Christy In Chile!: The Easter Island!!! (Part Uno!)

When I found out I would be going to Chile on my exchange, I was determined that I would make it to the Easter Island. Finally, this dream became a reality! On May third (Saturday), I hopped on a bus and went to Santiago.

I love the beautiful countryside here:

I met up with my exchange friend India (from the US) and I stayed at her house for the night. I got there early in the afternoon and we went shopping at the mall where I picked up some headphones. She has a youth group there that she sometimes goes to and so I said I would go with. We went and failed at a scripture chase in Spanish, but ended up having a really great time with all of the great people there. When we left we were starving and went to get some Pizza Hut!

I guess there are American restaurants in cities bigger than Curicó. hahaha. Okay. Well I guess I should get to the good stuff here.

We met up with all of the district at the airport and we were all soooo excited!

Here I am with my Chilean I.D. card (carnet!) and my boarding ticket!

While we anxiously awaited the plane, I got some Cinnabon since we hadn't had time for breakfast in the morning.

Minutes from boarding the plane! (With Alexis, Bridget, Jodie, and Madison)

Once on the plane, we were headed off for the vacation of a lifetime! Easter Island is known by many names including Isla de Pascua in Spanish and Rapa Nui in the native island language. The flight was about five hours long but went by pretty quickly. I watched a few movies and shows and sat by some fun people. (Jessica and Evan)

The whole flight, we anxiously watched our flight tracker as we neared Isla de Pascua!

Minutes from landing! (These emotions displayed were sooooo real)

The first picture on the island! Let the adventures begin!

Easter Island's airport just might be the same size as Ironwood's. We waited for a long time for all of our bags to come off the conveyor belt. Immediately, I realized how rainy and humid our visit would be. It was so humid but we didn't care.

As we stepped out of the airport, we were given leis and it kicked in that we were really on the Easter Island!

Before we could get our bags to the buses, it started pouring! So we ran and got in the buses and didn't even mind being rained on.

On the buses soaked and happy.

After a short bus ride and without a glimpse of any moai statues, we arrived at the hotel. Right away we were greeted by the owner and glasses of guava juice.

We chose roommates and got our rooms. Each room had four beds. Each with a cute towel and flower. :)

My three roommates were India, Bridget, and Jodie (all from the US). These three girls were so much fun to be with!

The flowers there were so pretty! I pressed a few of them.

Then we had free time! Some people went to swim, but most of us went to explore the island!

A little lagoon. I swam here a bit later in the week.

Such a beautiful place.

One of the first moai statues I saw! Just wait 'til you see the big ones.

Not everybody can say they have a selfie with a moai.

I had a nice chat with him.

How perfect is this? I was in heaven.

I know I know, this is not a moai statue. It's a fist. I don't know why, but it's there! So that's pretty neat.

I was in love with the landscape from the second I got there.

It would've been cooler if I was more flexible. hahaha.

Pretty flowers. :)

After this patch of beautiful flowers, the big moai statues were in near sight.

The statues were made in many styles and heights and I'll talk more about that in the next post. This particular one was probably about 15 feet tall.

This picture basically captures our friendship. :)

How breathtaking is this view?

Sadly, we didn't have time to explore further and so we headed back to the hotel so we wouldn't be late for dinner. With a few minutes to spare, we enjoyed some nice relaxing time around the pool.