Easter Island and Peru day 1

     On a sunny Saturday afternoon, my old friend Roger Giddens and I left Jacksonville on American Airlines flight 3498 on our way to explore the most isolated permanently inhabited place on Earth.  The two of us grew up together in St. Marys (at least, I grew up) and I always had great respect for his athletic ability and prowess at shooting marbles--none of which I had left after drawing rings in the sand behind Orange Hall and shooting against him.  How Roger ever talked me into this trip has something to do with his lifelong wanderlust, but more to do with my total inability to say no when he wants to go to some crazy out-of-the-way place and I can't think of a good excuse.  He is one of the world's great adventurers, having helped capture Noriega in Panama years ago when he was a U.S. Army colonel.  He is also very persuasive, having previously talked me into going with him and other guys to climb Mount Cotapaxi in Equador, and later to visit Maccu Piccu and the Nazca lines in Peru.  This time it's just me and Roger, the other guys having sworn off traveling south of the border with us ever again.

     Easter Island is located about 1300 miles east of Pitcairn Island, which you may have thought was isolated, but it doesn't hold a candle to Easter.  Pitcairn is part of a group of four islands, and is located in one of the island groups of French Polynesia.  Easter is also 2,200 miles or so west of Chile, so there is nothing but ocean for more than a thousand miles in any direction.  The first unusual thing about the island is the time difference between it and St. Marys, Georgia.  Would you care to make a guess before you look at a globe or check the Internet?  OK, we won't keep you in suspense.  If you are reading this in the U.S. Eastern time zone, look at your watch or clock.  It is exactly the same time and day on Easter Island.  Check it out if you don't believe it, although if you look at a globe, it should be two or three hours later.  This has something to do with Chile's annexation of the island years ago, and national pride on the mainland, we are guessing.

    We're going there to solve the mystery of the famous statues that you've heard so much about.  We are well aware that others have tried, that several books have been written about it, and that there are many explanations.  There was even a National Geographic article earlier this year which focused  on how the statues were moved from the quarries to their final locations.  But we, my friends, are confident that in a few days we will answer all your questions about these mysterious idols.

 

     Airline travel these days is a real adventure.  Roger and I had planned the perfect trip, leaving plenty of time between flights on the way to Easter Island so we could be there Sunday morning to begin our big adventure.  American Airlines dutifully had us out of the Jacksonville airport shortly after 1:00 Saturday afternoon, so we didn’t really need all of the two-hour layover in Miami for our 4:30 flight out to Lima.  We spent the time relaxing in the Admiral’s Club, one of the credit card perks that make travel so enjoyable.

     A bit before four, we made our way down to gate D11 to use our preferred access boarding, only to hear the announcement that the gate had been changed and the flight would now be departing from gate D48.  We didn’t hear the part about the equipment change, but learned at the new gate that there was a slight problem with the Boeing 767, and it would not be flying today.  Instead, we would all be put on a 757 as soon as they were able to reassign the 250 seats.  Only, they noticed that the 757 only holds 218, and 250 boarding passes had been issued.  After some quick calculations, and facing a huge crowd of folks not happy about the new departure time of 5:15, a call was made for volunteers to be bumped until the flight tomorrow.  The offer was a $1,000.00 voucher on American.  Now, friends, a thousand bucks to spend the night in Miami is not a bad deal.  So while the other 248 passengers waited for their seat assignments or vouchers, Roger and I hurried back to the Admiral’s Lounge, where we investigated the possibility of a one-day delay.  We discovered that we really needed to make the 1:20 a.m. flight out of Lima to Easter Island, because the next flight is on Wednesday morning.

     Up to this point we had paid virtually nothing for the round trip flights, instead using up some of the half million American Airlines miles Tricia and I had accumulated through our credit card collection.  But you don't want to hear about flying for free, so we have to admit that we did have to pay for the round trip from Lima to Easter Island-- little more than the price of a round trip from Jacksonville to Atlanta.

     With new boarding passes in hand, we returned to gate D48, to find the masses crowding around and tempers beginning to flare; the flight was being further delayed.  With our priority boarding, we were able to push our way forward and onto the plane around 5:45.  As we sat waiting on the others to board, one by one it seemed, we began to calculate our chances of making the 1:20 flight from Lima to Easter Island.  And as we calculated, we also began to figure the chances of our baggage making it to Easter Island.  You see, we had wisely been able to talk the clerk in Jacksonville into checking the bags all the way through, even though we had separate tickets for the Easter Island leg.

     Time passed.

     At 6:30 or so, the pilot announced that two passengers had become ill and disembarked.  Government rules required that their baggage be located and removed from the cargo hold, which might take some time.  We decided that if the plane were off the runway by 7, we would be in Lima at 12:30, and could possibly make the Easter Island flight.  One or two of us were beginning to become concerned.

     Time passed.

    At 7:02, the plane began to be pushed back from the terminal, and by 7:15, we were finally in the air.  We had met a couple of other passengers who were scheduled to make the same flight out of Lima.  We calculated that we had a decent chance of all making the flight, but if our bags didn’t make it, we might never see them again—maybe they would be on the Wednesday flight, on the plane we were scheduled to fly back to Lima.

     At 12:30 a.m. we pulled up to the terminal in Lima, hurried off the plane, and located the gate for the 1:20 flight to Easter Island.  It was too late.  The desk agent said we had not checked in at least an hour before flight time, and the flight was closed.  We were not amused.  After some death threats and a seizure on the floor, they reopened the flight and let us board. 6 hours later we landed on Easter Island, exhausted.

     Only one small problem remained.  Our bags didn’t make it.  And Roger had thrown away his baggage claim, which was pasted to a paper sleeve to hold the boarding passes.  We got in line to make a claim.

 On Easter Island awaiting word on baggage.

     Time passed.

     By 8:30 or so, the LAN agent had arranged for our bags to arrive here Wednesday night—after our flight out departed for Lima.  She promised to try to do better, but there are only two flights per week, you know.  We were told to check back on Tuesday.

     Time passes.

     Stay tuned for more.

Charlie and Roger

 

Copyright 2012