Getting High in Trains

Rocking gently out of Lima, the classic train route to Huancayo crawls steadily up stunning mountain scenery along a narrow gauge overlooking precipitous drops.

Options are for the "classic" (re: cramped and uncomfortable) or "tourist" (reclining seats, glass carriage roofs, bar inhabited by girating Peruvian college tourism students etc.) cars, guess which one I ended up in. Almost worth the saving of three or four quid...but not quite.

Topping out at over 15,000 feet above sea level, the brief exit from the train permitted by the staff in order to take photos of the second highest railway station in the world (damn those ambitious Chinese) is a slightly light-headed affair, feeling throughly slapped around by the altitude.

Huancayo, Peru

7th November 2009