Our comfortable Boeing 767 gave us a great six-hour flight, and as we were travelling westwards, we had the chance to chase a perfect, orangesunset. The meal was served by the most charming stewardess who plied us with frequent refills of tasty Chilean Chardonnay, and the metal cutlery made the whole thing feel like business class. The latest Harry Potter made the journey fly by, and Simon also found time for an amazing documentary about Vinicius Moraes as well as an arty-but-edgy Chilean film about school days at the time of Salvador Allende, It grew dark and we commenced our descent, nose down and ears going pop.
Bang! No ordinary bang, but a massive one as the entire plane shook, not just with the deafening momentary noise, but with the ripples from the impact. This wasn’t even just violent turbulence: we had surely hit something. And then we realised: it was the ground. We had arrived on Easter Island…
Sandra, motherly and disarmingly kindly, took charge of us immediately we had cleared customs. Finding a room here can be tricky, and to be fair, our original plan had been to erect the tent on the foreshore in order to take in the amazing sunsets. But Sandra’s family home, with its massive kitchen, family comings-and-goings and friendly chats (all in Spanish, except when we are learning our first words in Rapa Nui) win us over immediately. One member of the family, the dog called Tokirau, which means El Aire in Castillian, takes such a shine to us that je takes us for a quick midnight stroll to explore the township of Hanga Roa.
And we have an entire week to explore this magical paradise!
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