AndRean Explorer

“I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.”

 Yogi Berra

Train journeys, as I've said before, are my favorite way to travel.  The Andean Explorer snakes from Puno to Cusco through truly, amazing mountain scenery.  It is a full service luxury carriage reminiscent of the Orient Express and the mere thought of the trip made me smile with excitement.  My anticipation was already starting to mount as we waited in our Puno hotel for the non arrival of the taxi to the station.  Being my usual, pushy self, I went outside to check with the two minivans that were waiting, but no luck, both were airport transfers.  Like the proverbial grains of sand in the hour glass, time ticked on.  Our departure time loomed ever closer. I was just starting to stress out, which is never a good idea at altitude, when one of the drivers decided he was indeed our guy.  He had`waited 30 minutes so he could drive at great speed to the station. With only a few rapido minutes to spare we threw our cases into the baggage check-in and rushed into the grandeur of the couched waiting room of Peru Rail's Andean Explorer.  In true South American style it was now time to hurry up and wait on the luxurious, leather lounges and listen to the mandatory 4 man pan pipe band.  The surreality of hearing "Yellow Submarine" on Peruvian flutes calmed me back down to a panic.

This next leg of our journey would take us 240 miles north.  Starting at 12,500ft in Puno and ending the day in Cusco at 11,200 feet.  Of course you have to go up to go down and this epic 10 hour journey would take us through the Andean mountains up to heights of 14000 ft.  The mere thought of going any higher made me pant harder.

"I'm tired of pushing coaches. I want to see the world!" 

Thomas the Tank Engine

Finally, the waiting room wait was over, we handed over the tickets at the platform entrance and were escorted towards the shiny blue retro fitted train.   Barely able to contain ourselves, we were ushered into comfortable, back wing seats that would have looked at home in an English drawing room.  The single red rose next to a tiny lamp on the linen table cloth was just too much!  Exploring the rest of the carriages we discovered a lounge/bar carriage and an open air observation caboose.

  

“The historian is a prophet facing backwards.” 

Friedrich von Schlegel

What a wonderful way to watch the world pass by - all back to front. The fare for lunch and afternoon tea were listed in a leather bound menu on the table; every item promising goujoned, noisettes of drizzled perfection.  The smell of freshly ground coffee opulantly wove throughout the wood paneled interiors.  The beautiful mahogony decor was detailed with brass rails; blue uniformed staff members appeared, they themselves adorned with shiny buttons and gold trim.  Our waitress reverently enquired if we would like to order drinks.

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterwards." 

Spanish Proverb

I think I was born in the wrong era, train travel conjures up such excitement at the moment of departure.  The thought of the open train tracks ahead, opening up new territory, represents a bygone era of slow journeys and brief encounters.  Looking out onto the open frontier evokes an inner pioneer spirit.  Although, in the caboose you are actually looking backwards; maybe those frontierswoman feelings are merely dizziness from the welcome drink?

“A private railroad car is not an acquired taste. One takes to it immediately.” Eleanor Robson

The other thing I really like about train travel is the lack of turbulence (swaying and lurching doesn't have any bonechilling consequences attached).  Train aisles mean the kids can run and I mean run all the way up and down the train.  There are always toilet trips and refreshments to break the monotony.  In my mind both these services are often symbiotically parallel in quality with each other.  The bathrooms on the Andean Explorer were paneled with rich mahogony and measured larger than a horse box.  The marble counter tops were adorned with red rose floral bouquets, yes, real scented roses and baby's breath to soothe the nasal passages.  One look at these high grade ablutions told me to look forward to lunch. 

"To the world you may be just one person,
but to one person you may be the world." 

Brandi Snyder

The 'people watching' from the train window was top grade stuff, all I had to do was sit back and enjoy.  With a lurch we began our slow crawl through Puno; holding up the road traffic either side as we swayed along the tracks.  The event of our train rolling past was still able to bring a smile to a few of the onlookers and we waved with the enthusiastic salute of those at the start of a journey.  Leaving the town centre the tracks followed the lake and passed by the Casa Andina and our two favorite pet alpacas.  The morning light blushed over the lake and the dusty red brick houses littered the mountain sides down to where the water glowed pink.  

