Santiago and Easter Island, Chile

Country visa requirements:
Chile charges a reciprocity fee for the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and the UK. The fees vary but are USD100 for US citizens, and USD134 for Canadians. You pay when you land. The fee is valid for life of the passport. UPDATE: Land crossing has not FEE, if you do not want to pay do a land crossing into Chile
Airport:
Santiago airport is very well set up. No worries for travelers used to western type airports. The airport is unlike some I have seen in other South American countries where chaos is the name. There is an ATM right before the exit after Customs. Right outisde before the exit are public transpo companies.
Language:
It helps to know Spanish. Do not depend on English alone. Unlike other South American countries I have traveled, you don't get conned here, ie at the transpo desks.

Santiago:
Santiago is a city with a great influence of European architecture. The hostel I stayed at is located within the Londres / Paris part of the city, near the Uni of Chile. A single with shared bathroom came up to about USD15. The few streets outside my hostel have cobbled pavements, just as in Paris. I found Santiago to be a city with good infrastructure with all western amenities. With not much time to see the city as this visit was primarily to see Easter Island, I will definitely return and see more of Chile. The city has a metro (subway) system which is a good way to get around to different parts of the city if one has more time and to explore. It is good to know what there is a straight route from Auckland to Papeete to Rapa Nui to Santiago - something to bear in mind for the future from my new base. A one day city tour condensed as it was crammed full of information really didn't do justice but it gave enought of a details for my jet lag mind, such as a visit to the San Cristobal Hill where the enactment of Don Pedro de Valdivia staking claim to the discovery of Santiago in 1541 and only to be attacked by the Mapochos. The temperature was a dry hot 36c and the actors had on thick costumes. There is a direct flight from LAX on LAN which runs around USD1300 RT. Absent this time was the name Simon Bolivar which I had come to know from my last travels to the Latin countries. As usual the tour stopped in the central parque typical in every Latin city. Here it was the Plaza des Armas, where as usual was flanked by government offices and the large cathedral on 2 sides (I am referring to a rectangular plaza).
Easter Island
Moai Facts:
An "Ahu" is a holy altar. On top stand the moai. Moai typically have a topknot also known as a "pukau" generally of red stone from one specific area of the island. The earlier moai (1400-late 1600) were typically of basalt. The later moai (from the "last period") 1860s were from a place called Raro Raraku, where until today you can see all phases of construction of the moai, made of the volcanic stone of the area of Raro Raraku.
Some Rapa Nui History:
Boat houses - stones placed on the ground in the shape of a boat base. Stones piled towards the middle made the enclosure
Manavai - chicken or vegetation house.
Make Make - God thought to be creator of Rapa Nui people. Symbolized in petrogylphs.
Rapa Nui Lingo:
"Hare" means house. Throughout the main town, Hanga Roa, you see "Hare" this "Hare" that. Hare PC is one cybercafe. Hare Orca is one dive store.

