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Old Jan 10, 2011, 6:14 pm
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iahphx
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Join Date: Mar 2000
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Originally Posted by 3544quebec
Chile is very strict about bringing fresh produce into the country to protect the local industries from disease. Your advice about bringing a supply of food into Easter Island would imply that these restrictions don't exist for arrivals to Easter Island (presumably because their is no local agriculture to speak of).Do you know if importing food on the Lima-IPC flight is permitted?
Yeah, food importation could be a problem on the new LIM-IPC flight. I've heard from others that they've been hassled bringing in food into Chile. I've also heard a report that they were concerned about new pests being introduced onto Easter Island from the LIM flight (of course, Easter Island doesn't grow much food, and they already had int'l flights from Tahiti). So food certainly MIGHT be confiscated on the new LIM flight.

If you come from SCL, you can pretty much bring anything you want onboard. It's treated as purely a domestic flight. I saw plenty of coolers -- both checked and as cabin baggage. No doubt everybody who lives on Easter Island brings food back with them (and HDTVs and anything else they can!). It's a very expensive place to buy anything, if you can even find what you want. Unfortunately, you'll need to leave the airport to buy provisions, so this won't work if you're not doing a layover at SCL.

Of course, if you're a USA citizen and don't already have a Chilean reciprocity sticker, you're better off on the LIM flight because you're not likely to save yourself $140 by bringing food in. Until we hear reports, I would be a bit discrete about it. I wouldn't try to bring in perishables from LIM. Just pack snacks in your luggage. And, if you don't mind the weight and the checked baggage, bring a suitcase of whatever you want to drink with you. Or just be prepared to spend about $10/day per person on basic hydration.

BTW, they are a little concerned by what you might bring back to Chile from Easter Island (I guess the mainland DOES have a thriving agricultural sector!). They'll confiscate your EI bananas. But you're not likely to be bringing any other food back to the mainland!
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