S/V Tavarua

Providencia district in downtown Chile looks so much like cities in Spain and Italy that we are hard-pressed to believe we are in South America. In a city of 4 million people, things seem to work as you would expect. Restaurants are international (Sushi restaurants are making the scene here), the Sueccia nightlife district rivals Disney and Bourbon Street, the Metro is efficient and spotless and the street signs are easy to spot (maybe that is a step up from Europe?).

People look very tailored here. The styles are about as far from Puerto Rico as you could get. Lots of sleek black outfits, gray wool coats, business suits and polished shoes.

The weather is light-jacket pleasant and I suppose that we are just lucky today. This is the heart of winter. The Andes overlook the city and skiing is just 45 minutes away ($30 lift tickets for world class skiing sounds like a good deal). When we came through the airport on the way out to Easter Island, folks were wearing ski jackets, scarfs and hats. Today, everyone’s coats are off and a few people are hanging out in the plazas in just shirt sleeves.

The biggest downside of Santiago is the pollution. Denver has nothing on the books when it comes winter smog. The mountains here cause the same inversion issues and the city has twice the population. More public transportation here, but fewer smog controls on vehicles. That is one brown horizon.

This has been one of the easier Spanish-speaking cities to navigate. People are friendly and a number of people under 25 have some English. Since our Spanish is still in the range of non-existant to non-useful, we still suffer quite a few embarassing moments. We hang our heads in shame. We are from California, after all. (Top of the list when we get back, Spanish classes.)

What a relaxed place. The landscape of the island is a hybrid of a thousand places we have seen. Palm trees, Hibiscus, lava rock walls, papaya and avocado trees, brightly painted houses with tin roofs, all evoke images of Hawaii. Grassy hills, high winds and horses evoke images of the drier sides of the Greek islands. Groves of Eucalyptus trees make makes you think of Santa Cruz. And in the evening, the huge rolling waves and winds crashing over the rocks in the ocean could cause one to think they are off the coast of Oregon. It is quite the hybrid of an island.

The oddest thing about the island, beyond the fantastic carved Moai (Easter Island head statues) keeping watch over the island, is the use of horses for transportation in town. The roads are paved, small vehicles are puttering about a very Hawaiian looking town and yet… the teenagers have a penchant for riding horses to get around. This causes a horse to be tied up to a snack stand, in front of the ATM or a few to be ‘parked’ in the playground while the rider is off watching a soccer game. As you walk along a sidewalk, someone will inevitably gallop past and for some reason, that is a rather disconcerting thing when you are walking in such a quiet place.

The locals, all 4,000 of them, are definitely Polynesian and with the heads on the islands creating good auras, they are saturated with superstitions and folklore. Lots of weekend picnics are located at the ancestral head sites. This involves a wood fire and sometimes fishing next to a lava wall out of the wind. A number of the Moai are knocked over on the island, and it was said that the tribes of the past during disputes would run missions to knock the other tribes heads down. Given the size and weight of these carvings, that must have taken quite a bit of effort. Humans really are an odd species when you stop to consider them.

Derrell’s long hair finally is in fashion here. All the guys look like they could be stand-ins for Jonny Depp in the Pirates of the Carribean movie, complete with tied-back hair, facial expressions, boots and bandannas. Friendly pirates. Everyone you pass, waves, smiles and says hello. From the short time here, you can tell everyone knows everything about everyone else on the island and this gives lots of excuses for gatherings, music practice, soccer games and just general chatting to pass along those last bits of gossip.

Rapa Nui has one of the space shuttle landing runways, giving the place access to land the big cargo and tourist planes that come in just a few days a week. The runway runs the entire width of the island and just adds to the sense of being very isolated on a small island.

Our fellow travelers at the Via Moana hotel were all Americans, probably because Edguardo is one of the few guesthouses running a website that takes reservations on-line. We hooked up with two great people from North Carolina and had a good drive around the island looking at the carved stone heads. We were more impressed with the carvings than we thought we might be. There were more of them than we had imagined. The peaceful stone figures were standing overseeing the island in various locations that were absolutely beautiful, the turquoise water churning to the horizon behind them. Fantastic.