ALLLL ABOARRRRRRD....NEXT STOP LAKE TITICACA

Today we said goodbye to Cusco and the Sacred Valley and traveled south. By train. We woke up bright and early (5:20!) after a night of oxygen enriched sleep for me and a complete lack of sleep for dad. He wasnt hindered by this however. We went down and enjoyed our delicious breakfast at Monastario and then headed off to the train station.

Our train car...the british a hole can be found in the bottom left hand corner

Fun story. Flashback: We had tickets reserved for the train to Puno but all we had was a voucher to exchange for the hard tickets. We arrived in Cusco after the train station closed so I assumed our only option was to check in the morning of our train. When I called the concierge at Monastario later that night to schedule our taxi I found out there was a lady in the hotel who could have printed our tickets but she had already left. It just figures.

Adobe bricks drying in the sun

So now we found ourselves waiting at the Cusco train terminal an hour before our train. We met this great little baggage handler guy, Julius. He told me all aout how he has worked with tourists since he was a boy and he loves them. We talked soccer and Peru and overall he was pretty awesome. He checked our bags and we made our way to the main office to exchange our voucher. We waited in the waiting room to change our ticket but there was only 1 guy working (on peru time of course). I was sweating bullets because Julius had already ut our bags on our train! But luckily a worker realized our train was leaving soon and let us buck the line.

waving as the train passes

We boarded the train only to find out that our seats were across the aisle from each other!!! Luckily there was a young couple in the same situation with us and we finally worked something out. We took off and started our 10 hour journey to Puno. We had our own table with 2 nice chairs facing each other, I rode backwards so dad could get the good shots (or hurl his guts across the train).

working in the fields

It was kind of exciting riding in a train. It felt like an old movie or something, like Alfred Hitchcock minus the killings or mysteries. We each were given a free Pisco sour and we drank them with delight. They came around to take our order for lunch and afternoon tea. Dad asked if he they offered alcohol instead of tea…classic.

Chicha for sale...see the red bag?

taking the sheep for a walk

The landscape was pretty bare. There wasn’t much of anything to look at. We made our way back to the caboose where they had an open air car that was pretty cool. We stopped at a little trading post but didn’t find anything to buy. They mobbed everyone on the train but dad managed to pass a candy to a kid below through the train window. We took off again whizzing through the countryside. We past herds of Alpaca and took some pictures along the way.

stopped at the trading post...notice the glacier.

herds of alpaca

which way are we going?? you tell me...

check out those clouds!

We had lunch (For starters I had pumpkin soup and dad had a veggie "sushi", for our entree we had roast beef with mashed potatoes and rice pudding for dessert). Every time the waiters would parade out with our food and place it on our tables at the same time. There were musicians walking through th eaisles every so often playing Peruvian folk music. After lunch I took a nap and Dad stared out the window and took some pictures. I read my kindle and just passed the time. There are a group of weiners on the train and dad came this close to throwing them out the window. They're british know it alls...and of course they are also at our hotel. The guy we met when we boarded the train(the couple we changed seats with) got sick so we being the good samaritans we are gave him some of our caca agua pills and some pepto. He slept the whole 10 hours! We finally pulled into the Puno station and got our bags.

mmmm....beef.

laundry day.

We are staying at the Sonesta Posada del Inka right on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We were walking around the hotel and passed the restaurant when who should we see? but the couple we met in Ollantaytambo and then saw again yesterday in Cusco. They are staying at our hotel too. Small world...since Peru is 3 times the size of California. Tomorrow we will go out on a tour of the floating reed islands and check out the lake. It should be pretty exciting but it is our first group tour. And we all know that dad dosnt play well with others. He says he is gonna take up smoking for the day….just to make everyone nervous on the floating reed islands. But that’s probably already the case with him :) We will be here until Wednesday and then we leave for Lima and then...the Amazon.

Adios!