Meez'in the world of

Streets of Arequipa and the ultimate train ride with The Andean Explorer (Day 1).

Streets of Arequipa and the ultimate train ride with The Andean Explorer (Day 1). Hello. Me(ez) again. So, after our crazy off-road ride we were back in AREQUIPA as you already know. This time we stayed at beautiful old Inca House transformed to Casa Andina Hotel right in the middle of the city as well. Arequipa really is a beautiful city, unfortunately having a lot of earthquakes, practically every month, sometimes even week we were told. In our first night, the nice lady in the hotel told us there was a tiny earthquake during the night. Well, that is also why a lot of houses look like they look. You will see in the pictures. The most amazing thing is that all monuments of the INCA times have not been destroyed by earthquakes so far. They were just built too smart lets say to not go into the details. Generally, on every place you go in Peru, you see areas marked with “S” standing for Zona Segura en casos de sismos. Safety area in case of an earthquake. I really hope, we will not experience a real hard hone. Well, this day in Arequipa we took it easy, slept a bit longer for the first time (got up at 8am) and had a long breakfast with a couple of Coca teas and a bowl of the great papaya you can eat over here. Then we did the walkable city tour and thereby saw the highlights of the cute city. We found nice backyards and cafés again, had some coffees in a tiny little street while watching people, spoiled ourselves with a very good late lunch in Chincha, a restaurant belonging to famous Astrid et Gaston from Lima (meanwhile a brand in Peru) and found a very interesting antique shop, selling amazing antiques from all-over Peru. We shopped vintage carpets that were used as blankets in former times by the Natives in the Andes. The owner told us that all the stuff will be (hopefully) shipped home. We found this fact convincing somehow since carrying these things is not so much fun. I was painting our apartment in my mind while seeing all these beautiful Andean colors. Jonathan had another coffee right in front of the shop while I was studying the different designs with my new friend Rodrigo (the nephew of the owner), he took all the stuff on the street to enable me really seeing the colors, I think you can image the scene. After this life-changing decision we continued our walk-through Arequipa, found it very laid-back somehow and people being really friendly and open-minded. Also felt safe all the time. At 6pm we headed back to our hotel because the actual highlight of this day was just about to come. We took a taxi to the train station where we wanted to embark the beautiful train named Belmond Andean Explorer. KJ (Kater Jonathan) loves trains and to go by train through Peru was one of his wishes for our trip. Well, we spoiled ourselves and chose a special option to make this ride really unforgettable, namely the Belmond Andean Explorer. We booked our tickets already 6 weeks in advance as the train has limited capacity, booking early is is the only way to get on board. The Andean Explorer is South America`s first luxury train that combines genuine daytime getaways with sleeping overnights on board all while traversing the Peruvian Andes. The train travels along one of the highest routes in the world, crossing breathtaking cities and villages on its way from Arequipa to Puno and Lake Titicaca to Cusco. Cusco was our destination anyway so we thought it is best to book the full tour from Arequipa to Cusco including the highlights on the way. By this we would spend 2 overnights in a sleeping cabin on board while the beautiful and elegant dark-blue colored retro-looking train would take us to natural wonders and ancient kingdoms of the Incas. Sounds romantic and exciting? It really was!!!! With all of our luggage we arrived at the train station and then the ultimate level of service, that the both of us have been experienced so far, started. We had a tea time at the train station while the check-in was organized, all luggage was taken by your train attendant, so we could just sit there and enjoy looking at all the other passengers that would come with us. We thought that we would probably the youngest ones, but fortunately we weren’t. There were around 20 people in the hall having their tea. After 20 minutes, we were ready to board the train. Oh my god! Please look at the pictures. They took every couple alone to really make this a special experience. We walked over a red carpet with candles and were brought to our cabin by a nice guy named Dante. Once inside and alone, we totally freaked out! Such a beautiful cabin! So well designed with a mix of Andean, retro and modern look alikes. You will see yourself. A totally cozy nest. We were so excited, really, like children on Christmas. And the best thing was, all the other passengers, no matter of age, were feeling the same. Everyone was so extremely excited to make this trip and this was when we got into the first conversations with the other people. Our fear namely was, that only stiff people would be with us seeing this just as another luxury experience. But this, thanks God, was not the case. After boarding, we were told to come to the Bar cabin (!) for our welcome drink before dinner. In a beautiful furnished piano bar, we were welcomed by the whole team of the train, the Manager Javer held an emotional speech in Spanish and English (I had the feeling they love this train, too) and we had a glass of sparkling wine. We were sitting in front of a cute old couple, after some pictures that we took for them, we knew that they were from Argentina (!!!). So lovely the two of them. You need to know that this train only runs for a year now – it started to operate in March 2017 and Peru is extremely proud on this Andean Explorer train. And really it is amazingly beautiful. We had not heard of the Belmond Group so far when booking this train (thank you Pinterest again!) and then we saw that this group owns so many beautiful places and hotels and trains all-over the world. Also, the Orient Express belongs to Belmond now. Well, we had our first dinner on board, needless to say that it was marvelous food, lovely served at our cozy table, more a kind of dining niche. The train had already started the way from Arequipa and slowly we gained in speed with a maximum of 50km/hour while enjoying the food on board. After dinner we explored the train, had a kind of Titanic feeling because the vehicle we went with became so important. We were worshiping every corner and were really totally excited, sorry for emphazing this again, but I really want you to get the feeling we had, when coming on board. We went through the wagons and finally to the Observatory Bar (second bar on board!) and Platform. Means you can stand at the end of the train, overlooking the wonderful landscape and gazing the stars while having your cocktail. This was when we decided that this is our Pre-Honeymoon trip. Because it simply couldn’t be better. Totally energized we fell into our cabin bed and of course I couldn’t sleep at all this night although it was so cozy. I was so full of energy and excited about the next 2 days that were coming up for us in this beautiful train. KJ immediately slept like a(n alpaca) baby (he loves sleeping in cars and busses and trains) although the train was slowly climbing up the mountains instantly increasing altitude and passing one curve after the other. I listened to the unknown squeaking noises an old train makes, felt incredibly grateful and nevertheless we had a wonderful night, sleeping and awake.

Für dich vielleicht ebenfalls interessant...

1 Kommentar

  1. Michi says:

    OMG! Just gorgeous. No words. Enjoy you 😻😻.

Schreibe einen Kommentar

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert