Day 162 - Lima to Huancayo, Peru

THE SECOND HIGHEST TRAIN JOURNEY IN THE WORLD, LIMA TO HUANCAYO (12/06/09)

The train journey from Lima to Huancayo is rather bitterly advertised as the highest historical train journey in the world. The actual highest which robbed them of their title is in China. We got up before dawn to catch the now only twice monthly train.

Climbing aboard the train we began to wonder if we were becoming railway geeks.

The first part of the journey was through the slums of Lima, some of the poorest areas we have seen in South America.

As the train pulled into the countryside we left our seats and went to enjoy the open terrace carriage available only to the first class passengers.

Our first stop was to disconnect the engine, turn it around on this giant turntable before attaching it again the other end.

The upshot of the engine being attached to the other end was that we now had fantastic views right around.

On setting off again we crossed this huge bridge spanning the gap between two mountains.

The building of this railway started in 1870 and was an incredible feat of engineering taking almost 40 years.

We went through many tunnels and being in an open carriage got covered in dust and dirt.

Being that it only runs twice a month the train is now something of a novelty as it runs through small mountain villages. Many of the local people waved and many school children were allowed out of their classrooms to watch the train go by.

The tunnels were blasted straight through the mountainside. At one point the train significantly changes height via an amazing tunnel which spirals up through a mountain.

Anyone that has ever watched a roadrunner cartoon will instantly recognise this as a perfect rock for Wylie Coyote to try and drop an anvil onto the train.

A slightly wind blown Liz enjoying the journey.

The next few photos are to give you an idea of our magnificent journey through the varied terrain of the Andes.

This is the view from Galera train station, the highest train station in the world.

Adam not quite enjoying the Peruvian national drink, the Pisco Sour (admittedly the clue is in the name, but it is incredibly sour) in the train´s rather posh bar.

Ignoring all his childhood advice about not sticking your head out of train windows.

We enjoyed this train journey so much maybe we will become train geeks (the number of this train is FA6287, and if you believe that you will believe anything).

Liz took this picture taking advantage of the well polished train windows.

Despite the fact that the journey was 12 hours in total we were never bored.

As darkness approached we had a last look from the terrace before spending a rather boring last hour in our seats with nothing but black out of the windows.