"A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, 

and could only have one book, what would it be? 

I always say 'How to Build a Boat"

Stephen Wright

I noticed an old steam ship moored on the lake's edge and I imagine the view was probably not much different from centuries ago.  The Yavari was built in England in 1862, taken to pieces and then shipped to Peru.  It took seven years to be delivered, in parts, over the mountain pass, by mules before it was rebuilt on the shores of Titicaca.  Yavari was used as a cargo steamer on the lake until 1975.  Lovingly restored the boat is a bed and breakfast and there is hope it will cruise the lake once more.  

The train followed the trail of sleepers along the edge of Lake Titicaca, the floating Euros village soon came into view.  Onward past the rural settlements and rice paddies with snap shot after brochure snapshot of Peruvian faces working in the fields.  Simply living their every day life in what seemed to me like colored costumes.

"A mask of gold hides all deformities." 

Thomas Dekker 

Who am I to comment on anyone else's dress code?  In this cooler southern hemisphere I have adopted a uniform of jeans, fleece and trainers, with a different scarf to mark a different day.  I'm getting pretty sick of my wardrobe and we still have a long time left yet.

"There's nothing better than a good friend,

except a good friend with CHOCOLATE".

Linda Grayson

Time for a hot chocolate I think, the kids were engrossed in a complicated make believe game, drawing pictures and continually pulling the table cloth askew. I lounged back in my armchair content to stare out of the window.  

"A positive attitude can really make dreams come true - it did for me."

David Bailey"

Greg had taken up residence in the caboose snapping picture after picture of the faces and scenery that Peru offers up in photographic abundance.  The rattling vibration of the train slowed once more as we approached the dusty, busy road into Juliaca.  

 
"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have 
that people are still thinking." 

Jerry Seinfeld 

In most of the towns, a market operates either side of the railway tracks and the book shop had its wares actually laid out in between the rails.  The literature for sale was scattered amongst the sleepers and the trains went right over the top.  The market lined every inch, on both sides of the through fare and offered up every product imaginable: clothes, fruit, musical instruments, packages of food, coca leaves, baskets of indescribable dried vegetables.

"Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate" 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Staring out from the rear of the caboose the train cut a swathe through the people and traffic until the train passed and the crowds swarmed back, refilling the pocket of space.  The people of Peru looked wryly at the gaggle of western tourist photographers, on the back of a train, snapping up their daily life.  The fates of such different people crossing paths for only the briefest of salutations. The kids seemed the happiest and there were plenty junior hands waving back.  Shy smiles peppered some faces, although a couple of not so friendly gestures from some teenagers reminded me that there is a dark side to Peru. 

"Gold, when beaten, shines."

 Peruvian Proverb

Rattling on we picked up speed at the edges of the market where it seemed the Peruvians took recycling to the extreme.  Offered up for sale were the pre-used parts of all things mechanical; scattered piles of twisted metal and parts littering either side of the track.  As the market stalls petered out the trash became more evident.  Plastic bags, bottles and paper snaked silently along the main thoroughfare; dwindling  as we left the town centre and entered back into the open fields once more.  Slowly we picked up speed, the scenery changed back to the flat brown grass plains and the dust lost all trace of the city as it fanned out into the distance.  The undulating acres were framed by the darker hills that soared up, reaching towards the white powder puff clouds, in the pale blue sky.

"Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom
lofty mountain tops are within reach."
John Muir

By the time the table was set for lunch with shiny silver cutlery we were high up in the Andes watching snow capped mountains rise up on either side of the tracks.  I was starting to look for Heidi and Peter herding goats but there were only sheep, alpacas and the odd ramshackle hut.

“I want to go about like the light-footed goats.” 

Johanna Spyri, Heidi

I was starting to feel like the Swiss grandmother as we ground ever higher.  The arrival of the soft white bread rolls confirmed my senior invalided status.  I decided that a glass of lunch time red couldn't do me much harm, it would all be down hill soon enough.

