Weekend Getaways near Chilca

Then, the most exciting morning was here. We arrived at the station a bit early as advised. It was very different from usual railway stations we see across the world, for example, the station has a gate - for the trains to go through. And that gate remains closed unless a train has to come out or in. That happens thrice a week.

For now, I was referring to the local people as Americans. I am an Indian. Let there be no more confusion for Christopher's sake!

By nightfall (after a roadblock where we spent hours due to rocks falling on the road), we reached our first destination. Huyancayo. Not a place many Gringos step into. We, being dark skinned, got the town-folks confused. Locals kept guessing where we are from - Ecuador was the top guess, followed closely by Mexico. But not even a single person guessed - Hindu (before you jump the secular gun, Hindu is the Spanish term for Indian).Huyancayo was a busy town, almost free of foreign tourists. Our first priority was the train. Although the Lima-Huyancayo bit only serves the tourists and minerals, there is a thrice-a-week service for locals, starting at Huyancayo and going till Huancavelica. It is offically called Ferrocarril Huancayo-Huancavelica and unofficially called El Tren Macho.This is as close as we could get to Tintin's train!We spent a few days in and around the town. Specially because my wife suffered AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).

It was a spectacular journey!The road follows the same alignment as the railroad on which Tintin travelled. The tracks are still operational, and we spotted a few goods trains. A tourist train runs (occasionally) from Lima. But then, I am allergic to such tourist only trains! So it was good enough for me, to be able to travel along the line, and spot marvellous things ... like this ...