leaving Lima by train!

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Current Location: Cuenca, Ecuador

Ron

I want to write a little on our train experience on July 27th, 2013.

A train runs once a month from Lima to the town of Huancayo in the mountains. On the way, it reaches a max altitude of 4829meters (15,700 feet) before coming to rest in Huancayo at 3260 meters (10,600 feet!). I dont know why it only runs once a month -- the trax all seem to be in good shape, etc. though im sure i wouldnt know a 'bad' track if it hit me in the face! Ha! The journey started from Lima's Desamparados (downtown) station at 7am on a rainy morn. We had changed hostels on thursday from the Kaminu in Barranco to the 1900 Backpackers in downtown Lima, well knowing that we'd have to be up early to make the train. And a proper decision it turned out to be since it was raining, a gentle but steady (feminine) rain. But by 7am it had just about let up and we were on our way.

I love train rides, what else can I say? And this one was no different! They had offered 2 classes, a Basic class and a more comfortable, more expensive Tourist class. We were in the Basic class and it was great! We had a female car attendant and they provided us with lunch and dinner just like on a plane -- they came down the aisle with a little cart and gave out the meals and drinks! As we wound our way out of sprawling Lima, we followed a small river which slowly became more creek or stream-like and as we got higher and higher the stream took on the grayish look of glacial water. The train eventually will go through 69 tunnels, cross 58 bridges and use 6 switchbacks on its 332 km. (207 mile) journey!! A true engineering marvel! Construction started in 1870 and was completed in 1908.

We stopped close to the highest point near the Galera tunnel and everyone got out to take pix. I felt very light-headed at that point! Both Rumi & Lisa were the same (Rumi described it as 'feeling dizzy'😉. Later, Rumi got his first taste of Coca tea which put him to sleep for an hour or so. When we restarted on the train, it started to snow for about a half an hour but we were all cozy in our seats! It was a truly great experience!!

The train ended up being 2 hours late so the total trip lasted 14 hours, which turns out to be exhausting even though one is just sitting all day. Luckily for us, we befriended a woman who was Peruvian although she had been living in Portland, OR for quite a while now and she used her cell phone to call ahead to a hostel (Casa de la Abuela), who was there at the station to pick us and a whole bunch of other travellers up! More on Huancayo in our next blog!

Oh, yeah! When we were about 2 hours out of Huancayo, the attendant started a car-wide game of Bingo, which was quite fun for everyone, especially for us since it was great practice in using the Spanish numbers! All in all, the train was a great experience for us and we were so lucky that we were able to fit it into our schedule so perfectly.

P.S. I want to apologize to some of you Purists out there. When i reread the last blog entry, i noticed that i left a few parantheses hanging wiiiiiiiiidddddddeeeeeee open! OMG! I hope that much sleep has NOT been lost and i promise to close them in the future blogs.

And, of course, Lisa did not have the 'Swine Flew' in India in '09, but the real thing : flu!!

I hope everyone is well and fine! Love you all!

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