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Easter Island -- my experience

Easter Island -- my experience

Old Jan 22, 2011, 9:07 pm
  #31  
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Originally Posted by cityfishing
Ouch. Thanks for the tips. Hopefully, we will encounter the reasonable ranger as my 7 year old is coming on the trip. Or someone who is staying in our hotel might let us borrow their receipt. The fees for reciprocity and park entrances do add up. We are also going to Machu Picchu and finding cheap intra-Peru LAN flights without paying the gringo price has been difficult.
I heard that they're supposed to stamp your receipt so you can't trade them, but I don't think ours were stamped. Obviously, at $60/pop, a huge "gray market" would likely develop on the island if you can trade them. I don't know the answer to this.

We used LanPass miles for the intra-Peru LAN flights to avoid that gringo tax. It was a crazy good deal last year, when LANPass had a promo. If you can't use ff miles, consider LAN's Peruvian competitors. I think there's a lot of internet discussion about this topic because flying LAN in Peru is silly at the prices they want to charge foreigners.
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Old Jan 23, 2011, 9:56 am
  #32  
 
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cityfishing, believe me that your trip to Chile is going to cost you less in entrance fees to national parks, museums, visas etc. than the equivalent a Chilean family would pay visiting your country.
The entrance fee to the park for children, foreign and national, is CLP$5000 - roughly US$10.
http://www.conaf.cl/parques/ficha-pa...pa_nui-60.html
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Old Jan 24, 2011, 6:57 am
  #33  
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Originally Posted by bystander
cityfishing, believe me that your trip to Chile is going to cost you less in entrance fees to national parks, museums, visas etc. than the equivalent a Chilean family would pay visiting your country.
The entrance fee to the park for children, foreign and national, is CLP$5000 - roughly US$10.
That's simply not true. A Chilean family can come to the United States and visit every National Park Service site and federal recreation area in the country for a year for the grand total of $80.

http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm

The Visa fee is the same, as the Chileans engage in "reciprocity." Museum admissions are hard to compare.
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Old Jan 24, 2011, 3:12 pm
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Thank you so much for the trip report. That is the number 1 trip on my wish list and the info. was quite helpful.
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Old Jan 24, 2011, 5:39 pm
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Originally Posted by iahphx
It's crazy to fly 15,000 miles from the US for a few days.
Tell that to the folks who hang out in the Mileage Run forum.

Thanks for the highly informative report. Easter island is on my to do list and your post will greatly assist me in this endeavour. ^
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Old Jan 28, 2011, 8:48 pm
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by iahphx
That's simply not true. A Chilean family can come to the United States and visit every National Park Service site and federal recreation area in the country for a year for the grand total of $80.

http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm

The Visa fee is the same, as the Chileans engage in "reciprocity." Museum admissions are hard to compare.
Actually the reciprocity charge is not the same as the cost for a visa to the USA. US$140 doesn't get you the visa, only the application and an interview. The interview is in Santiago, no matter where you live in the country. Its up to you to get to it. Setting up the interview on the phone costs US$14 and, if you get the visa, you pay the delivery charge for your passport to be returned - minimum US$10. If you don't get your visa, you lose the US$140 plus any added costs. For a family, that works out a good deal more expensive than just turning up and paying US$140 each at point of entry. Not that I am a fan of charges and fees for anyone.
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Old Mar 1, 2011, 4:48 am
  #37  
 
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Recent visit to easter islands

Just returned last week from easter island. Great place to visit but make sure your guide knows what they are talking about. We were fortunate that our guide was from the island and was honest and said he did not know when he did not know instead of giving us some lip service.
The moai are 'just' 300-400 years old; they are not ancient. Since the island had, at most , 20,000 people, it seems that, prior to tribal warefare, their whole existence must have been carving out moais and moving them to their present positions.
We stayed at what is considered one of the 'better' places, the altiplanico (hope i spelled it right). About a 10 minute cab ride from the 'city'. (1970 era toyota cabs seem to be the general rule). No airconditioning, of course (bad for the environment), limited internet access (strongly suggest one buy/rent a phone while on the mainland if you want to stay in touch with the world), and so-so food for the limited b'fast buffet.

I was sort of hoping to find nirvana on the island. It is so far from anywhere, i was hoping to find a place to get lost in for a 2 or 3 week period annually (in order to relax and get away from daily hustle and bustle) but easter island is not the place for me. I think the lack of comforts....yes, i am relatively spoiled... Was a turnoff for me.

Words of wisdom...watch out for horse manure; horses are owned by families but allowed to roam where and whenever they wish. They appear poorly nourished and it bothered me to see young colts with their ribs sticking out.

