Saturday 23 January

Andes Explorer – train journey to Puno and Lake Titicaca

Stuart got a bad headache during the night, and had the doctor see him. My diagnosis was dehydration, as we hadn’t eaten much yesterday and Stuart didn’t drink much water (a MUST at this altitude), then he had two beers at the cocktail party. Anyway the doctor said it was attitude sickness – his blood pressure was high also - and prescribed electrolytes (a BIG bottle) and four tablets every 12 hours, as well as 500mg of aspirin. Almost no one in the group had aspirin so one lady gave us 5 of her 100mg tablets. The fact that he didn’t drink much of the electrolytes indicates he wasn’t seriously ill.

Today was the 80^th birthday of one of our group. He is as fit as a fiddle, however, and you wouldn’t guess. We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and he cut a tiny cake at the hotel.

Our journey today was via the Andes Explorer, a very comfortable train that is one of the must-do train journeys of the world. It is a 10hr trip from Cusco to Puno.

These were our seats for the journey

We travelled through some lovely countryside. The train travelled beside the Vilcanota (Urubamba) River, going in the opposite direction to the river this time. We gradually climbed until we reached the highest point at La Raya. Here the train stopped for 10 minutes so we could take photos of the church, and the sign declaring the altitude (4319m) and look at the wares of the locals who were all set up to sell to us.

Who needs roofing nails?

Some locals (Lesley had to pay for taking the photo)

The scenery for the second half of the journey was a large flat plain that went forever. It was surrounded by mountains in the distance. Locals dotted here and there eek out a living with livestock – cattle, sheep and llamas. The plain had no trees, but small crops were growing nicely to feed the livestock and locals. They are currently experiencing a drought (El Nino) and worry about the farmers too, as in Australia.

Peru is not a clean country. Dust pervades everything, due to dirt roads and low rainfall, and rubbish is strewn everywhere. There doesn’t seem to be a sense of pride in the appearance of the country. Also memorable for Lesley (for all the wrong reasons perhaps) are the unfinished buildings everywhere you look. The locals live in them like this – certainly a different way of life to us!

We were treated to a cultural show of music and dancing (as much as was possible on a train). The male dancer got Lesley up and they danced down the corridor. He led well and she was able to do as he wanted for most of the time. She was quite puffed at the end though! Good fun! The musicians also played ‘Happy Birthday’ for David!

There are no level crossings as we know them, so the train has to blast on the horn – LOTS! Drivers stop if they value their lives. In Cusco Lesley could see out the window on a bend and the four lanes of traffic crossing the rail track showed no sign of stopping until the train was REALLY close, and blaring its horn loudly!

In one of the bigger towns (Sicuani) the train went through a large market – the train so close that we could have reached out and touched the stalls and taken an item! Amazing! 

This happened again at Juliaca (pronounced ‘Hule-ee-ar-ca). This town is the capital of fake, we were told – all fake souvenirs sold in the cheap markets in Peru are made here! Seen from the train it was a dirty town – mostly dirt roads, and of course the inevitable rubbish all around, and unfinished buildings.