Easter Island...or not

We arrived at Easter Island after 4 sea days early Tuesday morning. The time has not changed so even though we are approximately at the same longitude as Phoenix AZ the sun time is way off. Sunrise was around 8:30 am and sunset was close to 10 pm. The Chilean authorities would not board the ship until after sunrise and then proceeded to do their checks of documents and who knows what else. When they finally approved everything and would allow the water shuttles (tenders) to begin it was after 10 am. Then to add to the delays they would allow only one shuttle into the port at a time to unload. The shuttles held 75-80 passengers and each trip took around one hour. The Princess sponsored excursions went first then the elite level guests. By 2 pm when they were at shuttle ticket number 330 we figured out the our shuttle #887 was not going to make it off the ship. And even if we did get off it would only be for a quick walk around the dock area before  we would have to wait once  again for the return shuttle ride. There were a number of  angry passengers who had made private tour plans that they were not able to take because of the long delays. We were disappointed but happy that we hadn’t waited all day in lines. Very poor planning by Princess and a Chilean government that isn’t anxious to collect the tourist income. And not an itinerary I would ever suggest. As they say if you want to see Easter Island, fly there. The saving grace for us was that the ship was anchored off one of the national park areas with moia and we could see them from the ship and took some pictures. Granted the telephoto lens helped a bit.

We are back on the sea days headed toward Coquimbo, Chile, enjoying sunshine and 75 degree winter weather.