Chile
After recharging our batteries on Tahiti and Moorea our next flight took us to Easter Island. Easter Island is the remotest inhabited island on the planet, over 3500 kilometres from Chile and around 1900 kilometres from the Pitcairn islands. It's also pretty tricky to get there, receiving only 8 flights a week from Tahiti and Santiago (Chile) combined.
The island has two paved roads, both in a sorry state, and the rest of the island is covered in dirt-tracks so you really need a 4X4 to get around. The city (population 3000) is full of wild dogs which follow you about looking for attention or scraps of food. They seem completely harmless if you pay no attention to them and they did not cause us any trouble. Though we did see tourists get attacked, but they were trying to pet them. The island is dotted with volcanoes (some complete with lagoons), lava tube caves, high sea-cliffs, some very small young eucalyptus forests and of course the lost cities and statues which cover the entire coast of the island. Some of statues have been re-erected and partially restored to their former glory following their destruction hundreds of years ago (Jared Diamond's 'Collapse' is a good place to find out more info if your interested).
Easter Island was one of the real highlights of the trip. However, I don't think I could describe it well enough to do it justice so I will leave it up to the pictures...
After Easter Island we spent a few days in Santiago (Chile) en-route to Lima in Peru. Santiago had a great vibe, great music, great wine and great food. The few days we spent there left us with a little taster that I'm sure will draw us back in the future.
