This is the first part of a One World award in business that will take us MRY-LAX-SCL-IPC-SCL-MIA-SFO-SYD-AYQ-CNS-HKG-LAX-HKG-KIX-DFW-SMF. The Australia and Japan pieces are in July and September. "Us" refers to my lovely wife and me, by the way.

We had to drive to MRY to work with the connection rules for a One World award, and since the flight left pretty early in the morning, opted to overnight at the Econolodge, which was to earn us 1.5 Southwest Rapid Rewards credits. The room was not worth the $44.80, and the creidts haven't posted, so the Econolodge gets a D. We got married in Pacific Grove, which is contiguous with Monterey, I guess, but got to town too late to do anything about that.

Anyway, check-in at MRY was uneventful, though it was the first time I had seen a sign about Port-au-Prince security not being up to snuff. The sign seemed only capable of displaying one offender at a time, so who knows what will happen when another airport needs to be embarrassed. They were able to tag the luggage to IPC, which frankly was more than I expected.

I failed to do my homework on the TBIT One World lounges, so we spent most of our 4 hour layover in LAX's Flagship lounge. Eventually, we made our way to a lounge with a LAN rep, where we got out first taste of the types of people we'd be travelling with. The highlight was a woman bellowing "we forgot to take our Airborne" when I coughed ten feet away from her. I had a fairly serious cough, but my cold was long gone, so I was tempted to try and sit in the row behind them on the plane and torture her all the way to Chile. We figured she would have moved, though, so no fun that way.

My wife can never decide whether to order vegetarian meals or not, since they often end up being diet rather than simply meatless. Flying business, of course, there is often a pasta option anyway. But she opted for the vegetarian on the LAN flights. And paid the price. I don't remember all of the details, but none of the meals were the least bit nutritionally balanced, and there was a reasonable choice on all of the flights had she not pre-ordered. We had a brief layover in Lima, but basically had about 5 minutes to shop once we got off the bus and into the terminal.

We got to SCL sometime in the morning, and again had a 4 hour layover. Apparently there is no LAN lounge for domestic passengers, and we couldn't get them to let us into the international side, even though one agent said they would. The inflight magazine had an ad for a new Sheraton in Vina del Mar, so we wanted to check into spending a couple of our 5 Santiago nights there. I had my SPG card, but we could neither figure out how to use the Global Toll Free number nor find anyone who knew. Eventually we found an internet place, got the pertinent info ($260 a night!), and planned to decide later. Also, there was a Dunkin DOnuts near our gate.

Easter Island

The Easter Island flight was decent, and I got a nice view just prior to landing. The hotelier met us with a little sign and a lei for each of us. He apparently was unsuccessful in finding anyone without a reservation while we waited for our luggage, so we hopped in his vehicle and made our way to Hotel Martin y Anita. We hadn't really made any plans about what to see/do, but I was planning to find a tour guide and we had brought our never used snorkelling gear. We spent the first afternoon (Dec 31) walking around the town of Hanga Roa and visiting the little beach there. We asked in the dive shops about snorkelling, and they upsold us to an accompanied initiation dive, scheduled for two days later. We also saw ads for a sunrise tour to one of the moai sites, and were able to get the hotel to call for us. We spent $40 each, which, in retrospect, geez. Dinner found us a Cafe Ra'a, where I basically ended up with pork chops due to a lack of Spanish skill. I took a semester that just ended in December, and we even had a food chapter. I have no one to blame but myself. We crashed quite early, even though it was New Year's Eve. A cat came in throught the window, but I ushered him out the door.

We got picked up for the tour at like 6:30, and the prettiest part of the sunrise, where the whole sky is pink and orange and the sun is still below the horizon, passed as we drove to our destination. It was a pretty cool place, though, and there were probably 50 total people there. The tour operator didn't have anything else available that day, so we decided to rent a car.

