El Tren Macho - June 18th

We arrive early in search of the Chilca train station in Huancayo to look for passage to the small Andean town Huancavelica.

It takes us a while to find the station, but we enjoy taking in the rustic scenery.

The Huancayo-Huancavelica line is aptly dubbed "El Tren Macho."

We finally find Chilca station.

We had planned to the the Tren Ordinario, but for reasons I couldn´t quite grasp, the express train was running in its place.

The express train is called the "Autovagon." It´s something between a tram and a train. It has a single car that houses both the passengers and the engine. I imagine the small size and light weight allow it to move a bit faster along the tracks. Normal service to Huancavelica is 7 hours, but the Autovagon makes the trip in 5.

The car purrs into the station, and passengers scramble to enter and fit their bags in the limited overhead storage.

I´m pretty happy about it all. Jen says trains are one of the few things guaranteed to make me smile.

The journey begins.

We sit next to a retired school teacher who loves to eat. We share apples from Cajamarca, and she feeds us extremely sour citrus fruits of unknown origin or name.

Across from us sits an old man whose name I´ve already forgotten. He was returning from a visit to his son in Huancayo. I showed him pictures of my family, and he complained that no one called him for Father´s Day. He even had to make a trek out to his son or not see him at all. He got off by himself at Izcuchaca, a couple stops before ours, and we were a little bummed.

The views are great as we climb higher into the Andes.


More and more people get on.

It gets a bit crowded.


At one point we have to pull off onto some side rail and wait for the Tren Macho from Huancavelica to pass. There´s only one track for both directions.


Indeed, it appears a little more macho than the Autovagon

We almost don´t make the final acsent to Huancavelica. Our wheels keep spinning, and we go back and forth trying to make the hill, but slipping backwards. One solution was to sweep dirt onto the track. That seemed to work, and we made it safely into Huancavelica.