RAPA NUI and CHILE
June 2018 - Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
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Rapa Nui is technically part of Chile but it's also the world's most isolated island, culturally Polynesia. We stopped over on our way from Tahiti to Africa. Fortunately we speak Spanish, so we were able to avoid the mass tourism by hiring a scooter and staying with an indiginous family at a campground. GREAT! Fascinating conversation flowed like cheap Chilean wine. If you speak Spanish and like to cook over firewood then we highly recommend Anakena Beach. The Rapa Nui locals we met all wanted independence from Chile so that they can create their own legislation. They were angry, for example, when Chile poured concrete into their ancient water wells beacause they didn't comply with some standard. The good news is that Rapa Nui recently won complete control over their national park (with the famous "moai" statues), so the political debate has shifted to more versus less globalization.
Our new friends see their extreme isolation as good news, to keep all of humanity's bad shit far far away. They speak Spanish and the Rapa Nui language, which is impressive because the ancient civilization collapsed, then the Europeans arrived bringing disease, so the indiginous population got all the way down to just 111 people. The culture is now strong, and yes, extreme isolation seems to help.
In Santiago Chile we spent a week visiting friends. This is a place we hope to visit again and again. Santiago is a natural stopover from New Zealand to half the planet. In this case, we are on our way to Kenya and Uganda. Also, our friends are fabulous.
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Santiago and Valparaiso, Chile:
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