It turns out January 1 (possibly compounded by being a Sunday) is a widely observed holiday on Easter Island. We were completely unable to find a rental car, even having trekked to one of the nicest hotels in town to ask there. I had a mighty sunburn by the time we gave up. We took a cab to Anakena, a beach on the north side of the island. It was full of local families enjoying the holiday. Most people seemed simply to be enjoying the waves, and every time a large one would come, everyone cheered. It was really fantastic. The same cab picked us up at a specified time, and it was about $25 roundtrip. It was probably 15 miles each way. That night, we dined at Bar Restaurant Pub Cafe Tavake, which was fairly horrifying. My wife could barely saw through the microwaved empanada. Also there were three sizes of french fries available. Small, medium, and large. $4, $8, or $12. We opted to share a medium. It started to rain, though, so there were several parties gathered on the covered portion of the porch, which was fun. I managed to leave my crochet hook on one of the planes, and it turns out my wife sucks at travel sized Boggle, so we went to bed early again. I forgot to mention that the room contained three single beds, perfect for a romantic vacation.

The next morning, it was time to dive. Some of the absolutely nicest people we have ever provided this experience. A really brief lesson about how to use the piece through which one breathes, and we were off. We didn't go out too far. There was a bouy with a rope tied to the ocean floor, so we geared up and dropped backwards out of the boat. We each had a guide, who monitored the equipment to be sure we would be safe and also guided. My wife and her guide went first. I got under like 2 feet and had trouble balancing the pressure in my ears. For some reason, I asked to surface, and we did. The second try, we got a little further, but my ears were really bad, so I panicked and asked to surface again. The third try was better, and we got down near where my wife was actually successfully enjoying the surroundings, rather than using all of her mental energy to breathe through her mouth. Eventually, I settled down and saw fish, coral, and the like. After a few minutes, I felt like going back up. The guide talked me into one last try, which was far and away the best. We actually left the rope! There were all kinds of cool fish (some in schools) maybe an eel, and the stuff attached to the bottom was quite nice. We surfaced for the final time, only to find out my wife had been waiting for some time, since I took forever. She claims to have seen a turtle. As I said, the nicest group of guys one could imagine. It was $50 each.

We managed to find a rental car, but it would be like 30 minutes. Being completely out of pesos and needing most of our remaining dollars to pay for the hotel room, we went to the bank. The ATM apparently only takes Mastercard type cards, which we didn't have with us. There is a guy inside the bank who can help, but he apparently also handles the most complicated transcations known to banking, so his line was not moving at all. We bailed and went back to get the car, which was actually like a little SVU. I think it ended up being like $70 for 24 hours. 8 hour rentals are also available for about 80% of the price.

Then, lunch at Ariki O Te Pana. Far and away the winner in our book. The empanadas were terrific, as was the juice. Also, the french fries were slightly cheaper. When we finished, the supersweet waitress invited us back. My theory is that she knew I would come back, and just wanted to put the idea in my wife's mind. Someone near us had ordered a pizza, which also looked tasty.

We first drove up to the Orongo Cermemonial Village, not too far from the town. The road was not paved, and my wife had fun trying to figure out the four wheel drive. Since we didn't have a guide, I advise you to take everything I say with a huge grain of salt. Apparently the islanders would gather up here once a year to celebrate and find a Birdman for the coming year. This was accomplished by having willing participants or their deputies descend a cliff and swim out to a little island. The first one to return with a tern egg would be the year's birdman. The back side of the complex opens onto a caldera which is has a reed filled lake. The complex itself is largely composed of low houses built of stacked flat stones. It was really cool. On the way down, we passed a couple of tour busses on the way up, so apparently we had lucky timing.

We then made our way across the island to Rano Raraku, the volcano from which the moai were quarried. This very well may be the coolest place I have ever been. Those moai that are currently standing on platforms have all been restored over the years. Well, restored to their places - I don't think they have done anything to most of the statues. At this (extinct) volcano, though, the inner and outer slopes are just littered with partially carved or partially buried ones. Apparently some broke in transport and were just left, and surely there are other reasons I didn't get. So there are a few paths on the outer slopes, and luckily someone tipped us off to find the inside paths as well. They were carved facing upward, and so there are also several that have the faces carved and are just waiting to be chiseled free. Just awesome.

