Leaving Cusco was not a simple operation. Our plan was always to catch a train known as the Andean Orient Express from Cusco to Puno. To cut a very long story short we had a real drama turning our pre purchased voucher into real tickets. After many calls, much worry while on the Inca Track, panic when we returned at 10pm the night before and extreme panic when 30 minutes before the train’s departure we still did not have the tickets. Finally we caught the smallest Daewoo taxi known to mankind and arrived at the station 21 minutes before departure to be greeting by a representative from the travel company with our tickets. What followed was a 10 hour luxury (Peruvian style) slow train trip over the Andean Alps; with a short break at 4300 metres above sea level to meet an indigenous group who sold us their wares. It was a magnificent trip through a unique part of the world.
The next day was a quiet one, in surprisingly interesting Puno except for the matter of getting our passports stamped. A travel company, working for another travel company we were dealing with arrived at our hotel to ask for our passports for 8 hours so they could get them stamped. When we refused we instead agreed at 6pm to go with them to get them stamped. Firstly this involved a visit to a local police station into a dark building with armed guards. Not for the first time on this journey we were a little unsure. After getting a stamp from the police we next had to go to the home of an off duty immigration officer as the office would be closed on the day of our travel, a Sunday. So in a van with two other travel company people, whom we did not know, we journeyed through the backstreets of Puno, one of the poorest cities in Peru. In a dark back alley we left the bus and arrived at the door of the immigration officer who to our surprise stamped our passports with good humour and, as far as we could tell, no payment.
To say it was hard to leave Peru was true on many levels!
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