Eating and Sleeping on Easter Island

On our last morning on this Island paradise, we chatted with a lovely couple from Colorado and swapped travel stories. (If you are reading this,Sherry and Gary, we hope your new born Angus Bull is doing well!). We walked down to the harbour and watched the giant sea turtles swimming lazily between the fishing boats, waiting for scraps.

We stayed at Kaimana Lodge in Hanga Roa. We were met at the airport by the owner, Marcelo, and given a quick guided tour of the village before we checked in. Unless you are prepared to pay $1000 US to $1600 US a night to stay at the Explora, your choice is between a number of "residenciales", small, owner run B&B's. Ours was a chalet style accommodation with 7 chalets clustered around a central covered courtyard with an open lounge and a communal area for breakfast. The rooms were fairly basic, but adequate. The good things about Kaimana were the helpfulness of Marcelo, and the opportunity to sit with like minded travellers and share our stories. The not so good things were that the room was not always cleaned during our stay, and the breakfast choice was limited. Breakfast consisted of a plate of mixed food - fruit, pancake, mini-omelette, slice of ham - plus bread and jam. For us that was fine, although I can imagine it would not be to everybody's taste. At the end of our stay Marcelo drove us to the airport and stayed with us until all the checking-in formalities were complete. He bought us parting gifts. It was a nice touch.

On our first night we ate at Haka Honu, a little restaurant up just above the small harbour in the town. We arrived at 8.30pm and found the only remaining table, a sure sign of the restaurant's popularity. The staff welcomed us with big smiles like we were old friends returning home. Food everywhere on the Island is more expensive than the mainland because everything has to be imported, but for $80 US we enjoyed a starter, a. very fine beef steak, 2 fillets of fresh caught fish, a beer, and Anni's new compulsory drink, a Pisco Sour. Some lively Portuguese music was being played that really seemed to fit the mood, and the waiter offered to make a copy of it for us. We went back here on our last night. The food was just as good but the waitress had trouble understanding our order and brought out additional food that we hadn't ordered. She had beauty and attitude - a lethal combination! When we pointed out we had been undercharged, we received a petulant shrug of the shoulders and the bill was re-written. As we left the stunning smile and hand wave were back on display, but this time it felt a bit manufactured.

On our second night we ate at La Kaleta, situated in an outstanding location right on the harbour front. The view of the sunset was perfect from here. The shrimp risotto was excellent, and it worked out to be very good value for money.