Sort of brutal travel day today, but we made it. Our alarms went off at 5:30 and we packed up and hit the road by 6:30. The consolation was a beautiful sunrise as we were pulling out.

We had a 1.5hr drive to the Calama airport. We filled up with gas, returned the car, and got through security. At our gate they made us pay $120 AND check our bags. We were very frustrated. We are carry-on people in general, but there is something about handing over our only belongings to the airline that makes us extra nervous on this flight. We tried to explain how important everything was and that it fits under the seat, but they weren’t having it. Millie started crying because she was worried about her dolls, and we were not exactly cooperative. It was the low moment of the day.

We ended up being the last passengers to board the half empty plane, and of course there was plenty of overhead bin space. Nick looked at me and said “I just want to be home” and that about summed it up.

We landed in Santiago and had a 3 hour layover. We had to exit the domestic terminal and walk to the international terminal. The early morning caught up with Millie and we could see her behavior start to go off the rails. We’ve been carrying around an emergency lollipop for these types of moments and decided to deploy it. It snapped her out of it immediately and she was a delight. I’m wasn’t willing to use candy as a behavior changer for the rest of this trip, but we were glad to have it today.

Our second flight to Cusco was just over 3 hours. When we landed we tried to see if our bags made it, and got a little freaked out by the AirTag statuses.

Our luck turned around at passport control where we got plucked from the line and sent to the much shorter family line. Then we saw our bags and picked them up. It was easy to get an Uber who dropped us off at our hotel.

We were exhausted but rallied for a late dinner. Millie insisted on getting dressed up in her fanciest clothes.

Nick ate alpaca meat for dinner. He’s saving guinea pig for tomorrow. And now we sleep and hope once again that we aren’t too affected by the altitude.