A quick stop at the navel of the world, then back to the beach. By now it was early evening (6 or 7), so there were far fewer people than the prior day. I was also becoming more and more sunburned, so we only stayed a short while. There are many horses all over the island, and some had made their way to the moai near the beach. We didn't get very close, but it was fun to see. We then looked for a smaller beach called Ovake, but I guess we took the wrong road and decided to head back to town rather than keep looking. We made it in time to gather for the sunset just north of town. There were about 20 people there, some on horseback, some singing(?), some with tripods. A good mix.

We couldn't decide how hungry we were, and we were looking a little worn down after a long day, so we decided not to go to one of the fancier places for dinner. So back to Ariki O Te Pana it was! I think it was pushing ten by the time we got there, and it seemed the staff and possibly some friends were gathered on the patio enjoying the evening. The waitress recognized us as we walked past to get a bottle of water at the minimart next door, and let us know they would be happy to serve us. We found our seats and I ordered the pizza. But they were out, and the waitress recommended beef skewers. So I ordered half of a chicken and some fries. But they were out. So I went with the beef, and it was terrific. My wife had the veggie empanada rather than her standard cheese, and found it quite good. Then the waitress appears with "this is what we have for dessert." It was called lemon pie, but the circumference of a large pizza. And good. Definitely more than we needed at that hour, but worth every calorie. She then told us had great Ovake was, to our slight disappointment. As we left, she thanked us for coming back, and my wife managed to ascertain she would not be working the next day.

We spent the morning shopping, getting money, and swimming in the little rock pool in town. We also sent some postcards, which got cranked through a little machine since they were out of stamps. I was so excited, I went to buy 5 more postcards, and the woman at the shop told me the post office would stamp our passports! Maybe it was the sun, but I was very happy to get that done.

At checkout, Martin asked if I would be paying in pesos or dollars. I asked how much it would be in pesos, and it would have been like $320, versus the $260 it was in dollars. So that hotel is not recommended. He took us to the airport a little early, considering they have just the one flight, so there was a lot of sitting around trying to remember where we had seen our fellow travelers. You could sit outside, though, and there was even a grassy area, so it wasn't bad. The flight sucked, as a young girl a couple of rows in front of us grabbed the flight attendant every time he walked by and demanded something. By the time he got to us, the flight attendant working the other side had distributed all of the beef entree, so I was stuck with pasta. At least my wife got to enjoy it, since it was superior to her vegetarian meal, once again.

Santiago

In Santiago, we took TransVip to the San Cristobal Tower, where we had a 5th night free award for a total of 28,000 points. The rates were about $180 a night last I checked, so it was a good, not great, deal in my book. Anyway, we ended up in 1076, which was in the corner, but only had the same style windows as the other rooms on the floor. Considering there were 20+ floors, I was pretty disappointed to get this room as a plat. The check-in agent suggested we take the wine as our platinum amenity, and it seemed fine, but I don't know anything about wine, so it could have been great. Sorry. There was also a nice fruit tray with bananas, apples, plums, nectarines, and an apricot, as well as some nuts.

We asked the concierge if a restaurant called Liguria was walking distance, and he gave us directions to a new one on the north (hotel) side of the river, then said the other one is better. I asked how long it took to walk to the other one, and he said 30 minutes then repeated his directions to the first. Thanks. Luckily, it was quite easy to find. Unluckily, it was packed a little after 10pm, and we had no clue how to get in the queue for a table. So we walked back to a place we had passed called Doner House, and enjoyed that. Then we had ice cream at Bravissimo, which was also a challenge, as it took quite a while to figure out we had to pay first, and then show the receipt to get ice cream. Whatever I had was some kind of berry, though, and quite tasty.

We slept most of the morning, and then took the metro to Plaza de Armas, which led to shopping. There are stand up hot dog stores near the plaza, so I had a hot dog for lunch. I don't know what could be better than that. We hit the same area for dinner, though this time we had seats and I ate chicken. Also not bad.

