Last train day and Cusco Arrival.
Buenos Dias. When we opened our window-shade at 6am, the first we saw on that morning was an Alpaca. On our second morning on board we again had an early breakfast enjoying the beautiful Peruvian landscape we passed and guys, really, this is something that was and still is totally fascinating. Peru is so rich in beautiful shades of greens, wonderful Flora, surrounded by mountains that are breathtaking (even for a Swiss guy). You can just sit and stare. We sat next to Rodrigo and his family again and as we knew that we would have to leave the train today, we took another ‚after breakfast tea‘ on the platform as the landscape got even more impressive the more we got closer to Cusco, our final destination for the following days. Sorry for the tons of landscape pictures in this post again, but this was just so incredibly beautiful. We had another excursion stop to see the famous Inca archaeological site in Raqchi which is located at 3.480m a.s.l. and approximately 3 hours/ 110km from the city of Cusco. David taught us another Inca lesson (meanwhile we were almost advanced course I’d say) and we took a walk as we had another beautiful day. Maybe some words about the weather. Although it is rainy season (which also stands for summer season/ from Nov-March) we nearly had no rain, so were really lucky so far. You always need something to cover (I suggest Ponchos :-)) as on this level of altitude the winds are extremely cold. If you wear a layered look (Poncho for example) all is fine. Well, after the Inca lesson we got back on the train to have a coffee time on the platform. We celebrated our last part of this train ride, changed contact data with Rodrigo and meanwhile our hearts got heavy. There was a strange mood in the train somehow, because nobody wanted this episode to be finished. The team spoiled us with a fine seafood lunch and afterwards Javer held a farewell speech with the same and even more emotions that he had been welcoming us. People were quiet, happy with the experiences they had made but also sad to leave this beautiful train. The team left us a little good-luck present the night before on the bed and we were writing in the guest book while the guy on the piano played Amazing Graze. You can image. The team really gave it all to make this trip a lifetime memory which it really is for us. We slowly arrived at Cusco and had to say good-bye to everyone. Hugs here and there. Some wet eyes. Really a nice human experience, if you know what I mean. Take some people from everywhere in the world in one train and they will find their way to each other. We tried to overcome our heavy heart in directly booking the train to our next adventure after Cusco as we needed to go there by train anyway. So we felt a little better afterwards as we knew we would have another train ride. We headed to our hotel, right downtown Cusco, the JW (:-)) Marriott, located in an impressive old Inca masonry (Gemäuer), meaning that we did not really have a room with a view but looking at a real old Inca wall. Not an everyday view. They were also explaining to us that they were enriching the rooms with oxygen to make the altitude of 3.400m a.s.l. more convenient for us. Okay, we thought as we were still fine with the altitude so far. We checked in and took a first walk through Cusco’s Plaza de Armas and had a wonderful rainbow welcoming in this charming Inca city. Probably every Peru tourist is visiting Cusco and this is what you can feel in the city. All lot of Europeans, Asian and American people, all kind of restaurants, nice places to have a coffee, small little shops and thousands of souvenir sellers. We liked the small tiny streets, often surrounded by real old Inca walls as Cusco used to be THE Inca city and was also called ‚The navel of the earth‘ in the Inca empire. For dinner Rodrigo was sending an WhatsApp so we had dinner with his family and guess what the nice Argentinian old couple at an Italian restaurant called Bodega 138. We had chosen this one as Rodrigo had his grand opening of his own Italian restaurant in Arequipa in one week so we needed to check the menu in Cusco for him. Well, this was a lovely dinner, we spoke Spenglish – a wild mixture of English and Spanish (we understood quite well, actually, but were not able to answer in full Spanish sentences). We always got the core of it and Rodrigo was translating for us. The Argentinians invited us and the old guy, named Pedro, was so emotional when he explained us that traveling is the only thing in the world that is worth our money. Well, this is the best I can end this post with. We were happy again that we met these guys, had a funny and unforgettable evening with the amigos nuevos who we had met at the train. Everything happens for a reason, as Rodrigo said in his good-bye letter to us. Sniff.
😍👍🏽🙏🏽😘