The 1st thoughts which came to mind was: go visit Easter Island NOW! like a place like Cuba, do not wait! GO before the ugly Marriotts, Hiltons and Sheratons stake their ugly feet and McDonalds and Starbucks plant their ugly butts. The triangle of Polynesia is outlined by Hawaii, Easter Island and Tahiti. For travelers like me who find Oahu and Maui ridiculously overbuilt Rapa Nui was perfect. Yes, Rapa Nui (local name for Easter Island) or Isla de Pasqua (Chilean name) is as remote as you can get. The main drag is quiet. People still use horses as transportation, to the vehicles being driven around. The Parque Nacional (PN) which covers most areas where the moais are hve farmlands. Within these farmlands within the PN you see cows and horses roaming around. As you drive around you see horses crossing the road or grazing on the grass on the sides of the roads. I am staying at a residencial ("house") of a lady who rents out 3 rooms. It is about USD50 per night with breakfast. She makes her own jams, squeezes fresh juice of papaya and orange for breakfast, and lets me taste the fruit from her home grown trees. There is one rare strange fruit and expensive on the mainland called the "Lukoma" (I call it leukemia) which looks like a mango with a single fruit inside. It is a dry fruit which tastes like taro. Weird one. I got sunburnt the other day and she me cut some aloe vera branches off her tree to apply on my sunburn. Outside one of my bedroom windows is the neighbor's horse nibbling on the grass. The proprietor's dog Poh-Ay and the neighbor's dog, Mahina, keep me company when I sit outside daily for breakfast. Yeah, it doesn't get any more remote than this. It is civilised but remote. AND expensive. The flight from Santiago is about 5.5 hours and a RT runs around USD650-800 on LAN. I got it cheaper because I bought a LAN pass. But worth every dime. The other option to lodging on the island are local hotels. Just recently a luxury hotel opened which runs around USD3000 for a 3 night 4 day package. It is a challenge to keep the island remote and under developed as compared to Hawaii. The farmland owners, at the right price, would sell their land to have an ugly big hotel chain be built, such as the case here. But since 40% of the island is PN (NP=National Park) it will be interesting to see what the next 10 years bring. But go NOW! before the ugly capitalistic tourism companies set foot. It is peak summer. Sunset occurs around 21:30. Weather is sub tropical. It gets to about 30+ C during the day and about 15C in the evenings. Should be the dry season but thanks to global warming, there has been sporadic rain.
The only way to see the moais around the island is to rent a vehicle or take local tours. I decided on the latter. The famous moai are the ones at Tahai [the one with the white eyes], a 15 minute walk from the town, Hanga Roa, and Tongariki - the 15 moai erected in 1992 by the Japanese company, Tadano. The Tongariki moai were push down from the tsunami of 1960 and so lay flat for 32 years. Generally speaking there is an "Ahu" or holy altar, on top of which stand the moai. Without getting into too much history which I am sure everyone can read up for themselves, the moai go back as far as 1400s and recent as 1860s, when the missionaries arrived. The first Rapa Nui settlers are believed to have arrived around 1400s from SE Asia. Interestingly, the Rapa Nui language have some similarity to the Malay language. After 2 days of guided tours, I had arranged to do a dive, which was going to cost me USD60 with equipment. No surprise here, this is what it cost me in the Galapagos. Instead of doing the dive, I decided to hike the northern part of the island by hiring the guide from the first 2 days. This part of the island have many Rapa Nui archaelogical sites, Ahu's and Moais unrestored and untouched. It was rather expensive to have a guide but there was no way of finding your way. From a place called Ahu Tepeu to Anakena. The terrain was just volcanic boulders and rocks, stretching as far as 4 miles inland. Throughout the hike, I saw many cows and horses. There was a good amount of dung from both animals so you had to watch where you stepped. The hike was about 16 Km and over hilly volcanic grassy terrain with the ocean down cliffs on one side. I wasn't disappointed. I saw originally excavated moai dating back from 1400 just lying there! human bones, animal bones, pieces of weaponry! from polished stones, petroglyphs in caves dating back to the 1400s! un-restored. It was very exciting. Today, I visited the museum. I saw the same bits of weaponry on display I had just touched yesterday. Wow, very exciting! The guide said that it was uncommon for tourist to request the route I wanted to go but I figured if I didn't do the hike now, in 10 years the archaelogical remains could be removed but the wall where I was going to dive will still be there. In short, there were 2 main archaelogical finds in Rapa Nui history: one in 1914 and the 2nd in 1930s. Generally, the moai have a top hat called a "Pukau" of red stone. Another interesting place is Rano Raraku where different phases of construction of the moai can be found. The one beach on Rapa Nui is the white sand at Anakena. My 16km hike ended on this beach. Tired from the day's hike I dozed off not being able to stay awake, and missed another day to catch the famous sunset at Ahu Tahai. I caught it the first day but I have to catch it before I leave, one more time.
Just Another Day on the Islands:
The 2 dogs Poh-Ay and Mahina are buddies. Boyfriend(Poh-Ay) girlfriend(Nahina) quabble from time to time. You can hear the dogs yelping about. Well, just today while snoozing in my room, the yelping was a little louder than normal. I stepped outside to see what the excitement was all about. 2 horses had wandered into the compound. Followed by another horse with a young boy. He asked me in Spanish where the 2 horses were. I looked out my other bedroom window, where the laundry lines are. The 2 horses were stuck in the laundry lines. I pointed in that direction to the little boy and he went over on his horse to shoo the horses away. The proprietor also has a cat - Kathy. All 3 animals are characters. It took me 3 days to get Mahina to let me pat her.
An interesting moment:
While walking out one evening, I ran into a Dutch couple I had met on my dive trip in Cocos Islands (Costa Rica) in July 2008. They were traveling for a year but never expected to run into me 6 months later. Neither had I. Back in July during my dive trip, I still wasn't sure if I was headed to Easter Island. We spent the rest of the evening chatting and drinking wine. It is one small world.
Interesting People I have met in Chile:
An Irish traveling for 6 weeks Ecuador, Chile, Australia and onwards to Ireland.
A Brazilian non married couple, the Brazilian had lived in Australia for 3 years and spoke with an Aussie accent. His gf spoke no English.
A Brazilian French couple living in Brazil on their honeymoon in Chile. They got married in France.
A married male gay couple (Norwegian Argentinian couple living in Denmark. The Argentine speaks 5 languages fluently. In total he knows 8 languages!)
A male gay couple from Montreal (Chilean Quebecan couple. The Chileno speaks 3 languages)
60 year old lady traveling the globe on her own after selling her house (From Norway, she also speaks at least 4 languages. She used to work at IBM, yeah corporate person. Sold her home. Does art and now travels the world. She had just completed a 9 week cruise from Arctic to Antartica, lived 1 month in Buenos Aires, now onward to Peru, Brazil and home. Been on the road since Sept'08).