Sat, 11:55pm. I will have at least one more beer I think. It's pissing it down again and has been for a while. I must have been lucky to catch a lull on my walk here from Tavake. (I went to the bog just before I left and remembering thinking "fuck, it's raining heavily now just as I want to leave", so it was very well timed.) I don't care now as I will be getting a cab back of course (CLP1500 is insane for about a three minute trip, but it's not a huge amount in absolute terms and as I have observed numerous times already this is clearly an expensive place. I haven't had a beer - 350ml can - for less than CLP1500 (it's 2000 here), whereas just about everywhere in mainland Chile you could get a litre for (my memory is a bit hazy, not due to beer, just one of those things) 1500/2000/3000 depending on the kind of place it was.
I paid CLP8200 with tip for the milanesa and chips and a small can of diet coke earlier, I'm sure that would weigh in around five or six thousand on the mainland tops in an otherwise similar bar/restaurant. Maybe I delude myself but I think the feeling of priciness here is real.
Oh, we stopped at a minimarket at the beginning of the tour today to give us a chance to buy stuff. No doubt they get a backhander. I bought some more snacks, damned expensive as always, to go with my lunch, and a big bottle of diet coke which was at least cold and retained a degree of that refreshing property throughout the day. There was a sticker by the counter with a Chilean government logo saying (in Spanish, I write in English recollecting my bad mental translation at the time) "Cook seafood for five minutes, lemon juice doesn't kill bacteria (? I guessed the last word, but the gist was clear from context)". Clearly this is hinting at dodgy ceviche. I doubt there's anything peculiar to Easter Island about that warning, but it does somehow make me less inclined than I already was to try ordering any here.
The palm tree outside remains silhouetted as earlier. I would have expected the sky to darken and render it invisible but for whatever reason (presumably town lights) the sky in that direction at least remains as it was.
Sun, 12:40am. Why I have been using 12h clock for these blog entries I don't know, given my general preference for 24h clock. I suspect I felt writing things like 'Sun, 00:40' would be too wankily militaristic, I feel a bit stupidly sad putting the day in as it is but when I'm sending these posts at irregular 24h intervals not coinciding with midnight I felt it would be clearer. (My casual readers, if any can be arsed with this tedious crap, won't care, but I might/will when I read them in the future.) Just ordered another beer, am fairly sober but I think this will be the last. I have no idea when they close but I do have a 9:40 start which is a slight concern even if I hadn't touched a drop of alcohol. I am not enormously worried about oversleeping at this rate but still, it's OK here but by no means a great night and I've pushed it enough.
If the wi-fi doesn't work tomorrow I may have to try an internet cafe tomorrow evening, assuming they are open on Sunday late-ish. (The tour is only the morning, but I vaguely hope to do a walk - annoyingly to the same place as the tour - in the afternoon.)
Quite apart from the expense, I don't like drinking in 350ml units. It feels like I've finished the beer as soon as I've started it. If a half-litre don't satisfy, how much worse is 350ml? I know it's a bit more, but it's not dissimilar to the way a half pint back home always seems like a far smaller, less worthwhile drink than a pint, disproportionate to its actual volume.
Sat 1:15am. 8000 for the beers, 800 service charge on the bill. Not having a 10000 note handy I've paid 9000 and don't expect change. Asked them to call me a cab. Two couples here apart from me, I just saw the barstaff mixing a drink but I suspect they will shut soon, though whether that's because people leave to go to clubs at this time or vice versa I don't know. I am not inclined to push it for all the reasons mentioned earlier.
Sun, 1:20am. Just got back. The English-speaking waitress told the cab driver where to take me, which was nice, but I'm not quite such an English-only muppet as to need it. I said "1500?" to the driver and he said "at this time, 2000" (in Spanish). I guess it probably is later than I've taken a cab back before and it's about 75p more and as I keep saying it's expensive here but still. His hourly rate must be getting on for what I earn contracting in London. :-) 2000 was exactly how much Chilean cash I had in my wallet, in some sense I am broke as I write this in my hotel room. (Me being me, I have a considerable quantity of additional cash stashed about my person, but it would have been awkward to have to dredge it out, so still kind of lucky.) Man it is expensive here (did I say that already?). Without adding it up, I had CLP30000-40000 in my wallet this morning and it's all gone. Doing bad mental arithmetic rather than digging out the calculator function on here (all these posts ar
e from my phone, given the lack of wi-fi) that's about 30 quid in a day, for snacks, entry to some park place, a modest meal and a bit over 3.5 pints of beer. (Inconsistently, I dredged the calculator out for the beer can-to-pint conversion.) I guess you could economise a bit, and if you were in some cheap-but-central hostel the taxi might not arise, but I am a bit surprised my "shoestring" guide doesn't just have a one line entry for Easter Island: "You can't afford it." Or maybe it could stretch to: "Do the tours. Build up your body fat before you come and fast on the island. Sleep 14h a day. You can't afford anything else."
