Another 545 start to get our 8am train from Puno to Cusco. It takes 10 hours, but they sure do it in style. I can see why travel used to be viewed as this grand adventure instead of the sardine can style of modern airplanes. Nice wide seats, cloth napkins, big windows. Oh and a Pisco Sour to welcome you around 930.
Views out the window were pretty amazing. A little like Calgary looking west to the Rockies mixed with Fraser River canyon but more people and houses.
Our Train:
Felt very luxurious indeed.
Stopped at La Raya Pass (14,169 feet) – local artisans laid out sweaters and shawls made from alpaca wool for us to buy. We did not buy but did pay for a cool photo.
Then lunch and tea while we looked out on the views. Nice way to spend the day, even if after 10 hours I was ready to be done.
Some villages we passed through:
Some nature shots too:
Lots of Llamas and Alpaca
6pm we arrived in Cusco. Long day but worth it.
About Cusco:
Cusco (11,500 feet) The oldest continually inhabited city in South America (from at least the 12th century). The original city of Cusco was laid out in the shape of a puma, the animal representation of the earth in the Incan cosmos. Populated by the Wari people before the Inca (600 – 1000 AD). Then was the capital of the Incan empire – 400 years before the establishment of Lima. Cusco fell to the Spanish in 1533 when the empire was weakened from civil war amongst the various tribes.
Tomorrow we tour Cusco and eat some local tasty food.