EC-Rider Travels

OMG! I had no idea this was part of this trip. We seem to be on a train like the Orient Express and I believe owned by the same group. The Belmond Andean Explorer which is taking us from Puno to Cusco over night. I am currently sitting in my own little cabin feeling a little like Inspector Poirot – it is completely ridiculous and even more lovely. Piano bar, cocktail bar, restaurants, SPA and 24 staff to look after 17 of us. Not sure this really fits into the ‘gap-year’ brief, but wow what a treat.

It did however unfortunately break down after about the first twenty minutes and we were held up by about four hours which sadly meant we did much of the journey in the dark, which was a great shame and got a number of the guests very upset!

Before getting dark however we went through the infamous Juliaca and it more than lived up to its name as the ugliest city in Peru. It stretches for miles and is complete shambles and filthy.

It has a market which must go on for about a mile selling absolutely everything. Much of this is situated on the railway track and what could not be whisked away we simply drove over including quite a lot of fruit!

We were fed and watered like kings – perhaps a little too much, but the others are loving it!