Thomson Airlines Boeing 757 Explorer One (G-OOBF)
Lima, Peru and Easter Island, Chile
Tuesday, February 9, 2010

    This morning was our chance to visit at least a little bit of Lima. Our plane, Explorer One, was to depart at 2:00 pm, so we wouldn’t have too much time to peruse Peru. Breakfast was at 7 am, and at 8 am we had our “wheelie” bags down in the lobby. Since we were only to be in Peru overnight, our big checked bags just stayed in the baggage compartment of the plane and our small wheeled checked bags were used at the hotel. These we had packed accordingly in Washington before we departed.

    Buses departed the hotel at 8:30 am and we were off to visit the Larco Herrera Museum. The museum features artifacts of the early civilizations of Peru, including their pottery, jewelry, textiles, and artwork. Peru is a country rich in gold, silver, and copper; so many artifacts were made of these metals. The pottery was unfired, but many pieces exhibited a high gloss from polishing with human grease and oil. Pieces would be rubbed against the nose, hair, or face for hours or days to get the polished appearance. I’ve included a couple photos of some of the pieces in the museum.

    We only had about an hour at the museum before we had to reload the busses and drive to our next location, a main square in front of the Presidential Palace and a Cathedral dating back to the Spanish colonial times. It is where the remains of Pizarro are entombed. Here are a couple of photos from the interior of the cathedral.

    We had even less time at the cathedral since we had to move to the other side of the plaza to a private residence, “Casa Aliaga”. This residence was the home of one of Pizarro’s right-hand men and has been continuously occupied by members of the same family ever since. It is not a museum or restaurant, but the “Count” occasionally opens his doors to special visitors to view this historic building and provides lunch for them prepared in his own kitchens. It was very kind of him and it was a very interesting visit.

    Following lunch, it was back on the busses to head for the airport. It was the usual drill – back through immigration for the exit stamp, airport security screening, and then to a gate. Overnight, our plane was moved to a “real” jetway, so boarding was fast and easy. Everyone settled in quickly, and off we went on our way to Easter Island.

    The flight time to Easter Island was just under five hours. Again, with a meal, two lectures, and some more computer work and conversation, the time went by very quickly. The lectures this time were on climate change studies presented by Tom Litwin and a lecture entitled “Samoa – A Tale of the South Pacific” by James Rosenthal. The Samoa talk is a little early, since we won’t be there for a couple more days, but that is going to be an overnight flight and we will probably prefer to sleep rather than listen to talks.

    We arrived at the little airport about 7:45 pm. The airport has a runway (thank goodness for the sake of our 757), but not any parallel taxiways, so after landing the plane has to turn on a dime at the end of the runway and back taxi to the ramp at the terminal building. Easter Island is like a remote Hawaiian island both in architecture and climate. We had to clear Chilean immigration, of course, have our hand luggage scanned by x-ray machines, turn in our customs forms, and then it was onto waiting mini-busses to our hotels (plural). All hotels are small here, so we are divided between three locations.

    As expected, these are simple hotels with clean, utilitarian rooms, and a view to die for. I can step outside the sliding glass door at the back of my room and take a few steps to the cliffs overlooking the west coast of the island. Huge waves crash into the volcanic rock formations that form the coastline. A short time after my arrival, the sun sank below the horizon, producing a nicely colored sky. A cooling breeze is blowing that makes the air comfortable.

    There is wireless internet available over in the reception building for 1000 pesos a day (about $2.00), so I hope to get the first installments of this trip’s journal sent off. We will have a leisurely start in the morning with breakfast beginning about 8 am. We have several activities planned and a little exercise will be very welcome. So far, we have been doing a lot of eating and sitting.