Who needs the Orient Express when you can slum it instead!

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So the choice was to pay $220 to live it up on the 'Orient Express' train journey between Puno and Cusco OR to slum it on a tourist bus. Most of our group chose to posh it up on the train and by all acounts had a great time getting drunk on happy hour pisco sours and full to the brim with 3 course posh nosh and afternoon teas. They did however have to endure 2 panpipe bands but I think by the 4th pisco sour they quite enjoyed the 30th rendition of the song re-named 'There's only one Barry Landlord' by Stef and Eddie - joke from back home - they're funny up north (!) that is always played by EVERY band in EVERY restaurant. I think they were so drunk they even bought a CD lol!!

Just 5 of us and Max hopped onto the tourist bus and this actually turned out to be a great option too as there were loads of stops along the way. We had a guide rattling off all about the museums and Inca sites we stopped at in both Spanish and English. At one point he dramatically collapsed against a wall after taking us through this massive wall chart outlining Peruvian history! He must have done quite well as some of it has actually sunk in... Pre Incan civilizations ran from 3000BC to 1,100AD when the Incan period began and continued for the next 500ish years. Many of the symbols, customs etc carried on through all these eras and helped to develop what the Incans became. At one museum there were stone statues depicting a leader geezer holding a severed head in one hand and a knife in the other, throwing his weight around with more warrier antics! Another statue showed the three levels upper (condor), central (puma) and inner (snake). We also saw some tools made from llama and also human bone! ("No Horrible Histories 'flutes made out of arm bones' though, most disappointing!). Some of these tools are still used today, e.g. the lady who was demonstrating weaving on the island on Lake Titicaca was using a bone tool to pack down the threads.

The scenery was stunning with huge mountains on each side, the ridge on the left starting in Chile and that on the right from Bolivia. They met at the highest point of the journey at La Raya at 4,312m! We learnt from our tour guide that High Plateau life can be very hard indeed. The homes are made of adobe bricks and they have no running water, instead having to walk sometime miles to the nearest river to collect water. They also have no electricity or gas. The roofs were either made of corrugated metal or thatched in grass depending on what the families could afford. Schooling is very difficult for the children as they have to get to the nearest town school, sometimes a 1 to 2 hour walk! Mostly the families farm llama or raise cattle. Watching some of these High Plateau farmers, I noticed that most seem to stay with their small herds of about 20 or so animals. Perhaps because there are no fences or walls to keep them from straying. In other places I'd seen cows, sheep and alpacas with a rope trailing from their neck and the farmer running after them and holding on to a big bunch of strings a bit like a bunch of balloons! The women tending the cattle were often seen spinning with one of the little hand spindles.

Another stop was at RAqchi, an Inca settlement, but not just ANY Inca settlement. THis was a pretty important one. We saw the remains of a huge main building, it's central wall being about as high as a three storey building. The settlement housed about 20 families of the Inca posh peeps (all the plebby commoner Incans had to live outside the large perimeter wall built up on the hillside to protect the settlement). Also on the site are over 100 silos or food stores. Raqchi was a major food distribution centre sending food out to all the outlying Inca settlements. To put it into perspective Machu Pichu only has 2 silos!

Before we finally pulled in to Cusco I saw in the flood plains loads of white herons, a few ibis. Also seen at various points along the way were the flicker woodpeckers and Peruvian style kestrels (more colourful than our version).

Our final destination of Cusco came into view and we made our way to our next hotel which turned out to be another lovely one with rooms surrounding a courtyard with seating to relax in. The heater went on straight away brrrr bit more chilly up here and the group met up to compare notes.

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