It is incredible to be able to make this journey in a train that struggles up 1,000 meters in altitude, from 3,300 to 4,300 meters, through a landscape that extends right up to the single track. The track is lined with eucalyptus trees, which even here do not belong in this landscape. Small farmers can be seen laboriously cultivating their fields by hand. This train journey is more or less exclusively for tourists. It is very, very expensive, locals can hardly afford it. Things were different a few years ago, when the trains could also be paid for by locals and probably only cost a tenth of the current price. Back then, as Roberto reported, you could open the doors of the train and breathe in the air and the breeze, just like in India. Now this train and this journey is a tourist trip with entertainment and more or less full board. Traveling through the Peruvian countryside on a train with a colonial feel is nevertheless extraordinary. We were 67 passengers in total, I was the only German.
With my experience of crashing my car in the Atlas, I prefer the slow train to the bus ride. I keep thinking about Morocco, about the mountains in the Atlas that I love so much. These mountains here in Peru look completely different. They are not red, but green, probably mossy and covered in lichen. In addition, the valleys here, in which we naturally meander along the river, are very green and fertile, with corn fields and their farmers to the right and left. In my memory, the valleys in the Atlas Mountains are less fertile.
Everyone had lunch on the train, with a potato soup with pesto as an appetizer and typical Peruvian saltimbocca as the main course. :-))). All on pre-heated plates, so we tourists don’t have to do without anything. At this altitude of 4,300 meters, I had two sips of wine for the first time on my trip, Chilean white wine. Of course, I had always thought that tomato juice was the best thing to drink at this altitude, but that only seems to be the case above 8,000 meters.
The landscape here is stunning. After crossing the pass at 4,300 meters, we reach a plateau called the Altiplano, 3,800 meters above sea level. You can see the occasional patch of grass, but otherwise it’s mostly dry land and widely scattered, individual small farms, some with cattle, with higher mountains lining the plateau to the right and left.
After these 14 days in the city, how good it feels to ride through the countryside for 10 hours. This slow plodding is a wonderful change, it slows you down. Train travel in general is a wonderful way to travel. The transition from one place to the next happens so slowly that the soul can come along too. During these 10 hours, I feel like I’m sitting in a movie theater, wonderful scenes flow past me. All the images I see are stunning.
And then there was an incident that happened at the end of the train journey, the train stopped every now and then, usually we couldn’t see why, but in this case it did, as the train was going around a slight bend, we saw six sheep on the track. The train, which was actually not traveling very fast, made an emergency stop to give these six sheep the right of way, very remarkable! This situation at sunset was accompanied by Buena Vista Social Club, all in all a wonderful atmosphere.
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