The view from my cheap hostal's terrace - Hostal Resbalosa comes highly recommended if only for that - amazingly close to Plaza de Armas, but a bugger of a climb up long, long stairs; especially when you're at 3600m AMSL.
Breakfast is served; desayuno Americano gets the trip off to a wonderfully mellow start. I must admit I skipped on the 10am Pisco Sour, though.
Armchairs hold up the weary traveller; I really don't want to know how they slide around if ever the train brakes hard.
The surrounds aren't all that spectacular for the first hours out of Cusco ...
...but everywhere, kids are waving; fleeting glimpses of what life is like outside the rolling steel tube.
The observation deck right at the back of the train. Lots of windows, comfortable seating...just the place to strike up a conversation with other travellers.
I've resolved to capture more details of the places I visit: it seems the sweeping views just don't convey what I want them to. i.e. I just love the curvature of these luggage racks...
The quaint Perurail escudo: a stylised Llama and Condor, Inca Masonry and what I take to be Huayna Picchu (the sugarcone of a mountain that overshadows the ruins of Machu Picchu).
Looking forward from the bar/observation carriage.
Recommended reading by Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring - The Conquest of the Incas by John Hemming. I'd definitely put it near the top of the must-reads for travellers to Peru. A pleasingly narrative style and a focus on Inca-Spanish relations during the Conquista (rather than going for a wholesale description of all of Peruvian history or Inca society) make this a terrific read!
The train stops first at a small church in the middle of nowhere, some llamas and the usual gaggle of indigenas peddling their wares await (I don't mean this to sound too dismissive, it's just a bit wearisome)...
... I preferred the snow-covered mountain vista out the back.
Makes me wonder what local people think when this train rolls gently (never more than 60km/h) past their oft basic housing every couple of days.
The bar section, at the back of which was the observation deck.
Once the greater Cusco area was left behind, the valleys opened up a bit and allowed the deep blue sky to come into its own.
Looking out longingly at the mountains - I'd never known myself as a big mountain fetishist, but there you go: they make me want to get right up there!
Relics of times past on this siding.
Observation deck observed closely.
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
(a box of crackers to whomsoever comes up with the author and the person who speaks this - page numbers not required)
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