Beaches and Islands

(Second of three parts)

Marking 150 years since the Charlottetown Conference, at which Canada as a country was proposed, Prince Edward Island province is holding 150+ festivals and events in 2014. In Founders Week, Aug. 28-Sept. 8, tall ships sail into Charlottetown and Summerside, with a concert and fireworks. Contact PEI 2014 (877/734-2014).

The State Department continues to warn of the risks of traveling to the coastal eastern areas of the Malaysian state of Sabah, northern Borneo, due to threats from criminal gangs and terrorists. (See May ’13, pg. 18.)

In August 2013, Malaysian officials thwarted an attempt to kidnap foreign tourists from a resort on Mabul Island. In November, a tourist was killed and his wife abducted at a resort on Pom Pom Island. There have been attempts to waylay ferries from the mainland traveling to the resort islands.

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, is so remote that it is not “on the way” to anywhere else, which is why it took me over 30 years to finally get there. Prior to a tour of South America, I visited Oct. 24-28, 2012, reserving a hotel online and booking tours upon arrival.

Situated in the southeastern Pacific over 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile, it is a small, triangular-shaped island with a main town of over 3,000 residents and an airport with a very long runway built by NASA.  

by Arthur Hanna, Contributing Editor

As I boarded my flight from New York’s JFK to Medellín, Colombia, little did I know what fantastic experiences would be in store for me. 

(First of three parts)

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 15 and 20, gangs of young thieves swarmed the Ipanema and Arpoador beaches with clubs and grabbed jewelry, cell phones, beach bags and other items from sunbathing Brazilians and tourists. The dozens of hoodlums made several such arrastoes, or “big drags.”

This style of robbery, common in the 1990s, is difficult to stop because the thieves scatter over a wide area. Police are stepping up beach patrols.

The Cook Islands is a lovely vacation destination in the South Pacific, but in early April ’13 my companion and I used the Cooks as a stopover for three days, recovering from our 9-hour flight from Los Angeles before continuing on to New Zealand. 

An added incentive from the airline, Air New Zealand — a business-class ticket with a Cooks stopover cost almost $1,700 less than a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.

On Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, the Tapati festival will take place Feb. 1-15, 2014. The festival has competitions based on ancient sports, which include a triathlon and horse racing. In one competition, called Haka Pei, participants slide down Easter Island’s steepest hill on banana tree trunks. There also are parades, music and dancing.

Contact the Chilean tourism board (phone 56 2 731 8336, www.chile.travel). Flights to the island are limited, so book early.

I would like to second the subscriber’s opinion in the letter “Found Easter Island ‘Beautiful’” (Aug. ’13, pg. 50). My husband and I spent three days on Rapa Nui in 2006 as part of a month-long visit to Chile. We had a wonderful experience exploring this fascinating island and enjoyed the people we met.