Railfan Tour of Peru 1984 - Machu Picchu

 

Much of the Sacred Valley of the Incas is through pleasant farmland

Agua Caliente is below Cusco and well below Machu Picchu which is reached by a minibus along a road full of hairpin turns. Notice the tourist with a plastic poncho.  On the return journey raingear was pretty important. Picture by Robin Allardyce

The river here looks unthreatening. Picture by Robin Allardyce.

Machu Picchu was misty

The llamas knew about this place well before humans rediscovered it.

The railway can just be made out in the valley below.

This is a view of the line beyond.  In 1997, I travelled to the end of the line in the Amazon basin (stay tuned)

Back at the rail terminus is was possible to buy supplies.  My journey back to Cusco took considerably longer than advertised.

It now began to rain in earnest and the river became a raging torrent.  On my trip it was now dark.  Robin Allardyce had a similar experience in early 2020. The two pictures above are from Robin. My journey alongside the raging river was very slow indeed and we finally came to a halt. I got down to find we had stopped just short of a mud slide with a stream running through it.  The crew did not have a shovel but had found some corrugated iron and used this to direct the water from the stream to wash away the mud.  We eventually proceeded but the track was very soft and I stood close to an open door ready to jump if necessary.

Next day I took a flight back to Lima where I had a day to wait for my flight back to Canada. I had to stare down a couple of pickpockets, then walked round a corner to be confronted by a riot which was being subdued with water cannons.  Even at the airport I was harassed by a cop who was after dollars. Lima in 1984 left a nasty taste in my mouth.

I have subsequently had several happy visits to Peru, including a month volunteering in Lima.  I will cover some of these in the next blogs.