Another Exciting Virgin Adventure!

I just came back from another Virgin Vacations’ trip with some friends and thought I’d write a few thoughts about it on the Virgin blog.  I took the Santiago and Easter Island Special as it has always been a dream of mine to visit Easter Island.  I couldn’t get a lot of time off of work, so this handy five hotel night package fit the bill perfectly.

I flew on an overnight flight from the US and arrived fresh and ready to tackle the sights of Santiago.  The first day was at our leisure and I chose to go alone and stroll through this fascinating city.  I was surprised by how cosmopolitan and vibrant the city is.  It is surrounded by picturesque traditional villages while the city itself is full of modern buildings with futuristic architecture.  I guess being a financial hub of South America - I really shouldn’t have been surprised. 

After a lovely supper at an authentic Chilean restaurant, I retired to my hotel room to rest up for the remaining days of my trip.

The second day began with a delicious breakfast at the hotel.  We had a half-day city tour of Santiago to look forward to.  The tour started at the San Franciso Church, built between 1572 and 1618.  Then it was onto the Palacio de la Moneda, which is the present seat of the President of the Republic of Chile.  It is one of the most notable buildings constructed by the Spanish crown in its American colonies.

Then we visited the Plaza de Armas, which has important national monuments like the Iglesia Catedral, the Correo Central and the Municipalidad de Santiago.

The tour was very thorough and we continued by going to the Cerro Santa Lucia, where the city was founded in 1541.  We crossed the Mapocho River and were able to pass through different residential districts, which helped give me a real feel to the city.  This was quite simply gorgeous area to travel through.

The rest of the day was at our leisure and I met up with some other tour companions and we enjoyed hanging around the city and having drinks at a local cantina.

The third day was a highlight for me as after breakfast at the hotel, we were heading to Easter Island.  When we arrived at the Mataveri Airport, I received a beautiful shell necklace from a local– it will be a lovely reminder of my amazing trip.

We transferred to our hotel and I got a glimpse of this unique Island.  It is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world.  It’s called Easter Island because it was discovered by the Dutch on Easter Sunday in 1722.  Of course, the island is famous for its numerous stone statues (Moai) located along the coastlines.

The fourth day was a full day tour along the Moai route.  We visited a number of spots including:
• Vaihu – a unique place surrounded by enormous statues, which have fallen face down.
• The Ruins of Akahanga – they are in their natural condition and where the first king of the island is buried.
• Rano Raraku Volcano – situated close to the southern shore of the island.
• Basis of Poike – the most spectacular crater in the zone and where the former island people carved the giant statues from the volcano’s quarry.  The biggest is more than 20m long and weighs just under 200 tons!
• Ahu Tongariki, the biggest on the Island with 15 Moasis, which have been restored as they were destroyed by a tidal wave in 1960. 
• Te Pito Kura is an ancient settlement with a mystical circular stone.

We even had time to enjoy Anakena beach with its warm seawaters and pleasant surroundings.

Day Five saw us having breakfast at our hotel and then a half-day tour of the Rano Kao Volcano whose deep crater of lush vegetation contains a large fresh water lake covered with totora.  We also went the Cultural Centre of Orongo, situated at the top of the crater at over 300m above sea level.  After that, we went on another excursion visiting the Ana Tepahu cavers and the quarry of Puna Pau.

This pretty much wrapped up our trip and on the final day, we were a bit sad and nostalgic having really enjoyed this trip.  We spent the final day taking our breakfast at the hotel and then transferring to the airport for the journey home.

Although it was a quick visit to Santiago and Easter Island, I thoroughly enjoyed my time and really felt that I got an opportunity to see many marvelous sites.

Posted by on 03/20 at 02:36 PM

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