11/12/2019
Upset there aren't any direct flights to your destination? Long layovers got you down? Having a look at the trading journey between two neighbouring capitals may change the way you look at it.
Let's set out on a journey from Bogota to Lima through the Amazon in the 70's, although this adventure may seem daunting and only for the brave, it might be one worth taking..
Imagine a chilly early morning at El Dorado airport in Bogota, waiting for a flight to Leticia(now called Marco), the largest town in Colombian amazon.
Crossing the amazon on a motorboat from Leticia to Ramon Castilla will have you clutching your bags for the slight chance of rain and piranhas.
No roads lead to Iquitos. It can only be reached by air or by the River Ucayali's generous waters.
Another six days on Rio Ucayali's blue waters unlike those of the Amazon will take you to the Peruvian town of Pucallpa.
Pucallpa is smaller than Iquitos, and also dirtier.
A ten-hour bus journey upland through tropical country and another four hours by road is Huánuco.
Huánuco is a pleasant town on an altitude of 6000ft and valuable Inca ruins.
After Huánuco is the bleak mining town of Cerro de Pasco. This is a bitter cold place to spend the night, and the town's only good hotel (14,000 feet) is not heated.
First thing in the morning you set of for a ten-hour journey on the Cerro de Pasco Railway.
Spectacular mountain scenery, hot tea and a buttered toast with garlic help keep the cold at bay.
The train passes La Galera, the highest railway station at the time.
Passing through the coastal deserts, sunny hill resorts of San Bartolome and Chosica with colorful markets, you finally reach Desamparados station in Lima.
A journey through the Andes, Amazon Forest, rivers and coastal desert lands comes to an end.
