Tag Archives: pacific ocean

Hola folks!

Lima oceanside walkies – done; next up – our LatAm partner conference, with 220 guests, from 19 countries.

So. What? Why?!…

It’ all rather straightforward really. Practically any mass-market product is sold not directly but through retail chains, distributors, resellers, and so on. Well – maybe with the exception of online sales of various kinds of software, and even then you need a partner with an online platform (by no means every software company can afford to develop and maintain its own online storefronts). It’s the same in our case. While online sales happen with minimal partner involvement, everything from boxed product (yes – that’s still a thing) on upward – especially with corporate products that call for training, deployment, and support – simply can’t get by without a partner network.

And to make that network run more effectively, you need regular meetups, conferences, seminars on new products and technologies, and all sorts of other things like that. And that’s exactly what we do – every year we put on several regional partner get-togethers plus one global one; and we’ve been at it since all the way back in 1999! We even kept to the yearly partner meet-ups schedule through covid in 2020!

Fast-forward to 2026, and this time the capital of Peru was chosen as the venue for our LatAm conference: two days presenting our new products, technologies, and services, talking through the partner program, and so on. Naturally, I got up and spoke too:

What did I talk about?… ->

Read on…

Cities come in all shapes and sizes. There are the standout urban projects – like the island-city-state of Singapore. There are megacities that really lucked out with phenomenal natural beauty all around them – Rio de Janeiro, for instance. There are imperial capitals – St. Petersburg, say, or Beijing. And there are plenty of cities with some special “thing” all of their own – I once even drew up my own Top-20 of the very best cities (in my strictly personal, not-always-objective opinion); and at one point I came up with my own Top-100 most beautiful places in the world list, too.

Oh – I got carried away there with my countries and cities and various lists. Now, where was I? Ah, yes: I was building up to introducing Peru’s capital, Lima (here). And it turns out that, though it’s not quite a “megacity” that lucked out with phenomenal natural beauty all around it, it did still luck out. And that’s mainly because it sits high up on the Pacific Ocean shore; and the resultant views are oh-my-gorgeous…

Read on…

In this, my last post in the series on Easter Island, a few words on day-to-day practicalities: how to get there, where to stay, and how to get around the island.

There are two ways to get to Rapa Nui: either a five-hour flight from Santiago (and getting to Santiago from anywhere on the planet is straightforward – albeit often long-winded:), or a two-week (!) boat trip from Valparaiso, Chile’s main port, which is about 120km from the capital. There used to be flights from Lima, Peru, too, but they stopped during covid in 2020, and somehow they just never resumed after that.

Anyway, back to the Santiago > Easter Island route…

Either one or two large planes do the route there and back daily. But on days when two planes fly, the lines at the airport in Santiago grow to truly inhumane lengths. We ended up queuing for our boarding gate all the way to the very furthest corner of the airport – in a line that stretched at least a hundred meters. Still, one should only ever remember the good stuff (and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise)! So, just read these lines, forget about them – and then go ahead and dream about planning your own Easter Island trip!…

Once there, how do you get yourself to the various tourist spots dotted across the whole island? You can do so yourself in cars, on scooters or bikes you can rent. But if you do, it’s better if you know Spanish, because almost every site charges entry, and there’s no guarantee anyone at the entrance speaks a language you know. We rented a mini-bus with a local guide, who was half-Spanish and half-Rapa-Nui, but unfortunately he didn’t speak the language of his island ancestors. (Curious fact: “Rapa Nui” = the Rapa Nui people, the Rapa Nui language, and the island of Rapa Nui!)

Next – where to stay? There are lots of options. We were apparently booked in at “the best place on the island” – the Explora Rapa Nui hotel, here…

And here ->

Read on…

Still on with my intercontinental switcheroo, today we’re back on Easter Island!…

The topic of volcanoes is really interesting and diverse. It’s not just volcanos’ cones, the lava that sometimes flows out of them, and the smoke from eruptions. There are also all the colors, hot springs, and geysers – which all come under the “volcanisms” banner. There’s also a unique, lesser-known phenomenon – lava tubes. And they look something like this:

Read on…

Strolling around Easter Island sounds exotic, but once you finally reach this remote outpost of humanity, the endeavor takes on a more practical nature. There’s plenty of walking to be done, and most of it is along the coastline – perfect for clearing your head after a long flight, or for meditative contemplation after viewing the moai statues up close in the quarry or on one of the surviving ceremonial platforms.

Read on…

After first checking out the moai quarry, it was time for a stroll amid the landscapes of Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island). Of course, there’s none of the vastness of the Kenyan or Tanzanian savannas, no endless Arctic tundra of Taymyr, no boundless, unforgiving desert of the Sahara, Saudi Arabia, or Australia. Everything on the island is much more modest, but there’s still plenty of wandering about to be done between lunch and dinner.

Beginning our roam-stroll, the first thing to attract our attention – a moai statue lying face down! Why, we wondered. Alas – no tourist info-plaques. Still, we’ve the internet these days, but it always gives a thousand conflicting theories. But I digress…

Read on…

Herewith, a continuation of my tales from the mid-South-Pacific side…

In my previous post I gave an introductory overall picture of Easter Island, while now it’s time to have a look at some specific sites. Where to begin? Let’s start with the moai; specifically – the quarry where all the raw material for the statues was sourced.

Our guide told us how the island was divided among nine or ten family clans, with land belonging to each clan radiating from a central point to the coast – like slices of a pizza, and one of these families operated the moai quarry on its slice of pizza, supplying statues to its neighbors. Completed statues were somehow transported down toward the shore to a “showroom” for other clans to come have a look, choose one, then take it off to their slice of pizza!

Read on…

After finally getting to Easter Island (in two senses of the word “finally”) – let’s get going around this fascinating island…

I left off last time with our arriving at Mataveri International Airport (IATA code: IPC). The airport itself is nothing remarkable, so I’ll skip ahead: what’s there to see, how many days you should spend here, and what you should pack and wear. And of course, the eternal questions: how did people even get here way back when – and why did they carve these famous stone statues? ->

Read on…

As mentioned, Easter Island – also known as Rapa Nui – had long been one of my dream destinations…

Read on …

Back in school, I think my favorite books were those hefty tomes all about geography, travel, and the world’s remotest corners. That early fascination really took root in my mind and has stayed with me ever since – as you can see in this blog!

Over time, some of those geographical – on-paper – discoveries started turning into real discoveries: the Galapagos, Tibet, Mount Fuji, Drake Passage, Tasmania (the latter – great trip, but we nearly ended up being stranded there (or on mainland Australia) for… years due to our still being there in late March… 2020!).

However, some places I’d always dreamed of visiting stubbornly remained on my to-do list – seemingly just too far and inaccessible. But then, this year, I finally got to visit two of these out-of-the-way places. Back in winter it was the Nazca Lines; and this fall it was Rapa Nui – better known as Easter Island! Oh yes…

“Where’s that?” some might ask – especially if they didn’t pay much attention in geography class. Honestly though, even those who did would probably struggle to show you Rapa Nui on a world map on their first try. Don’t believe me? Go on then – give it a shot! (spoiler: answer in next pic; no peeking!)…

Read on…