Day 16: Easter Island to Santiago to Lima

Day 16:  Easter Island to Santiago to Lima

Quote of the day: Would you like to fit in one more visit to the see the heads?

Weather:    Perfect in paradise, dark in Santiago, early morning in Lima

Pics:     Airport art, heads near airport and town, flowers

Again up at 7 to see the sunrise, sitting by the pool. THB asks for 2 cappuccinos and croissants to be delivered. Today, they make it well in time to be enjoyed with the sun arising.

The usual at breakfast (great toast!) and we gather at 10 for the trip to airport. Bag check and then back in the van to visit one head with replicas of the original eyes (all the other eyes are long gone) and a platform with five heads and on empty plinth. As good as it gets, again. M&P&S&A walk back to the airport, THB and DB take the shuttle with the carry-ons.

Flight leaves on time from Easter Island and in typical LAN fashion, there is almost no help moving from a domestic flight to an international flight. THB corners two junior boy scouts in LAN jackets next to a check-in counter and after a few minutes finally gets them to understand that we have our boarding passes already, have checked our bags through to Lima and all we want is help finding the next flight. Ohhhhhhh, the light begins to dawn and in typical LAN fashion they start pointing to the far end of the terminal (THB needs to travel with a seeing-eye dog or a cane and dark glasses…this is getting ridiculous) at some orange dots on the outfield scoreboard. At least they point. THB and crew of five follow, where we get through immigration and to the gate a few minutes before the flight starts boarding.

Yes, this is LAN: they board the first/business class and those needing a little more help first, which means you leave the desk and then stand in the jetway for 15 minutes. There can’t be another airline that expedites their best customers into long standing up holding patterns, can there?

The flight to Lima is on time, and all our bags show up, too. Wow! Of course, it is 12:20am local time and 11:20pm body time (up two hours, back one). Our transfer guide is there to meet us, and the shuttle crawls along from the airport to the hotel, 45 minutes. No traffic. No highway, either. Arrive at hotel around 1:30 am to find that the only part of Hotel B (for Beta?) that is open are our three rooms and the chicken disk and possibly the library (where breakfast will be served).

When we booked the hotel, we knew that we were some of the first guests. We just didn’t realize the other residents were painters, sanders, marble finishers, floor refinishers, wood burners (hmmmm…true, there’s nothing like fresh cut wood in the afternoon!), and other miscellaneous types (scaffolders). The art is great; they have works from local galleries and in the private collections of the hotel owners.