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Published: October 27th 2005
The view from the observation lounge
After fighting my wy through the crowd I eventually got side view point.After our unexpected long stay in Cusco we were eventually leaving!
Although Cusco is a beautiful place with lots to see around the area, the constant hassle from touts and children selling postcards and finger puppets gets too much!
As a treat with some of our wedding present we decided to book first class on the train journey from Cusco to Puno which is on the shores of Lake Titikaka in Southern Peru.
We awoke with pleanty of time to get checked out of our hostel and down to the train station, but after having to wait for 15 minutes to get our change as the hostel had not got any we were starting to stress! We stood outside the hostel loaded up ready with our backpacks waiting for the girl to come back with our considerable amount of change. The girl rounded the corner sauntering along and when she saw us pacing looking stressed she started to run up to the hostel!
As we were pegging it around the corner to get a taxi the owners of the hostel were coming in the other direction on their way from Churchfrom and they (rather luckily) insited on
The observation lounge
Enjoying a Pisco Sour in the observation lounge at 10am, yes I know it´s bit early to be drinking but it was free!! taking us in their car to the train station. We got there in a panic, having being told when we booked the tickets to be there for 7.30am for 8am departure and at this point it was gone ten to eight. We handed in our luggage and headed onto the platform, with the glass and brass observation carriage shining in the sunlight in front of us. We were quite excited and calm once we were on the train!
The train left dead on 8am and as we sat having our breakfasts in comfy armchairs, both of us with window seats to the left hand side of the carriage which we were told had the best views (so no arguing this time!) we thought this is the life! Soon after breakfast we headed to the bar and observation carriage at the back of the train where we were given a complimentary Pisco Sour, this was nice but at 10am it went straight to my head! We stood there for ages at the back of the train just looking at at the amazing scenery and waving to all the children that were greeting us as the train passed.
The journey
Our journey being blessed
We wondered what was happening as our carrage filled with smoke and some guy in local dress started chanting names of places. is realatively slow, covering only about 420km in 10 hours, however it goes though some fantastic terrain, it runs at an average altitude of 3500m and reaches about 4321 metres above sea level at the highest point of the journey and goes through the altiplano, lush valleys, moutains and little towns where the train runs straight through the middle with no barriers.
After leaving Cusco the train passes through some green valley´s where there are many houses and lots fields of maize but as the journey progresses the towns get smaller and smaller, until there are just herds of Llamas and Alpacas and a few small adobe houses (clay and straw block built properties). We stopped at the highest point on the journey, and although no houses or village could be seen there was the obligitory ´locals´market selling alpaca skin rugs and knitted sweaters the kind of thing you´ll see everywhere if you ever visit Peru. We got off the train and found it really hard to breath as the air was so thin. We avoided the market and went the the other side of the train to admire the open plains surrounded by towering mountains, some of which
were covered in snow.
As we got back on the train the tables had been set fo lunch, however shortly after setting off the train stopped, alongside the train going in the opposite direction. We wondered why we were stopped and then the staff came and served us our starter of soup. After the soup had been served the train then set off again! We dont want any first class passengers getting tomato soup on themselves now do we? We had a lovely 3 course meal, I dont know how the chefs did it after seeing the size of the kitchen with the amount of people they had to cook for.
After lunch we headed back to the observation carriage and as I sat there, this dressed up good looking Peruvian girl walked past me and kind of stood draping herself around the doorway and then walked off, I thought oh my god how vain is she! Then another one came, I was a little confused until a seasoned first class traveller told me that it was just the fashon show. They were modelling some nice stuff but it wasnt half expensive! Then we had a dressed up
Peruvian giving a blessing to our journey and giving an offering to the mountain gods by burning coca leaves (which made my head spin even more), he was then flanked by two girls in traditional costume and as he played the guitar and pan pipes they sang (rather badly) and danced. It was a little bizare! We were then all grabbed and had to dance in a cirle around the couches in the middle of the observation carriage. At this point I wished I had stayed sat in my seat!
With about 2 hours of the journey left we started passing through an area of with lots of houses and farm animals. The housing became more dense and we found out this was the urban sprawl of Juliaca. The train goes straight down the road in the middle of the town. I have never been to India but it was what I imaginged an Indian street scene to look like. At firsts their were stalls selling car parts, this then changed to general household goods, and then lots of little tents with palm readers, these were all intersperced with food stalls and wherever there was a junction a chaotic
rable of tricky taxis (tricyle bikes with a space for 2 passangesrs at the front) and normal taxi cars.
We left Juliaca and its industrial and urban sprawl behind and as we neared Puno we came alongside the shores of Lake Titicaca. The train track runs along the edge fo the lake and as the sun was setting the mountian in the distance looked a dusky pink.
We arrived in Puno in the midst of a festival with hundreds of people dancing in the streets and playing the panpipes in a multitude of different brightly coloured costumes. It was very busy and lively but we needed to get on and book our trip around the lake and our bus ticket to La Paz for Monday.
Despite the carnival we had a goodsnight sleep and we were collected from our hostal at 6.45am to go on our day tour out on lake Titicaca. Our first stop was the floating reed islands of Uros. The islands are strange, you can feel then moving as you walk on them! The residents have to constantly top us the reeds from the top to compensate for the ones which are rotting from
the bottom! The people live in reed constructed houses and have no electricity or water services. The people drink water from the lake which they put all their waste water into and which is an outflow from all the many towns surrounding the islands.
The islands are interesting but are now unfortunately just attractions for the tourists and their way of life is almost lost. It is interesting and people still live out there and there are schools, however the residents main source of income is now tourism.
After a talk about how the islands are made and their history we went to another larger floating island on a reed built boat. Andy not happy to just be a passenger decided he wanted to help row the boat, but I think he was more of a hinderence than help as that meant the man rowing on the opposite side to Andy had to row twice as much to keep the boat on track. Still Andy was happy and enjopyed himself! I had a go and the oars were damn heavy so I left Andy to it.
We then boarded our normal boat and went on a two
hour journey across part of the lake to Isla Taquile the island is only about 1km wide but 6 to 7 km long. It is a very curious little island as it is a comunist community. There are approximately 2000 residents and all play their part in agriculture and tourism on the island. Everything has a fixed price and all of the residents get an equal share of any income that is made from tourism. Its strange as you can see men if not otherwise working on th land they are sat knitting all over the island, also everyone speaks in a soft whispered voice for what reason we don´t know other than it´s tradition on the island. It is customary that women where a black shawl with small pompoms if they are married and large if they are single, similar goes for the men, if they wear a hat which is all red with patterns they are married but if they have a white section on the hat they are single.
It appears that the island was initially used as a prison island by the Spanish invadors, with people being left on the island, then one of the
prisoners sent to the island turned out to be a Peruvian politican (dont know why he was sent there), but he convinced the people to set up their own systems and rule themselves and become self suffiecient from the Spanish and this is how the communist society began.
We returned to Puno that afternoon on what seemed like a never ending boat journey of about 2 and a half hours, the town was insight for a long time but didnt seem to get any closer! That evening exhausted from the altitude and being active again we were tucked up snugly in bed by 9.30pm for our journey to La Paz via Copacabana early the next morning!
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ronna
non-member comment
since when did an early morning drink bother either of you - sounds like you guys are getting a good variety of experiences!!! can't wait to hear more. enjoy!!!!