Yesterday, I took the bus back from La Paz to Puno. From there I took, today, the "Andean Explorer", a very nice luxury train, whith which I arrived in Cuzco after 10 hours. 10 hours seems very long, but this was not about transport, the train ride as such was a real pleasure. The train goes really slowly (which explains why we needed 10 hours for 385 km...), but at this speed, you can actually profit a maximum from the landscape around you.. the train crosses villages, beautiful mountain landscapes, passes by charming mountain rivers etc. Most of the time, the landscape was however flat as we crossed the Altiplano, a plain very high up in the Andes...
Each passenger has a comfortable armchair to sit in with an individual table in front. There is a comfortable bar and at the end of the train a very nice panoramic coach with windows all over and open at the back.. you just felt like on a luxury train 100 years ago... we got two very good meals as well and the staff was really nice and funny... all quite young..
At 18h00 I arrived in Cuzco, the most touristy place in Peru I would guess and starting point to the excursions to Machu Picchu, but a sight in itself... This time, I was lucky again with my hotel: it is a really nice place, an old colonial house with two inner courtyards and a fountain in one of them: http://www.hotelmarqueses.com/
In addition, Marco, the guy at the reception with whom I had extensive e-mail exchanges about availability, reservation and other stuff, gave me a luxury room for the normal price for the first three nights (out of the 7 I will stay here...).
From here I will discover the city and its sourroundings, notably the sacred Inca valley and Machu Picchu. I will however interrupt my stay here after 4 nights, will stay three nights in the sacred valley and then come back...
More on Cuzco tomorrow, as I am hungry now.... à propos: food.... Yesterday I had finally the Peruvian speciality: grilled guinea pig.. that was really yummiee - even if there is not that much meat on it... !! For the rest, other delicacies which I have already tried are Lamas and Alpacas... Even if all three animals are quite cute, they also taste realllly good... ;-) sorry, guys.... especially Sarah Catlein (hope I write her name correctly...), who is so fond of my Lama pictures... (special sorry to you.... ) ...
No comments:
Post a Comment