Long day out with a drive through the Andes Mountains to a small town Putre (Wiki) Awesome views, but definitely a long tiring day of driving.
Morning Start
Got to sleep in and get a more rested start than usual. Meetup was at 10:45am, so rolled out of bed pretty rested and went down to the meetup point. On the way, I peeked out to discover that we 1) weren’t in port yet and 2) they definitely had some work to do to get the ramps and stuff setup.
Waited in the theater for a good amount of time waiting for the tour to start, but no worries.
We did finally get off the ship and onto our buses to head out of town and through the Andes.
The Tour
As we left the port, our guide informed us that it was the first day of Carnival, and that the entire city (and neighboring countries) were all descending into the city. Some people on the tour were a little disappointed that we were driving AWAY from the fun (but this introvert was very happy to escape all the people :D).
Geoglyphs
We first headed out and stopped by a wayside to see some geoglyphs in the distance. The guide told us all sorts of stories about the geoglyphs and potential explanations of them…I’m partial to the “signal to UFO” theories :P.
Church
Next, we stopped by a church, also to walk a bit and start to acclimate to the change in elevation. At this point we had already traversed a ways up, and it was a good idea to acclimate our bodies in steps, so we got out to walk a bit. It was a little bit of a dual edged sword though, cause we had to deal with the elevation, but also with the sun that was beating down on us with little to no cloud cover at this point.
Viewpoints
We then continued the ascent, and stopped a ways up to acclimate even more.
Beautiful views, but also as we travelled, I noticed that there was a TON of trash out there in the wilderness. Super sad and frustrating. Another example of humans being the worst.
Cocoa Leaf Tea
We then continued up to a restaurant to get some Cocoa Leaf Tea. Good for the body, and also for acclimating to the elevation as well. A baby alpaca came out of the kitchen to say hi and greet us as well. So cute and friendly.
Putre
We then drove on for a ways till we got to the little town of Putre. There weren’t a ton of people around because apparently most people went down to Arica to go to Carnival, but it was definitely a nice little quaint town. We took it easy and strolled around town, definitely feeling the elevation and thinner air.
One nice thing was the nice cool mountain breeze that was super refreshing after a 4 hour bus ride. Lots of birds chirping around town, and lovely town square with some interesting exercise machines, and gardens as well. To top it off, some cute stray dogs walking around chilling all over the square.
Return to Port
We left Putre to make the long drive back down the mountains to return to port. On the way, we were warned that our ears would repressurize, etc. I went to take a long nap, and definitely felt the pressure change as we descended (pretty rapidly).
About a quarter of the way down, I felt my ears pop, and the left one definitely was blocked, and I couldn’t get it to repressurize. I could still hear, but it was all muddy like being under water.
A quick google, and found some additional things to try (google results). I figured it would equalize at some point, but was trying gum, yawning, trying to equalize myself with my normal tricks, but nothing was working.
Back to Ship
As we got back to port, we had about an hour before all aboard. They gave us the option of going back out to see Carnival, but I was 1) super tired, 2) couldn’t hear out of one side of my face, and 3) don’t like people, so opted to go back to the ship. As we got to the ship, I noticed that there were like 100 birds in a row on our mooring lines, which was pretty hilarious to me, so I went over to grab some photos as well.
On the way back up to the stateroom, I noticed a HUGE flock of seagulls swarming in formations and then turning right toward us, and I very briefly had a moment of hitchcockian terror of birds swarming at us….didn’t stop me from grabbing a few photos first before running inside to take shelter :P.
Also got a pretty nice view from the ship of the Morro de Arica National Monument (Wiki) that has a Christ of Peace (Cristo de la Paz) statue up there with a gigantic flag as well.
Afterwards, took a quick shower, then tried unsuccessfully to get my ear to equalize.
Food
Made it to dinner before it closed, to get an awesome meal. Most people were out in the city, so there was a smaller crowd at dinner, but had a most excellently cooked Ahi Tuna with some Corn Fritters and Tiramisu to complement.
Evening Activities
After dinner, I chose to relax and watch some more netflix with my gimpy ear, before finally trying out some of the other remedies suggested in my google search. I ended up FINALLY getting it to pressurize by doing the gravity hop, and I’m so glad I was in my stateroom. Being parallel and hopping up and down vigorously must’ve looked SO hilarious, but when I could hear normally again, I felt so much relief.
Going to sleep well, and we get an hour back as we start heading more west..
Vibe Check
5 parts joy
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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