Tonight We Ride

Well, rather today we ride on the Andean Explorer from Puno to Cuzco. This 9 hour train ride took us from the high-altitude plain to the central highlands city of Cuzco.

When I say train in Peru, you are probably picturing some old as the hills run down train--oh no. This was the nicest, most fun train rides I have been on. As we entered our car, it looked like we were entering a living room. Our seats were large arm chairs seated around a table with a white table cloth with a cute little lamp on it. There were several of these seating areas that filled the car. We got settled, took our pictures, and smiled with excitement.

The route started by skirting the edge of Lake Titicaca and shortly entered the dry climate of the plain. After about an hour, the crew invided us to the bar car for a welcome drink-Peru´s pisco sour! The traditional Andean music complete with reed flute, drums, and guitars being played by a local band really helped to set the mood. The last car behind the bar car was an open ended car with windows all around. I enjoyed my first pisco sour of the trip. Of course we took many pictures and we enjoyed meeting a couple from Wisconsin.

Shortly after returning to our seats, we had our first llama sighting of the trip! We were so excited! The crew served us lunch and we sat back to enjoy the ride. Kiley and I started working on the sound track for our entire trip. We listened to our iPods, shared songs, and wrote them down, so when the movie is made we will already know the soundtrack.

We enjoyed watching the scenery change from dry plain, to mountains, to snow-capped mountains in the distance, to a greener forest along a river. Sort of picture Montana or Colorado.

Late afternoon tea and bellinis went well with our card game of Gin Rummy. As we got close to the Cuzco train stop, we again hoped there would be someone waiting for us. Our confidence in the travel agent was growing, so we were optimistic. And indeed, Juan Carlos and Christian the driver met us and drove us through the traffic filled streets of Cusco to our hotel.

We had big hopes for trying cuy (guinea pig) tonight, so we set off for a restaurant called Pachapapa. It was a great restaurant in the San Blas area of Cusco. We sat in a courtyard with a wood burning oven and a harpist playing some background music.

But there was a problem!!

You have to order your guinea pig one day in advance, so alas, tonight would not be the night of trying guinea pig. However, the meal was wonderful anyway. We both got delicious traditional dishes. Kiley got aji de gallina (which was a great sauce with shredded chicken over rice) and I got some potatoes (did you know Peru has 500 million kinds of potatoes...ok, not that many but it has a lot) and a fava bean, big corn, tomato, and onion salad...oh and of course my new favorite soup-quinua soup. I also tried a drink called chicha morada which made from purple corn (like seriously dark purple corn), pineapple juice, cinnamon, cloves and a few other things. So delicious! Pachapapa turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants.

After a short walk around the main Cuzco plaza to see the beautiful Cathedral lit up at night, we went to bed to get ready for another great day.

Tonight We Ride, Paul Eason