What an unforgettable experience! Very many thanks to Peter and Karen for our wedding present! Our travel day started early, with bags loaded and us, tickets in hand, waiting to board. We were serenaded on (!) with Andean pan pipe music, and train staff in long greatcoats and smart uniforms. Ticketrs checked and we took our seats. What seats! Like armchairs, with a white table-clothed table between and, or course, a lamp on the table. This was fantastic!
It only got better. We discovered that not only could we wander own our carriage at leisure, there was also a bar carriage next door, and a open-ended glass-roofed observation carriage at the back of the train.
The bell at the station rang out, the train hooted, and we pulled out onto the middle of the main street (I kid you not) as slowly we heading along the 9 hour journey to Cusco.
First past the lake, through fields and watching llamas through the windows. Then, after our first stop at Juliaca, literally through the middle of the market, with every conceivable thing for sale, from the usual fruit and veg to remote controls, wire, nuts, bolts, the lot.
As we climbed higher the land changed from flat and dry and dusty, to greener, more hilly, and with rivers in the valleys. Eventually at our highest point of the journey we began to see the Peru I thought I would recognise – crumpled hills and mountains, greenery in the valleys, crops of maize everywhere. People in the villages we passed workingin the fields, or walking along the roads, and lots waving as we went by, to which Blue Mouse and Carlos waved back, an got a few smiles. Considering the vast chasm between us foreign tourists riding along and the day that the people we passed were living, I was really quite touched they were stopping and waving at all, because you might easily expect a different and understandable reaction to us.
So after a day of delights, with the views, and also a sampling of pisco sour, a bit of music, delicious lunch and even afternoon tea, we finally arrived at our destination, Cusco. What an amazing journey!
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