Chile, Easter Island & Argentina / 2012

Valparaiso, Chile

South America chile easter island argentina moai Travel Landscape landscape photography Backpacking salta Santiago valparaiso

Of course, our flight got delayed, which resulted in missing the connecting flight, which resulted in losing a day we planned for Santiago, Chile. Happens all the time!

We still got to go to colorful Valparaiso, which was fortunate. It was a 2-hour bus ride from Santiago, and the bus leaves every 10-15 mins from Terminal Alameda.

Maybe it's the law that you cannot paint your house same color as your neighbor, or every hostel must deliver a quality mural, or something. It must be so fun to live in a town like this, with all these colors and cat murals and aging funiculars.

Have to say... my fashion choices were rather dull for the city spirit.

Santiago, Chile

Massive mountains as a backdrop of the city (From Cerro San Cristobal)

Mercado Central, fish market

This happened during the sunset. From our window!

Easter Island, Chile

At the Hanga Roa airport, our hotel pickup was nowhere to be found. It was rather sad because all the passengers from our plane were greeted by their hotel staffs with hibiscus necklaces and everything!

Eventually, we were the only one stranded at the airport, and beyond us was a complete darkness. We managed to get a taxi, but did you know Easter Island people don't have an address for their houses? That was kinda awesome but supremely inconvenient at this particular juncture. All we had was the owner's name of the guest house, and the taxi driver literally had to ask door to door. I still think it was a minor miracle we slept on a bed that night.

Rano Kau (3hr hiking, easy but super windy)

Three islets

Cemetery overlooking the Pacific

Tahai is located near the town of Hanga Roa and we walked there with Michigan (resident dog at our guest house) to watch the sunset.

The only moai with eyes. It was rather unnerving...

Waiting for the sunset

Anakena is one of only two small sandy beaches in an otherwise rocky coastline of Easter Island. And of course there are moai (plural).

Rano Raraku was a quarry where moai were carved. There are still 397 moai scattered around the quarry, many of them are in the process of carving. It's the weirdest sight and makes you wonder what caused the masons to suddenly abandon their work like this. ALIENS! Well, something happened.

Not all moai likes to stand regally.

Dinner at Tataku Vave Restaurant

Tongariki Sunrise!

It was easily the best sight in Easter Island.

Even though it was so painful to get up at 5 in the freezing morning. And the sun was supposed to come up from the sea right behind the moai, not way over to the left behind a small mountain. (Apparently the right-behind-the-moai thing only happens in summer.)

Nonetheless, it was beeeeautiful.

This was during the day. Still impressive even without the help of the dramatic light.

And they are this big!

Hanga Kio'e and ubiquitous wild horses

Ana kakenga. Crawl down what exactly looks like a hole in the ground.

Brave the darkness and rough terrain. And voila!

Maunga Terevaka hiking. Maunga Terevaka is the largest and tallest mountain in Easter Island. But it's not really tall (511m) and makes a nice afternoon hike.

Because it's a volcano, there's not much green throughout the mountain, which is just the way I like it. Loved the nothingness!

Black cow running

Top of the mountain. Of course, horses.

On the way down. There was a brief drizzle and then a perfect rainbow!

I got obsessed with Tongariki and decided to go there for the 3rd time to see it under a different light during the sunset. I'm in love.

Northern Argentina

Early morning. Flying over the Andes. Yawza!

We woke up sooo early for our 6:50am flight to Salta. Note to self: Not a good idea.

Our B&B was really nice and Salta was dead. Turned out, it was a Sunday thing.

Next day, we did a day trip around Northern Argentina -- a very dry and cold area filled with colorful mountains.

Our first stop was Purmamarca, famous for its Seven Color Mountains and craft markets.

Seven Color Mountains of Purmamarca

Next stop was Tilcara, more specifically Pucará de Tilcara, the ruins of a pre-Inca fortification.

Valley of the Río Grande from Pucará de Tilcara

Streets of Humahuaca

Eclectic signs and their old-school typography

Coming up next, scenes from the bus.

It was a very scenic route -- lots of cacti and barren mountains, if that is your sort of thing.

San Pedro de Atacama

For some reason, San Pedro de Atacama became my favorite town during this trip. With all its dry air and white adobe houses, I really wish I had more time there. I would have gone to Valle de la Luna three more times, too.