Anyway, a perhaps ill-advised (purely given the time, I am fairly sober if broke) shower and then to bed.
1:50am. I just noticed there is a sheet on the bed. For the last few nights I just slept under the counterpane, and to be fair that was fine. I half suspect the sheet wasn't there before, the tour guide (making crap conversation) as she picked me up this morning did say it had been cold last night. Looking at the bed more closely there is also an extra sheet on the bottom. Before you could see the mattress on either side of some padded blanket thing covering it, now there is a UK-style (for want of a better phrase) sheet covering the whole mattress. For whatever reason they have made it up differently today. Anyway, enough observing the bed, time to sleep in it and fingers crossed for getting up OK in the morning...
Sun, 9:35am. Woken up by a full bladder about 9, stayed in bed til 9:15ish and just got to reception. A probably-French guy and the presumably local receptionist bloke are discussing (in English) how the island was populated. A slightly interesting topic but I would really rather not have to listen to it.
Sun 1:50pm. Having an arguably unnecessary and time-wasting lunch. The tour was fairly good, I got my first genuine "wow" moment on seeing the (thankfully un-hyped) crater of Rano Kao. We also visited the nearby ceremonial village (Orongo?) and some cave on the coast with not terribly visible paintings in (but the view was pretty cool anyway).
I managed to get into an internet cafe and have booked a hostel in Santiago for Tuesday night (very near the apartments I have stayed in before, i.e. central, there seemed no choice, so getting there and back from the airport is likely to be pricey or time consuming, and I don't have much time as I have to be at the airport at 10amish at the latest) and a serviced apartment in Buenos Aires for 6 nights. I did wonder if 6 nights was overdoing it when I only have 4 weeks for Argentina and maybe a a bit of Uruguay, but I figure I should see the city properly.
Not sure what I will do this afternoon. It's overcast and spitting very slightly which seems to argue against a walk anywhere, but I may chance it. I think I won't walk over to the volcano we went to this morning, I may do it tomorrow but twice in one day is probably pushing it. I may head west down the road the hotel is on and just see what I come across. I should probably consult a map after lunch though and see if there's anything in that direction I have a chance of reaching.
Sun, 2:30pm. Well. As I left the restaurant I realised I'd lost my cap. To cut a long story shorter, earlier I had stopped in at another restaurant, looked at the menu and left as it looked crap. I realised I'd probably left it there. I just went back and I had, and I've now got it, which is nice. But one of the staff gave me a little mini lecture about how I should have said I was leaving. I mean, WTF? I hadn't ordered anything. Maybe in some really abstract sense it's slightly rude but fuck it, we're not friends and it's not like I spat in their faces and then left. There was no one around so I just walked out without seeking anyone to tell I was leaving. (I also told the waitress when she tried to trap me with a drink order while I was studying the menu that I might not want to eat so I wouldn't order a drink yet, now I think about it.) So anyway, I don't know whether to feel grateful I got my cap back (it's decidedly the worse for wear these days and I do have another with me) or
aggrieved at being lectured. (The guy said something I didn't catch about having seen me or something. I could swear he also said "you be good" in English, but at the same time I can hardly believe it.) I probably wouldn't have given them any money anyway, but as it was there was no way I was going to.
Sun, 5:55pm. Back at Aringa Ora or whatever that restaurant on the corner with the street my hotel on is called. Been for a walk west (covered the entire length of the 3.5km runway, as the guides have pointed out twice NASA paid to extend it in '86 as an emergency landing place for the shuttle, perhaps more interestingly Sao Paulo also has a long enough runway for the shuttle according to one of the guides) and out past there. Didn't really see any obvious archaeological sites although there was some sort of wall-y thing which I didn't bother walking up close to, but the view was quite good and it was fairly peaceful. Walked 11km since I got my lecture earlier, though a good 2-3km of that at least is probably on 'familiar' territory in the town and out to the hotel, and since I just turned round and walked back the way I came you can halve the remainder to determine how far I actually penetrated out into the wilds. I didn't push it, the last thing I wanted was to be miles away, knack
ered and having to walk all the way back.
Was vaguely tempted to just go back to the hotel for the night, but I think it would be too unspeakably dull. I have compromised on coming here, having a ham and cheese sandwich as a cheap 'dinner' (I am not that hungry anyway) and a few beers and will probably try to be back at the hotel before dark, and almost certainly (especially as reception has my key) before 10pm for an earlyish night.
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