AUG 12 - OUR FIRST NIGHT ON EASTER ISLAND

Right before we left Iguazu, the skies cleared and I got a great shot of the Devil's Throat from our room porch.

We took our two flights right after the picture was taken and spent last night in Santiago.

Our trip has been delightfully smooth.  Our one and only glitch turned out not to be so bad after all.  When we got to the airport last night we decided to check to see if we could get boarding passes early for our flight this morning.  Good thing we did.  With a bit of messing around we managed to get on-line and get two of the last four available seats on the flight.  Unlike Aerolineas Argentina which is a last minute grab-your-seat, LAN airways (the Chilean airline) has the old 24 hour before flight time check in like the US airlines do.  The key difference is that unlike US airlines that assign a seat when you buy your ticket, LAN gets you the seat when you check in.  Not only that but the flight at 8:15 this morning is the one and only flight out of Santiago for the day.  The flight was chock-a-block full.  Fortunately, I asked the woman sitting next to me if she mined moving so Charlie could sit next to me.  She actually was planning to re-arrange HER seat so that she could sit next to HER husband.  I think there's something awry with LAN's seating.

The LAN flight was great and we landed here at 11:30 am.  We got to our hotel (Hanga Roa Eco Lodge and Spa).  Easter Island is very rural - chickens, horses, farms, and a tiny little town (Hanga Roa), and the heads, of course.  We had a great lunch.  We also had breakfast at the hotel early this morning, and another breakfast on the plane.  We're beginning to sound like Hobbits with a first and second breakfast.  After all this eating we decided to hike out to 1) see our first set of heads and 2) walk into town for some souvenir shopping.

The photo below is from our room.  Hanga Roa is in the distance.

A closer look at Hanga Roa.

Our self-guided "head" tour (Moai) was very successful.  These weird things don't seem so big until you see someone standing near them.  They kind of fit into the scenery.  I love the hat? topknot? on the guy I'm standing near.  We get a formal tour tomorrow so I can tell about the Moai in more detail.

The town of Hanga Roa is very small with only about 3000 or so residents.  Most of the people here are tourists from one place or another.  More tomorrow - good internet access in the room!  Hurray!