The next morning, we slept late again, and decided to get a car for the weekend. The Hertz place was a short walk from the hotel, and they gave us a reservation for 3 days for $120 or so, which seemed reasonable having come from Easter Island. They would also let us drop it at the airport, so we saved the cost of a transfer. We dropped off a load of laundry nearby; it ended up being $11, which was a little high, but necessary. We had lunch at La Huerta, a vegetarian restaurant. Luckily, someone at a nearby table was ordering dessert, so I pointed and got that for lunch. It was basically a crepe filled with fresh fruit. I kind of wish I had one right now. My wife had something that was basically a lot of vegetables on a platter, but they were all very tasty according to her. We then headed over to the US Embassy to see about getting new pages put into our passports, but the helpful functions had ceased at 11:30. Back to the center of Santiago for more shopping, since we were looking for souvenirs. We also visited Cerro Santa Lucia and Neptuno Terrazo, which I recommend. We got back to the hotel to swim, only to find out the outdoor pool attendants take back their towels at 7, and that meant a two minute swim. Not very satisfying, and the indoor pool just wasn't appealing after being outside. We went to Las Vacas Gordas, in Barrio Brasil, for dinner. We had fun, since it was full of large families and groups, but the steak I had was not to my liking.

We went to pick up the car the following morning, only to be told the car had to be delivered from the airport, and would be ready in thirty minutes (again!). I turned out to be a Toyota Yaris, pretty small but definitely enough for the two of us. We drove out toward the Argentine border to visit El Morado National Monument. The driving (done by my wife), was surprisingly easy, even in the city. About 20 kilometers short of our destination, the road unexpectedly turned to dirt/gravel. Technically, it was marked correctly on the map, but I never even considered that there might be something going on. Oops. Most of the other traffic was composed of trucks coming down from some kind of quarry, which was especially fun. We were in a valley at this point, though, and there were waterfalls/horses/sheep on both sides of the road, so the going was slow but cool. We reached Banos Morales, from which there is a 5 mile trail up to a glacier. The beginning was fairly steep to us, but we started just before another couple who were with a guide, so we were able to get some information and encouragement from him. About 3/4 of the way up, there was a small lake, and a couple of people had set up tents there. There were plenty of little birds and lizards around, but we were unable to spot any foxes. We passed about 40 people on the roundtrip, with many of those being a group heading up to camp for the night just as we finished. On the way back, we stopped into Pizza Hut for dinner, and I managed to spend $22 on one pizza. The poor girl who got stuck helping me seems to have rung it up wrong, and I didn't notice right away. My wife was outside with the car, and there was a wreck about a half block from where she was parked, so my mind was elsewhere. When I went back to pick it up, they did kick in a bottle of coke for free. We parked on a street behind the hotel, since the garage was $14 a night.

When we got up in the morning, the car had a flat tire. Oops, again. The spare was a donut, and we weren't sure how far to push it. The concierge called Hertz, and someone came and gave us the tire off his car, using his own donut to get back. We headed out to Pomaire, where they sell pottery for pretty good prices. We picked up a place setting, cup and saucer, nativity set, and some little thing for sauces for $16. The proprietor told us they export to San Mateo, but I didn't find out the name of the shop. We got back early enough to hit Liguria, and it was excellent. They graciously sent over the waiter whose English was best, but everyone was just great. I had pollo al pil pil and potato puree. ^

On the last day, we decided to head to Valparaiso. It was a longer drive than we had anticipated, and it cost like $7 each way to use the toll road. There are a couple of pretty big flea markets there, and the city is really attractive to my eye, with buildings cascading down hill after hill toward the water.

Back at the airport, the guy who checked in our car told us to get in and he dropped us at the terminal. No waiting for a shuttle.

The AA check-in agent said they were looking for SCL-MIA at $800 each, but they gate agents (reached after standing in line for at least 20 minutes) said no way. For that flight, my wife had not requested a vegetarian meal, and of course none of the choices were. I did observe a guy walk up to the flight attendant after the menus were handed out but before the door was closed to register his choice. I don't believe the FA accepted it.

We saw someone who looked like Tara Reid in the AC in MIA. She seemed quite inebriated considering it was like 6am, but my wife didn't think it was her.

Bottom line, I highly recommend Easter Island to anyone considering it. Also, I would look into camping there; there were some incredible spots.