were there for some of its rare cloudy nights, so were disappointed to miss out on the stargazing.