Cusco to Puno, Peru, to Copacabana, Bolivia
by David K. Johnson
The "event" for Monday February 8 was the train trip from Cusco to Puno (still in Peru). The train was scheduled to leave at 8:00 a.m. for the 320 km journey. We would arrive in Puno 10 1/2 hours later. Although the train cars were old, the seats in "first class" were comfortable. Two pairs of seats faced each other, with a folding table in between.
All the passengers were on board by 8:00 a.m. The seat next to mine was the only empty one in the car. We actually left the station at about 8:35 a.m. The tour agent had provided me with a voucher for lunch.
After an hour or so I started conversing with the couple seated across from me. They are Scottish, and now live on a lake in Ireland. As the journey progressed the three of us had quite a good time. They had prepared for the trip in a couple ways. First, they had a GPS (global positioning satellite) navigation device, so we always knew exactly where we were (including altitude) and how fast the train was going (about 30 mph at its fastest). Second, they had heard from friends that there would be children waiting at each of the 20 +/- stops, hoping for a coin to be tossed their way.
So, Jim and Barbara had two bags of Peruvian coins - about $30 worth, a box of 50 BIC pens, and a few other items. At each stop Barbara opened the window and tossed coins and pens. We had the most popular window on the train! It was so much fun to see how many kids were happy to get a pen or 30 cents.
There were also people selling souvenirs at each stop. Barbara handed them each 30 cents. After a few stops we realized that two young girls selling alpaca gloves must be riding the train, too. They appeared outside our window at every stop! So they began to throw gloves in the window, and we would throw them back out.
Each car on the train had 3 attendants - 2 women in uniform and 1 man. They regularly came through offering drinks, candy, etc. Jim and I decided to order a bottle of Peruvian wine - it was a chenin blanc produced by Tacama. So we passed the time drinking wine, chatting, and tossing coins.
Lunch was then served - 1/2 roast chicken, rice and French fries. Also, before lunch, a Pisco Sour (Peruvian cocktail). A banana was the dessert. It was excellent! We ordered a second bottle of wine.
So the miles and hours went by in a very "civilized" way. At the next-to-last stop they dropped some cars off the 6-car train. I don't know if there was a problem with those cars or if enough people had gotten off that they weren't needed. The seats that had become vacant in our car filled up with a group from "second class". Mainly back-packers who spoke French. The vacant seat next to me was occupied by an Egyptian-born woman who lives in Montreal and just finished a 7-month work assignment on a Princess Cruise Line ship (&months of working 7 days/week, 11 - 12 hours/day). She seemed to have a "typical French Canadian" attitude, and Jim engaged her in a bit of debate about whether Quebec should be a separate country.
From that stop to the Puno station was 1 hour 15 minutes. By then it was dark outside. We were at 12,000' elevation. We were running over an hour late. It was a long, tiring leg of the trip.
So we arrive a little before 8 p.m. Puno is celebrating its version of carnival - a week-long party. The downtown area near the train station is packed with people. As I leave the station I hear someone call my name. The tour agency man is there. He speaks only Spanish. He explains that my hotel is only a few blocks away - in the heart of downtown Puno, and the crowd. So we carry my luggage through the crowd. (I was very thankful to have my money belt under my shirt and my billfold/passport pouch secured to my belt in front - no worry about pickpockets!) At one point we had to wait for a marching band to pass.
The hotel was very new, but very simple. Sort of a down-scaled Motel 6. It was clean, and did have hot water in the shower. I was the only person having breakfast there in the morning - I may have been the only guest there.
Tuesday morning the tour agent and a driver picked me up in an older Toyota mini-van. The journey from Puno to Copacabana, Bolivia would take about 2 1/2 hours. It was raining when we left Puno. The van seemed to have no heater, and no defroster. So it was quite chilly with windows cracked open to help de-fog the windshield. Fortunately we drove out of the rain after an hour or so. Shortly thereafter the left-front tire blew. It was bald. The driver put the spare on and away we went.
About 30 minutes later the right-front tire blew. The driver flagged down a passing bus, and with a tire under his arm he headed for the next village.
All along the route the tour guide had been telling me about Peru, the Puno area, the culture, etc. Our 1 1/2 hour wait for the driver to return with a tire gave us more time to watch sheep and cattle being herded down the road, talk to 3 farm workers who were hoeing potato fields, and gaze across Lake Titicaca at my destination.
The new tire held up for the rest of the trip. About 5 miles before Copacabana we exited Peru and entered Bolivia. The driver had a friend at Peruvian immigration, so we bypassed a long line of tourists (the guy came to the van and put the exit stamp in my passport). At Bolivian immigration 1/4 mile down the road we had to wait in line, but it was a short line. The driver and guide dropped me at the hotel, where the Bolivian tour agency would pick me up for an afternoon tour of the Isla del Sol (see Lake Titicaca Area).
Copyright 1999