I know i am rambling but i am glad i visited the island; i doubt if i would go back.
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Old Mar 1, 2011, 7:09 am
  #38  
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LIM flights "temporarily" suspended

Just a heads up if you booked, or are trying to book, the new LIM-Easter Island flights. LAN has "temporarily" suspended these flights for about 7 months beginning in April. There are also some other flight changes due to runway work on Easter Island.

http://chile-reise.com/news/en/lan-c...ril-2011-1919/

We'll see if the LIM flights actually resume. It seemed like an odd route to me, so I wonder. The biggest advantage for Americans is that it avoided the $140 "reciprocal" fee collected at SCL if you land there on an int'l flight.
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Old Mar 3, 2011, 2:11 am
  #39  
 
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Unhappy

OMG Thank you for that post! I booked my flight LIM-IPC in Dec for April 24-May 1 directly through LAN but they have not sent me any email warning of a potential problem. If you hadn't mentioned it I would have been oblivious until much closer to the date (I have been prewarned to confirm, confirm, confirm for any SA flights, but I honestly didn't expect they'd just cancel and not tell me!). I was so looking forward to an Easter Island stamp in my passport, this sucks.
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Old Mar 17, 2011, 1:20 pm
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Originally Posted by iahphx
Just a heads up if you booked, or are trying to book, the new LIM-Easter Island flights. LAN has "temporarily" suspended these flights for about 7 months beginning in April. There are also some other flight changes due to runway work on Easter Island.

http://chile-reise.com/news/en/lan-c...ril-2011-1919/

We'll see if the LIM flights actually resume. It seemed like an odd route to me, so I wonder. The biggest advantage for Americans is that it avoided the $140 "reciprocal" fee collected at SCL if you land there on an int'l flight.
iahphx... I am planning a June trip to Easter Island with a stop over in LIM on the return. Indeed, the LIM -> IPC non-stop is gone. Because SCL is the Chilean city I will land, I will to pay $140 per person, even though I am only transiting, right? Do I need a visa to visit Easter Island?
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Old Mar 17, 2011, 9:38 pm
  #41  
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Originally Posted by Ilove2fly
iahphx... I am planning a June trip to Easter Island with a stop over in LIM on the return. Indeed, the LIM -> IPC non-stop is gone. Because SCL is the Chilean city I will land, I will to pay $140 per person, even though I am only transiting, right? Do I need a visa to visit Easter Island?
So your first point of entry into Chile (including Easter Island) is SCL? If so, yes, if you're an American, you have to pay the $140. It's not a "visa" -- it's a "reciprocity" fee charged to the nationals of countries which charge Chileans for visas. If you don't enter Chile at SCL (which is tricky to avoid) you don't have to pay the fee.

That, of course, was the beauty of flying LIM-IPC, even if you wanted to visit SCL at the end (IPC-SCL is domestic, no fee collected). Of course, with the flight pulled (at least temporarily) that option has vanished. The only way now for an American to directly get to Easter Island without paying the fee is to fly there from Tahiti. I'd love to do it that way but, as we all know, it ain't easy.

Your other choice is to "sneak" into Chile by land. Like take a bus from Mendoza, and then fly to IPC from SCL. Not easy, either -- and most of Chile's neighbors now have "reciprocity" fees, too.
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Old Mar 19, 2011, 11:44 am
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Love to visit Tahiti. However, in this case, it would be cheaper to just pay the $140.
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Old Apr 10, 2011, 9:36 pm
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Originally Posted by iahphx
So your first point of entry into Chile (including Easter Island) is SCL? If so, yes, if you're an American, you have to pay the $140. It's not a "visa" -- it's a "reciprocity" fee charged to the nationals of countries which charge Chileans for visas. If you don't enter Chile at SCL (which is tricky to avoid) you don't have to pay the fee.

That, of course, was the beauty of flying LIM-IPC, even if you wanted to visit SCL at the end (IPC-SCL is domestic, no fee collected). Of course, with the flight pulled (at least temporarily) that option has vanished. The only way now for an American to directly get to Easter Island without paying the fee is to fly there from Tahiti. I'd love to do it that way but, as we all know, it ain't easy.

Your other choice is to "sneak" into Chile by land. Like take a bus from Mendoza, and then fly to IPC from SCL. Not easy, either -- and most of Chile's neighbors now have "reciprocity" fees, too.

help me out here. this is the route i plan on taking, taking advantage of BA's unlimited stopover perk:

NYC to Lima
Lima to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires to Santiago
Santiago to Easter Island

Return Flight is
Easter Island to Santiago
Santiago to NYC


if i am understanding you correctly, i would have to pay the $140 reciprocity fee entering santiago (i guess because argentina would charge chileans the same $140 fee)? off topic, but do you know if lima or buenos aires would have similar reciprocity fees?
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Old Apr 10, 2011, 9:54 pm
  #44  
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Originally Posted by cybaslacka
NYC to Lima - no fee

Lima to Buenos Aires - $140 if not in transit directly to SCL

Buenos Aires to Santiago $140

Santiago to Easter Island - Domestic flight

Return Flight is

Easter Island to Santiago - Domestic flight

Santiago to NYC
Fee is based upon the passport you are traveling on, not based upon where you are coming from.
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Old Apr 11, 2011, 6:21 pm
  #45  
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Originally Posted by Eastbay1K
Fee is based upon the passport you are traveling on, not based upon where you are coming from.
Right. And if you're travelling on a USA passport and enter Argentina at EZE, they'll charge you a similar entry fee.

Free travel can be expensive with multiple reciprocity fees.

If you can, try not to enter Chile at SCL and Argentina at EZE.
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