Author Archives: Alistair Todd

Forget the tourist hop-on/off bus tour or being ripped off by taxi drivers, every Sunday in Santiago several miles of city roads are closed to traffic so you can go out on your bike, scooter, roller blades, or running shoes and cruise around enjoying the sun and the free water.

I started out with an electric scooter before swapping to a bike. 90 minutes of riding and sightseeing cost a couple of quid.

I was going to say don’t ever bother visiting Santiago. Instead I’ll say make sure you visit on a Sunday.

Easter Island. Isla De Pascua. Rapa Nui.

If you go to Ahu Tongariki for sunrise, every tourist on the island will be there, and there’ll be an awful lot of this:

and this going on:

More will follow when I return to civilization. You might say considering what a remote and tiny spec of land this is, that it’s amazing I can show you a photo at all, but really that’s down to economics, not science. The technical capability is 50 years old. (I’m at the blue dot in the middle)

The weather is dreadful, so this was the best I could do:

If you ever have lots of time on your hands (lots and lots) and decide to visit Rapa Nui, then I highly recommend Haitonga as a restaurant where you can get ok food, decent cocktails, annoying reggae music, and the fastest WiFi on the island:

What’s this? A photo from Easter Island that isn’t a giant rock face man rock? Yes, there are two kinds of long faces on this island.

When the sun comes out, there are moments of prettiness. Don’t let it fool you though, it’s an ugly volcanic stain in the middle of the ocean.

It’s a little known fact that the Moai of Rapa Nui were modelled on men standing at urinals. Eyes up. Look straight ahead. Look neither to the left nor to the right…

When not driving around in their ludicrously unroadworthy vehicles, some of the locals like to do this:

As well as the sunrise spot, there’s a favourite sunset spot that everyone in town heads for. Needs better weather though: