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Peru, Bolivia & Easter IslandPeru, Bolivia & Easter Island
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Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island

January - March 2025
  • Kadi Kaljuste
  • Brad Ciccarelli
A 30-day adventure by Kadi & Brad Read more
  • Kadi Kaljuste
  • Brad Ciccarelli

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  • Brazil Brazil
  • Chile Chile
  • Bolivia Bolivia
  • Colombia Colombia
  • Peru Peru
  • Canada Canada
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City trip, Couple, Culture, Nature, Sightseeing, Wildlife
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  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    One of the streets near our hotel
    Wonderful muralsThe traffic is insane. The vans in this video are private buses that most people use to get around.A mallWe saw clusters of police at random Street corners1Changing of the guardOne of the downhill climbs. The orange you see at the skyline is all buildings.Children playing after schoolThe uphill climb we needed to take regularly to get back to our hotelShe's knittingGustu is Bolivia's best restaurantBread, butter and a spicy spreadBrad's appetizer was tomatoes and various beansMy appetizer was Amazon River alligator cevicheBrass entrée: Amazon fishMy entrée: lambWe shared a dessert of chamomile ice cream1

    La Paz at leisure

    February 18 in Bolivia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    It’s our last day in Bolivia and we had a day at leisure, meaning we could do as we pleased. We’re feeling quite comfortable in our neighbourhood so we went meandering through the streets.

    One of my favourite things in any city is to find a grocery store which we did. You can learn a great deal about the way people live by exploring a grocery store. What’s notable here is that the butcher counter is very small and at the back end of the store. The shelves and sections of starches such as corn and potatoes are large. Not surprising.

    We had a snacky lunch because we wanted to save our appetites for dinner at Gustu, ranked as Bolivia‘s best restaurant and ranked 38th in Latin America. It’s particularly noteworthy because it was opened and is owned by one of the founding partners of Noma in Denmark.

    Gustu exceeded our expectations on every measure. The food, the service and the ambiance were excellent. We also had a wonderful bottle of Bolivian wine which should help us get to sleep. We have an EARLY flight to Lima, Peru and then on to Santiago, Chile tomorrow with a pick up at our hotel at 3 a.m.😩

    Bolivia is on the very cusp of emerging from the third world. The people are kind, friendly and entrepreneurial and have the will to improve their prospects. We’re confident they will.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    Brad in front of our charming Ivy covered hotel
    2Our roomPumpkin soupCod frittersChicken salad that was so huge Brad and I could not finish itMuralA glass of wine on our balcony

    La Paz to Lima to Santiago

    February 19 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    It was a travel day for us with a super early pick up or late depending how you view things. Jesus and Franz were at our hotel at 3 a.m. to deliver us to the airport for a 6:10 a.m. flight to Lima. We had a couple of hours stop over and boarded another plane from Lima to Santiago.

    We’re now two hours ahead of Toronto. But thankfully, we’re now almost at sea level so no more altitude issues. We reached our hotel, (which is super quaint and a Chilean national treasure) in the late afternoon, unpacked, went for a walk and found a place for dinner. Our room has a balcony so we bought a bottle of wine during our walk and had a glass of Chilean wine before bed.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    2Chilean palm trees
    Gorgeous park in the middle of the cityBlack neck swan1Tree huggers😉On the cable car1Statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of Cerro San CristobalFunicular down1The rideQuaint historic neighbourhoodThe palace where Allende committed suicide as Pinochet took powerOur guide said he's never ever seen flowers laid hereChile has bizarre cafés, dubbed coffee with legs. Think Hooters coffee shop😳More coffee with legsOne of the many pedestrian promenade streetsTown SquareObligatory cathedralAnd of course, a statue in fountainA wine bar lunch. A flight of bubbly for me; glass of red for Brad.Another pedestrian promenade street

    Santiago, Chile

    February 20 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We’ve been to Santiago before but it was five years ago and it was not long after political unrest and forest fires. Because that experience was unusual, we decided we wanted to have a city tour and see Santiago without those issues. We’re so glad we did!

    Our guide, Jose, and driver, Mario, first took us to a beautiful park, where we saw Chilean palm trees, and black neck swans. From there, we traveled to a cable car and climbed up to the famous statue of the Virgin. Views of the city from that lookout were excellent. For the downward ride, we took a funicular.

