Getting around South America: Part Two

There were many trips out of Lima. One of these was to the mountain town of Huancayo, the main reason for this trip being that I love trains (still a schoolboy at heart, you see) and the Lima-Huancayo mountain railroad is famous. At one point the train stopped next to a big tourist-type signboard and the conductor explained over the loudspeakers that this marked the highest point reached by any railroad in South America (it may have been in the world) and we had ten minutes in which to clamber out and take our photos next to the signboard. I didn’t bother, being sure the memory would suffice. We started off again and, contradicting the conductor, the train continued climbing before we entered a long tunnel. It turns out the highest point is actually inside the pitch-dark tunnel, but that’s no good for tourist photo opportunities. A wonderful trip was to Machu Picchu, the most spectacular of the ancient Inca sites. This is reached by a narrow railroad from a town called Cuzco, formerly one of the Inca capitals. The railway station is right at the bottom below the towering mountain peaks (like huge salt cellars) on which Machu Picchu was built; buses and kombis take you up to the top. I’d booked into a small hotel at the summit and made friends there with the only other guests, a couple of young American women. The great majority of visitors do a half-day trip, guided, to Machu Picchu and return to Cuzco after lunch. This meant that Debbie and Barbara and I had the afternoon to wander around the site by ourselves, marvelling at the extraordinary Inca ruins. The next day the three of us decided we’d climb up a peak that towers over the site, to see the Temple of the Moon. A young Spanish-speaking Quechua guide took us there; I was useful as the only bilingual in the group. At a point Barbara, who was somewhat overweight, dropped out. Deb and I continued on what is the most physically demanding hike I’ve ever done in my life; at one point we had to scrabble upwards through a narrow tunnel cut through the rock. Once we got to the top the view over the main site made it totally worthwhile. We all took our shirts off to wave at Barbara down below, and when we returned, shattered but happy, she treated us to a bottle of wine (Fanta for the lad). The Inca had two capitals, Cuzco and Quito. The latter is now the capital of Ecuador and I took a trip there. Highlights were a dawn agricultural market with adorable piglets racing around, and a hike half-way up the extinct volcano Cotapaxi (much less strenuous than the Temple of the Moon hike at Machu Picchu). In Quito there is the fabulous museum of Inca gold objects (those people really knew a thing or two). Also in one of the main squares the most belligerent mural I’ve ever seen. The source of the river Amazon used to be in Ecuador, but is now in Peru after a brief war fought over that territory. It’s worth a lot, as it has oil. The mural shows a clutch of rampaging Ecuadorian troops, with the slogan “Ecuador estaba, y sera una vez mas, un pais Amazonica”—“Ecuador used to be, and will again be, an Amazonian country.” The message to Peru was clear; watch out! This leads me naturally enough to an account of my trips to the Peruvian Amazon region. I loved the place so much, I went there three times. The journey from Lima was by air (no main roads or railway line through the Andes to the forest). That reminds me to record that there are two airlines in Peru. The first is a private airline called Air Fawcett, named after its (American) founder. The second is the national airline, Aero Peru, nicknamed by my friends Aero Peor (Worse Airline), as it’s even more unreliable than its competitor. On all three trips I stayed at the wonderful Sinchicuy Lodge, built on a tributary of the Amazon. This meant, each way, an overnight stay in Iquitos, the administrative centre of the region. There I saw the Iron House, built by the Eiffel company, which I mentioned in an earlier column. I also saw the Amazon for the first time and was blown away by how wide it is. I’ve never seen the Nile or any of the great Asian rivers, but I have seen the Niger at its broadest point and the Amazon makes that look like a stream (well, no, but the Amazon is massive). Standing on the cliff that runs along the river in Iquitos you can just make out the trees on the other side. To be continued