Andean Explorer, Puno to Cusco

Monday, May 28, 2012
Cusco, Peru
Believe this was our last early wake up call for a few days (5:45 AM). Had a buffet breakfast at hotel then we were picked up for the short drive to the train station at 7:20. Checked our luggage, got our tickets from Manuel and then bid him adios. He was an excellent guide. The Andean Explorer run by Peru Rail left promptly at 8 AM. The 10 hour journey from Puno to Cusco has been rated as one of the top train journerys in the world. We are in the first class section (as compared to the backpackers section). We are sitting in lounge type chairs at a table for four. We lucked out and got a table to ourselves. We just made our first stop at Juliaca. After leaving the station we passed miles of swap meet type stalls literally inches from the tracks. Everything under the sun was sold. It was like a giant Walmart and Home Depot constructed of individual stalls run together. The scenery after leaving Juliaca was mostly high plains with some snow covered mountains in the background. We were entertained in the observation car by a 4 piece band and a dancer and were given a small Pisco Sour (Peru's national drink) mid-morning. We had lunch about noon which inclued several choices. We had the soup, one beef and one trout main course with potato, wine and a chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Not long after lunch we stopped at La Raya, the highest elevation of the trip at 14,172 feet. It was a 10 minute buying stop for some people. We are 6.5 hours into the trip and the scenery has changed to rolling pastoral hills. The towns are placed closer together and seem to be more upscale by Peruvian standards the closer we get to Cusco. The landscape changed to sparse forests from all farming. At 4:30 we got tea with sandwiches and candy. I see a diet coming in our future.  

 We arrived in Cusco, elevation about 12,500 feet, at 6 PM . We retrieved our luggage and were driven to the hotel by Wilber who will be our driver for the next several days. Edson, who is in charge of customer service for Kuoda (our travel agency in Peru), met us at the hotel and explained the itinerary for the remainder of the trip.
We took a walk around the Plaza de Armas since we had been sitting most of the day. Checked out restaurants for our return trip here in a few days. There are hawkers with menus on the streets touting their restaurants (everyone is the best in town). We ended up having tea and snacks since we were still full from the train food.
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