Landing and Taking off again

After saying goodbye to my Dad in the international departures area as he headed to San Francisco and Ty and I to Santiago, Chile my last tie to home was once again cut. A strange feeling after months of planning, shopping and bike building to actually be leaving.

A long, but uneventful day of airplanes and airports landed us in the busy city of Santiago, Chile. By a stroke of amazing good fortune we had a place to stay waiting for us with Ty's friend Kirilie and her family. We were ridiculously spoiled with food, a comfortable room with a view of the surrounding mountains, a large back yard to reassemble our bikes in and excursions around the area.

First order of business, bicycle reassembly

Excursion up a crazy amount of hairpin turns to reach a ski resort on the outskirts of Santiago

Instead of immediately hopping on our bikes we decided to take advantage of Santiago being one of only two places in the world from which you can fly to Easter Island. The tiny remote island is of course famous for its mysterious stone head statues, but what we weren't expecting was the fantastic landscapes and coastlines that accompany these famous archeological sites. Having seen countless photos of the heads, but knowing nothing else about the island we were truly amazed by our 5 days there.

Arriving on a brand new 787 to the tiny Easter Island airport

Great campsite for our time on the island

The island contains only one town, Hanga Roa, where we discovered the most delicious Pina Colada ice cream.

Given the scorching hot and humid weather we opted to rent a car to see the big sites on the island. A 60km loop takes you around the entire island.

We had most of the sites to ourselves including lunch here

There are horses roaming all over the island.

And dogs, which became our constant companions everywhere we went.

We surprisingly found ourselves alone on the island quite often despite the large amount of tourists.

A sweaty morning hike brought us to a completely unexpected and stunning view at the top of an extinct crater.

At night it was a relief to see the sun disappear and cool air begin to blow in while watching the boats return for the evening before falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves.

We were fortunate to get to see one sunset before our departure. It was an unbelievable experience to visit such a remote and mysterious place, but after spending everyday sweaty I was looking forward to our return to cooler climes on the mainland and finally getting our bicycles on the road.