06 August 2010
Easter Island
One of the benefits of unplanned travel is the time spent talking to others about where they've been and passing on one's own experiences. Not so many of those making long treks around South America reach Easter Island due to the expense, and the most frequently asked question is, 'Is it worth it?' This is quite hard to answer.
Easter Island is one of those places that knows it has you over a barrel. It's not like a mainland town where you can turn up one day, decide it's not for you, and leave the next morning for somewhere else. You fly in with LAN (no other options) and you stay a few nights before flying back or onward (to Tahiti or Santiago). So the flight is expensive, the accommodation horribly overpriced, as is food and car rental. Many backpackers try to camp rather than stay in dorms that cost as much as an ordinary room elsewhere, and bring in as much food as they can to cook for themselves. A dated and battered cabin can easily cost US$120 per night off-season. Hotel rooms that would barely scrape three stars can be US$200.
So there's little in the way of value-for-money , and that's easy enough to assess, but whether the experience merits the expenditure is hard to say. If you're check-list minded, then there's something to be said for being able to claim you've visited the world's most remote inhabited settlement (although two British dependencies make the same claim, I've noted, so maybe not). But I'm not interested in check-lists, and as I've been almost everywhere I'm not easily thrilled, and I'm also far more likely than most visitors, especially those on a 'trip of a lifetime' or even just a very limited annual holiday, to admit that somewhere I visit is something of a dud.
Easter Island wasn't a dud, but it wasn't a thrill either. (To my surprise, as I usually prefer culturally rich destinations to natural beauties, the falls at Iguazú/Iguaçu were much more exciting.) I did enjoy driving round looking at the moai, and then driving round again to give them a second look. Favourites were the quarry where most were produced, and which is like a factory where the power was cut mid-production, and the row of 15 re-erected statues at one site. But the park entrance fee of US$60 took something away from the whole experience, and 'Is it worth it?' was also a common topic of conversation amongst those already on the island, whether they were considering entrance to the park or had already been there.
The response there was easier. If you've already invested so much in coming and staying here, and given that you'll almost certainly never be here again, you should pay the fee. The quarry, with its dozens of statues in various stages of completion, and often tilted at photogenic angles, is arguably the greatest sight on the island.
If you haven't yet bought an air ticket to the island, the answer is much less clear.
I find it's actually harder to become thrilled by artefacts that have been so heavily fingered and pawed over by photography and by the imagination, then by less well-known treasures. I thought the Sphinx was surprisingly small, and the pyramids underwhelming (although the various temples down the Nile and the Valley of the Kings I hope to visit again). Easter Island may be remote, but its total dedication to servicing tourists, who arrive by airplane in their hundreds daily, means that neither remoteness nor obscurity come as much to mind as they would on Heimay (just off Iceland), the Hebrides (Scotland), or Saint-Pierre et Miquelon (just off Canada)--all more or less in sight of assorted mainlands.
The local hoteliers are often described as largely indifferent to the comfort of their guests, and not always scrupulously honest in their charging practices, but we were lucky in the discovery of Lily of Residencial Tadeo y Lily, a charming Frenchwoman who paid attention to every detail, provided an ample continental breakfast, and who spoiled the children. Although the price of the accommodation was still high, we felt well looked-after.
If we must make comparisons (and it seems that people must), then I'd put Easter Island well below Egypt, slightly above Macchu Pichu, below the Great Wall of China, way below Angkor Wat (although there were reminders of the Bayon).
I don't regret the expenditure (and don't forget I'm someone who rarely pays for his travel--although equally don't forget that work and leisure travel are entirely different things). I'm glad I've been. I shan't be returning, unless by any chance en route to or from Tahiti, in which case I'd certainly take at least a day to sit and contemplate the key sites again.
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I find it interesting to think about if we've been jaded by too much media exposure to places. I don't think that's the case for me, I loved being at Angkor Wat which, even though it was crawling with humanity, was amazing to me. It's also easy to be jaded by privileged, for many travelers something like Easter Island is a once in a life time experience, while the lofty few (of which I'm one) can afford to say things like, "Meh, this was okay, it's no [fill in the blank]. Plus, next month I'm going to [fill in the blank.]" We're a spoiled lot.
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