“There is nothin like a llama... well maybe an alpaca. 

But they're kinda like trademarks of llamas...” 

Llama Queen

Not long after our delicious three course lunch was served, we arrived in La Raya the   highest point of the railway 4390 meters or 14,172 feet above sea level.  Knowing the specific altitude seemed to add a claw hammer feeling to the screwdriver sensation poking through the top of my skull, or perhaps it was the red wine sucking out what hydration I had left.  I felt a tad weak to be steeling myself against the onslaught of mandatory, manic market stall holders.  However, curiosity got the better of me and I clambered down with the crowds for a short shopping sojourn.  I almost succumbed to a black alpaca sweater that would have just blared Peru every time I wore it.  Thankfully Greg uttered the shoppers death knell "Do you need it?  Do you want to carry it?".  The heat of the midday sun was burning through the thin ozone layer and the claw hammer in my skull had now been joined by a nail gun which seemed to be stapling in the red wine hangover early.  I made an escape back onto the train before disaster struck and I narrowly managed to bargain myself out of a pair of gloves and a stuffed alpaca.  

"If I listen I have the advantage, if I speak others have it."

 Peruvian Proverb

With 14,000 feet conquered it was time to finally roll downwards from the high pasture of the alpacas to the cattle grazing and arable fields at lower altitudes.  The afternoon wore on while we chatted with our compadres in tourism, lounging with intent in the bar, caboose and our comfy seats.  

"Never trust any complicated cocktail that remainds perfectly clear until the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds."

Terry Prachett

Somewhere around 13,000 feet the nail gun and claw hammer eased off and a Pisco sour was calling to be my mid afternoon cocktail, who was I to deny it haven?  A Pisco Sour, is pisco, lime juice, sugar and egg whites, luckily at the time of drinking I had no idea.   The Peruvian band from the waiting room suddenly reappeared and we watched with amazement as the native dancers whirled around us in a show of music and movement. 

"Today is your day to dance lightly with life.  

Sing wild songs of adventure. 

Soar your spirit. Unfurl your joy." 

Jonathan Lockwood Huie

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"Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, 

but backwards and in high heels." 

Faith Whittlesey

As more brick buildings with tile roofs appeared, I knew that afternoon tea would soon be served as we chugged ever closer to Cusco.  A tunnel cut our way through into the lower valley proper.

"Due to economic conditions, the light at the end of the tunnel has been temporarily turned off." Unknown

“The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train.”

 Robert Lowell

"From the tree of silence hands the fruit of tranquility."

 Peruvian Proverb

It seems like everything here is a photo opportunity it's just so peaceful and picturesque.  In essence it is a rural existence with farms dotted along the river; farmers go about their work, women wash clothes and lie them out on the ground to dry.  We went ballistic again, snapping photos off the back of the observatory deck and through the window.  Peru is like nothing I've ever seen.  To imagine living here, seeing beyond the bolero hats and colorful skirts, is just beyond my imagination but then again I'm not that bright at sea level so there's not much hope for me up here. 

I like to dream, but I like to make things happen. 

Heidi Klum

The waterfalls and rocky streams from earlier in the day had turned into wide rivers, there was a definite sense of journey's end and accomplishment.  We had done it, gone from a to b, over the top of point c.  We had taken a dream and made it happen.  Riding down the mountain was almost anticlimactic or was that just the altitude sickness easing? Somewhere around 3pm I felt the pressure on my neck and throat lessen a little and by 3.30 I was minus the imaginary tools protruding from my skull.  At this rate I'd be able to ultra marathon at 8000ft.  4.40pm and afternoon tea was served, I was a little disappointed not to have a three tier cake stand with miniature cucumber sandwiches, but hey if that's all I have to complain about it was a good day. As the light started to fade the train entered the outskirts of Cusco and the last leg of the journey was lit by street lamps.  We lurched to a slow halt in the frenzy of goodbyes and email exchanges with new found friends.

"I determined never to stop until I had come to the end 

and achieved my purpose."

David Livingstone