More on Easter Island

I didn´t want to arrive on Easter Island at 9:30 in the evening with nowhere to stay so I telephoned from Vaparaiso. That is, I dialled the number published in Lonely Planet. I got a recorded message and the part I understood was that the number had been changed. At least I wasn´t charged for the call.

So I tried the next guest house in the book, and the next, but always got the same polite message. What to do?

I exited the telephone booth and checked the area code with the attendant. He confirmed that I was indeed using the right code for Isla de Pasqua. So I switched technology and tried the Internet. Yes, the Chilean telephone directory can be accessed on-line. It´s sorted by Region. they go from I in the North to XII in the South. Which region includes Easter Island. After a lot of trial and error I determined that it was Region V.

You only get 5 free lookups in the on-line directory. That´s fine. I shouldn´t need that many.

Except that the residenciales didn´t have listings under their trading names. Do nul results count towards my free lookups? That´s two down already. Try the yellow pages, Bill. But do these anonymous guest houses advertise in the yellow pages? My second attempt was to look for hostales and this returned one name. And it was listed in Lonely Planet. Hooray. And when I compared the new and old numbers I found that a 2 had been inserted as the first digit.

Traipse once again to the locutorio and try adding a 2 to the number I first wanted. A reply. Yes, it was Residencial El Tauke and yes, they had a room. What a relief. I will have somewhere to sleep. Apparently the senora could not hear me very well because telling her my name was a prolonged and frustrating discussion. I ended up spelling it out, "B por bueno, I por iglesia, ..."

So when I arrived at the baggage claim I could see a hopeful face floating over a piece of paper that said, "TAUKE - Spill". It was good enough.

I hope you weren´t expecting a description of the enigmatic moai or the alluring blue of the limitless Pacific Ocean. You were? OK. I´ll continue this post the first chance I get.