    From there, we went to the historic area with quaint shops and restaurants. Next stop was the main government square with the presidential palace where Allende committed suicide before Pinochet took power. (Chile has a tempestuous modern history.)

    We ended our tour with Jose in the city Square and promenade area. Santiago‘s pedestrian streets are numerous and fabulous. Jose had recommended a wine bar for us to go to for lunch which we did. It was fantastic.

    After lunch, we strolled around the promenade pedestrian area and then walked back to our hotel which took over an hour in 29° heat. (We ended up with 22,925 steps today.) We had a bit of a rest and went for dinner in the our hotel neighbourhood. We have another early start tomorrow for our flight to Easter Island/Rapa Nui.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    Our welcome
    6Lovely leiFor Brad tooWalking the coast. It's a volcanic islandThe hibiscus are huge and everywhereSwimmingWaterfront lunchThe boardwalkRough watersVolcanic rocks

    Rapa Nui/Easter Island

    February 21 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    We left our hotel in Santiago at 5:30 a.m. for the 5-hour flight to Easter Island/Rapa Nui only to arrive there and discover the flight was delayed by an hour. 😩 The time passed quickly enough and we were on our way! Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island on the planet. It’s a Polynesian island 3,700 kilometres from the coast of continental Chile and a Chilean territory.

    Upon arrival, we were greeted by a band and dancers and presented with leis in the Polynesian tradition. We were dropped off at our hotel to spend the rest of the day at leisure. We took a walk along the coast, had a late lunch at a waterfront restaurant and did some more exploring before returning to our hotel for a quiet night.

    Tomorrow, we’ll begin touring the island and learning more about its history and the monumental moai statues that have made it so famous and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    When I first saw the 15 in a row, I gasped
    These 15 moai were reerected with the help of the JapaneseThey're so imposingClose upFrom the backThis moai had its head reattachedCarved a distance away and erected hereCarved from a single stoneThis one is sunken. The typical ratio is head 1/3, body 2/3.Another that sunk1They're all over the island, wherever there were villagesThe terrain is so wide open that the moai can't be missedThe quarry where the moai were sculptedUnfinished moai at the quarryA magnetic rock that is believed to have been brought here by the first kingA beachThese seven near the beach are the best preserved. They were found face down in sand.This lone moai seemed portly relative to the othersSo much detail visible on theseSunset

    Moai Day, Rapa Nui/Easter Island

    February 22 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    Today was moai day! They’re what Rapa Nui/Easter Island is famous for and what makes this place so incredibly special. There are about 7,000 people living here today, but there were 17,000 living on the island in its peak in the 1700s. Because Rapa Nui is the most remote inhabited island in the world, the people here remained insulated from the rest of the world. They established their own rituals, including building moai.

    We spent a full day visiting sites within the national park to see tumbled as well as re-erected moai. The most impressive site has a platform of 15 that were restored in 1996. The tallest of them is 8.7 metres and weighs 81 tonnes. The proportion of a moai is usually 1/3 head and 2/3 body. Many of the ones we saw were sunken. There are about 900 spread across the island.

    The statues were built in about 1400 to 1650 A.D.. And they were built from single pieces of stone and brought to their sites. How this was done is still a mystery. Each statue is representative of a royal tribe member and is erected as a monument upon their death. The moai are erected facing the village. There were hundreds of these villages with their own moai and when conflicts arose, villagers would go tumble an enemy’s moai. You can read more about them here:

    https://www.easterisland.travel/easter-island-f…

    The moai are so regal and imposing. Pictures can’t do them justice. Seeing them in person is a real privilege.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    Tumbled moai
    A calderaCliff from which competitors had to jump and the islet to which they swamThese low buildings were dormitories for the competitors as they awaited the start of competitionThese rocks served as the trophy where winners were recordedThere are etchings on the rock about the winnersA platform for moaiThe fifth moai is broken and damaged22The eyes were only added at the time of reaching the platformAnother quarry where the rocks were sourcedThe last moai to have been reerected in 20202

    More moai and The Birdman

    February 23 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We had a tour in the morning and another tour in the afternoon. The morning tour was all about the bird man competitions.

    When the clans here were facing deforestation as well as a lack of food, they began losing confidence in the protection they were receiving from the moai they’d erected. They conferred and decided they needed to find an alternate method of organizing themselves. They decided upon an annual competition to determine who would be the governor of the island. This became known as the Birdman competition and involved climbing down a cliff, swimming to an islet, finding a tern egg and returning it unbroken to the top of the cliff. You can read more about it here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangata_manu

    We visited the site where these competitions were held. It was a head shaker to see the cliff as well as the islet and appreciate what a feat this was. We learned that many died in the effort. (These competitions came to an end in the mid 1800s when Catholic missionaries arrived on the island.)

    In the afternoon, we visited more moai sites. We saw the last moai to have been reerected. That was in 2020. Since then, the Rapa Nui government has decided to preserve and not restore. They’ll allow the fallen and tumbled moai to lie where they are.

    We’ve now completed our formal tours and have a day at leisure tomorrow to relax and explore on our own.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    Walking to the main drag
    2The hibiscus are huge and everywhereTiny pineapplesPotatoes: 2,000 pesos a kilo is about $3 CanadianSanta Cruz ChurchIt's common to see people riding horses through townCat napFishing boatsSea turtles are easily spottedA moai on the waterfrontAnother more erodedMango sours. Cheers!

    Rapa Nui/Easter Island at leisure

    February 24 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    It was our final day in Rapa Nui/Easter Island and we had no formal plans. It was lovely to have a relaxing day: a leisurely breakfast followed by strolling around town. We had time to watch the sea turtles and have an oceanfront lunch.

    We decided to have dinner at our hotel and were lucky enough to have a new friend, Rex, from California, join us for dinner as well. It was a delightful evening.

    Tomorrow, we fly back to the mainland.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    2Final breakfast in Rapa Nui
    There was even a moai at the airportArriving at the hotel in a blackoutChecking in to flashlightThe hotel staircase is spectacular11ExteriorThe ocean is on the right

    Back to the mainland

    February 25 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Yesterday was a travel day. We took the five-hour flight back to Santiago and had a driver take us to our hotel in Valparaiso, about a hour and a bit from the airport. We’ve been to Valparaiso before, but it was in 2020 when there had been civil unrest so we thought we’d like to revisit.

    When we landed, we learned that a major blackout had left a swath of Chile in the dark. Sure enough, our hotel neighbourhood was pitch black and we checked in to flashlight! No sooner were we done when the lights came on and all was good. The hotel we’re staying at is a restored mansion of only 23 guestrooms sitting on one of Valparaiso’s many hills. Dreamy.

    Today, we’ll have a tour of the city as well as a trip to wine country.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island
    Pablo Neruda's home is now a museum
    Neruda statueValparaiso skylineVintage Coke signageColourfulFunicularFunicular rideEntering Matetic wineryOur tasting guide2Perfect setting, perfect weatherCheers!

    Valparaiso and wine country

    February 26 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We had scheduled an all day tour today to explore Valparaiso in the morning and then head to wine country in the afternoon. Our driver, Mario, and guide, Marcello, took us around the winding streets of Valparaiso which zigzag up and down the hillside. The population of the city is about 400,000 with another 600,000 in neighbouring communities. The city’s historic area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    One of Chile’s famous citizens was poet Pablo Neruda, who won the 1971 Nobel prize in literature. We visited his home, La Sebastiana, which is a museum. Neruda was a collector/eccentric who had a whimsical approach to design and decor. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in the museum.

    Valparaiso is colourful in more ways than one. Much like the Jellybean Row of St. John’s, Newfoundland, the houses in Valparaiso are colourfully painted. In addition, graffiti and murals are most everywhere. It’s magical to walk around and see a different piece of art around every corner. (I’ll be posting a separate footprint featuring photos of the murals.)

    After our exploration, we took an hour’s drive into the countryside and went to a lovely family-run vineyard called Matetic. We had a marvellous tasting and headed back to the city. Dinner was at a restaurant a couple of blocks from our hotel with an oceanfront view.    Read more

  • Peru, Bolivia & Easter Island

    Murals of Valparaiso

    February 26 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    In our travels, we’ve never quite come across a city so rich in public art as Valparaiso. There are murals and graffiti EVERYWHERE. I could explore the winding streets for hours. Here’s a gallery of a sampling of what we saw.Read more

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