Today, we are striking out on our own with a rental car – our goal to reach Putre, a beautiful valley high (8,000 feet high) up into the mountain range. We have our breakfast and then return to wait for the arrival of the ship, because Carlos has said he can get us off the ship 1st if we are in a hurry – and we are – we may be a little time pressed today.
As we are chatting with Carlos waiting to be released, he decides we might need our passport to rent the car. So, he takes Ed off to reception to go pull the passport (we had to hand them in when we boarded the ship). After a very long time, they finally arrive back, discussing how people need learn what customer service really means. I’m not asking. I can only imagine.
Carlos finally gets the call that we are docked and he takes us on his “tour” through the crew areas from deck 5 down to deck 3, on the crew elevator, through the crew alleyways and halls – saying hello to everyone, finally wishing us a good day (he’s all excited about our Putre trip, saying it is one of his most favorite places) and depositing us on the dock. Where we find immediate chaos. Or at least dysfunction. We can’t walk through the port, so we must wait for the shuttle. But no one knows where the shuttle is or when it will be coming.
I ask one of the NCL gals, and she just says wait over there (where a mass of people are standing). We go over “there” and start chatting with a few folks, waiting for what we hope will be shuttles. Finally a small white van pulls up, and the NCL girl directing us says get on. Well, ok. Somehow we’ve gotten to the front of the line and we are not about to give that position up! We’re now 1/2 hour later than anticipated and we still have a 20 minute walk to Hertz. Along with 3 other couples we’ve overheard going to Hertz. The race is on!
The little van (there are also slightly bigger green buses) drops us off at one of the port gates and we head out into a sleepy Arica (things don’t start early here in Chile). Our speed walk to Hertz does indeed take 20 minutes - but we get there first – Yay! –and are in the process of filling out the paperwork when the next couple arrives, followed very quickly by the other 2 couples (renting a car together). We all start to chat and we find that the 4 folks are trying to go the National Park above Putre. Not a chance. And we tell them that. Putre is about 2 to 2 1/2 hours away – which barely gives us time to get there, take a picture or two and get back. The National park is 4 hours away. They’ll have to settle for Putre.
Then the rental agent tells us that the road to Putre is closed from 1pm to 4pm for repairs. What? Geez, we’re even more time pressed than we thought – so hurry it up – we need to be gone – as in now! Finally, we get our car, mark the dings and dents, and put the pedal to the metal heading for the mountains.
All goes smoothly out of town, and then up into the beginning of the mountain road. It’s a straight shot to the road to Putre, and as we turn more towards the mountains, the scenery changes – turning from coastline to dry, high desert.
There are small patches of green, but mostly sand colored mountain ranges, rising elegantly one above the other. We drive higher and higher, taking pictures along the way – the scenery becoming more and more dramatic.
It’s like a moonscape, then the terrain changes just as suddenly and becomes more lush with fields of crops and trees abutting the rocky ranges.
We drive for an hour, passing Poconchile pretty early on, the only town on the way, where I figure we can stop for lunch if we can’t make it to Putre. We see the sign for the road closure, 37KM ahead – but we’re good on timing, so we think we may make it. Then after about and hour and a half, we get to the construction site (at least we think it is the road closure site) and we’re stopped. Huh? It’s only 11:20 – so this can’t be the big road closure. What’s up?
There is one car in front of us, and the driver is out of the car messing around in the back hatch. Another car comes up, goes to the roadblock, talks to the workers, and drives through. Wait a minute! We pull around the first car and ask about the closure. Oops. No English. We finally manage to figure out that it is intermittent and that this will only be 15 or 20 minutes. Ok. Well, we might still be ok.
But then, 15 or 20 minutes turns into 30 or 35. Crud. And once we finally do end up moving forward we realize this is a one line road in many places. Apparently there have been rock slides (probably from the last earthquake) and there are massive repairs going on – earth movers, dump trucks, water trucks to keep the dust down – you name it – it is all up there on these sheer cliffs above the one lane road. Oh boy…
…We go up, and up, and up, past the construction, and by the time we get to the end of the construction it is 11:30 or later and you know what? We’re not that adventurous. Who knows how long this diversion will last and how long it will take to get to Putre, and then if we make it, will we make it past this roadblock before 1pm? Not taking that chance, so we turn around in the middle of the road and get back in line to go back down the mountain. Putre may be the most gorgeous place on this earth, but it is not worth missing the ship. As we pull over to turn around, we see our friends from the ship whiz by us. We’re hoping they have the timing figured out and that we’ll see them back aboard….but….
Even though our Putre adventure has been aborted, the scenery so far has still been amazing. And while we are sitting here waiting for the road to open, I use the opportunity to hop out and take more pictures.
Soon, we see our shipboard pals lined up behind us waiting for the construction. That’s a relief, because we were sort of worrying about them. On the way back down, you can see just how treacherous this road can be – in many places there is nothing between you and sure death but a rock or two. No guardrail, or if there is one, it is twisted and destroyed on the side of the road. No shoulder, just a couple of rocks on the side of the road before you go over. I’m glad Ed is driving – por supesto!
But, the scenery is dramatic, and even though the road is awful, you can still feel the majesty of it all, the birds soaring around, clouds passing quickly overhead and dry, sandy mountains morphing into fertile valley croplands.
Finally back down closer to sea level, we take a deep breath, and return back into town. Even though it is a little after noon, none of the roadside restaurants are open, so our lunch options are zilch out here. We debate trying to head up to the mountain above the town, where there is a huge Peruvian flag and a cross, but I can see the roads are very similar to Valpo, and we’re just not in the mood. So, we just gas up, and head back to drop off the car and meander through town.
Even though the guys at Hertz said they’d bring us back to the port, we thank them and just walk back, passing through a huge market area and people watching along the way. We end up in a pedestrian area in the main town where it is crazy busy. People everywhere. Just having come from the sterile and desolate mountains, this is a people overload for us. Since we are in town, I figure we can at least visit the main chapel in town, which was designed by Eiffel and is constructed entirely of iron. But – darn it – it is under construction, and doesn’t appear to be open. Hmmm….this is looking like the “diversion” excursion! So, we turn around and begin our search for someplace to sit and have something to eat. Not as easy as it would seem in this pedestrian area, but we finally settle on, of all places,Calaveras & Diablitos (Skulls & Devils)!
The “hawker” guy said there was a second floor deck area, so we went up there and actually had a lovely lunch.
The menu was only written on the chalkboard here – so we got it repeated to us –again in Spanish only. Once we figured out what Plancha was (grilled) we ended up with Ceviche to start, Pollo alla Plancha for Ed and Churrasco Al Plato for me. Oh yeah, and surprisingly good orange jello for dessert. Huge plates, great food, all for the equivalent of about $4.50US. Crazy!
After lunch we went in search of somewhere to spend our remaining pesos. We had totally over estimated what we needed and had too much left. We didn’t see anything especially appealing, but found a good cambio and got a very nice exchange rate – so we cashed in most of our pesos and headed to the ship.
On the way back we stopped at the local tourist market outside the port gate and actually found some cool blue stone earrings (lapiz? maybe?) cheap – so we spent most of our last pesos, then headed back aboard to relax and cool off (it’s starting to get hot now that we are moving north).
A few picture from the ship (the mountain we didn’t drive to) and miscellaneous scenic pix, and we’re sailing away to Lima.
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