We leave Lima from the train station on Friday 10 October at 7am for a twelve hours scenic ride which will rise from sea level to 4800m by the lunchtime going through over 60 tunnels and passing many bridges. For U$40 per person this is a pretty good deal. Train had four vistadome carigies with comfortable recliners, one economy carriage and one bar with open deck for dancing and smoking. In addition the breaky and lunch were included plus one complimentary pisco sour. It cannot get any better. Soon after the train leaves Lima it starts its never ending climb through mountains and deep valleys. Pisco sour and peruvian music make everyone relaxed and by 11am the dance deck is full of salsa lovers. Sideways motion of the train makes salsa dance much easier even for those who do not have natural talent. As long as the train stays on its track we´ll be fine. We arrive to busy Huancayo at 7pm and looking for an accommodation at this time is never easy but finaly we settle in a hostel full of local young kids. Luckily they were in beds by midnight and we can enjoy quiet sleep. Saturday morning we face up a decesion on how to get to Cusco. One option is going back to Lima by a comfortable bus and continue south by the coastline, or travel about 600km on dirt road right through central Andies over next three days. And because we passed the Montañeros test in Cordillera Blanca we take the second option. On this rough and dusty ride (Huancayo-Ayacucho-Andahuaylas-Cusco) we spend 10-12 hours every day going through extremely ragged and isolated regions of Peruvian Andies. We are trully fortunate not only to travel through such remote, spectacular and dramatic landscape but also see indigenous villages and soak up atmosphere of their lifes. We arrive to Cusco on Tuesday night tired and dirty but definitely happy that we undertook this path.
Coming from unspoiled parts of Peru, the town of Cusco seems to be over-commercialised and money driven to the point of annoyance. Despite its widely general popularity Cusco does not belong to our most favoured places. The only reason we are here is to visit Machu Picchu and we want to go as soon as we can. It appears impossible to buy one day return train ticket and Peruvian rail forces everyone to spend one night in Aqua Calientes, a small touristy town just below Machu Picchu. We do not like this but there is no other option. Machu Picchu itself is glorious and wonderfull and few hours in afternoon is enough to explore this ancient site. Luckily we have sunny breaks in heavy clouds and can take a 2 hours walking trek back to hostel. Next morning we are taking train and bus back to Cusco where we catch overnight connection to Arequipa. Comfortable cama seats can hardly replace normal bed and we are pretty tired. Despite that we continue right away by another bus to Colca Canyon and we arrive to Cobanaconde on Saturday by 4pm.
Colca Canyon is apparently the deepest canyon in the world with its maximum depth of near 4000m. It is surprising this natural wander does not attract more tourists but it is better for us. Next morning we descent 1100m to reach small retreat Oasis where we going to stay overnight. Temperature hovered around 32C during this two hours of fairly steep and rugged trail and we deserve some relaxation with few other hikers by the pool at the bottom. Accommodation here is very basic and the caretaker cooked two course dinner at candle lights - there is no electricity here. We start walking up next morning before 6am to awoid heat and by 9am we are exhausted but happy at the top. We conquered the depest canyon in the world! Well, only one quarter - to see full 4000m drop we would have to do much more walking. Our excitement is completed when we see many Andean condors flying over the canyon. One more night in close by town Chivay before we head off to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Hot spring pools in Chivay relaxed our sore musceles and washed off all the tireness (and dust).
After viusiting floating islands at Lake Titicaca we say good buy to Peru and on Wednesday we move to Copacabana, just 8km inside Bolivia. Floating islands also suffer from excessive tourism and indegenous inhabitants have quickly learned power of dollars. It is sad but that is life.
One cannot visit South America without spending time in Peru. The nature here is mostly unspoiled, spectacular and dramatic. Peru offers something for everybody - from flat Amazonian jungle to rugged mountain ranges with many peaks over 6000m. We realy enjoyed Peru!
