Since living in Japan, I’ve had a fondness for excellent train travel. You get to read! Take a nap! Walk around! Did I mention you also can take a nap? The train probably also won’t plummet out of the sky!
More trains, yes please.
Today, we took the ten-hour train from Puno to Cusco, operated by PeruRail. It’s a luxury train operated by the same company that operates the Orient Express. Time to be fancy.
The Andean Explorer train chugged out of Puno station just after 8am. It was just six cars long, not counting the engine: three passenger cars, a bar car with an open-air observation car, and two functional cars for the staff.
Service on the train featured a few drinks, a meal which included dessert, and afternoon tea with tiny cupcakes. One of the servers came by to take our orders shortly after serving us tea.
We passed golden, rolling mountains and dusty villages. We saw farmers working the fields and lots of little kids waved to us. Every Peruvian dog we passed performed its sacred duty to chase the train away (it was incredibly effective from the dogs’ points of view!).
The first four hours, while beautiful, were not as impressive as the second half of the train ride. PeruRail took the opportunity to entertain us for the morning. We were served Ginger Beer and Pisco cocktails while a local band and dancer entertained us.
After lunch, the mountains started getting higher and more mountain-y. We started seeing snow-capped peaks in the distance.
We passed the highest point of our journey just after lunch. La Raya sits at 4319m / 14,169 feet above sea level. Though we had acclimated to Puno’s 12k feet, we could feel the difference up here a bit more strongly. There was a small market at this stop and a few locals who charged a few soles for pictures of them with their alpacas.
It’s all downhill from here – literally 😉 We passed through sweeping valleys, over rivers, and around mountains. There were a lot of sheep, alpaca, and cows roaming the nearby fields.
We arrived in Cusco just after sundown. After a mild panic of not being able to find our named driver, we found the person from our hotel with help from the train staff and headed back to relax for the evening.
Tomorrow, we’re exploring around Cusco, and then it’s off to Machu Picchu on Monday.