Tren al Cielo

My Pop scavenges a great article from his Spanish classroom on Andes Trains from 1979. Thanks Pop! The first train we'll be taking, "El Tren de Cielo," from Lima to Huancayo is featured in the article. We'll be riding it on June 16th...these days it only runs once or twice a month.

Some of the information in the article is outdated. For instance, since the new line to Tibet has been built, this one is no longer the *highest* track in the world. However, some facts are timeless. The construction for this line began in 1870 and finished 23 years later. Inspired by llamas, the egineer Henry Mieggs innovation was to create a slow zig-zag process that allows the train to climb 15,681 feet (3 vertical miles) in just 100 miles of tracks where it reaches Galera station, the highest in the world. The train crosses 61 bridges and goes through 66 tunnels. Needless to say, many people died in this rather quixotic quest to connect Lima with the mining towns of the Andes. The construction crew was plagued by accident and disease. Often the route had to be *discovered* along the way due to geographic constraints...scouts were lowered from the heights in little boatswain chairs to map out each mile as they went. Pretty crazy.

Here are some favorite pics with captions from the magazine called "Américas."