On the way to the station we were approached by a BBC World news person who interviewed me about my experiences at MP. If I make the cut it´ll be on some program or other on or around 7/8/9th December.

Well as you know by now it`s impossible for us to have a normal trip without a saga and the train journey proved to be a saga of epic proportions. We started off on time, and we`d just commented on how good PeruRail were (apart from the ticket costs and uncomfortableness of their seats) when the train broke down, across two lines. The complete lack of information was unreal, speculation was rife;it was an electrical fault, it was the engine overheated, it was the wrong type of leaves on the track...eventually we found out that the power was buggered and as the lights went out people reached for their torches. Now the real drama began. They eventually sent for a new locamotive from Cusco (2 hours away) which would mean that it would take us about 4 1/2 hours to get back. The time by now was about 7.30pm...I was due for my second rabies jab at 9pm. The doctor had previously said I needed to have my shots within a couple of hours. Thus I was starting to get a little stressed. We explained the situation to the conductor who spoke a little English, with the help of a Spanish speaking American. They radioed my doc, who said I needed the shot `este noche` (ie before midnight) and we were left to panic for a few more minutes. Eventually a car turned up at the side of the train, seemingly following the train. We were informed that this car was being driven by the Director of Trains, and a few minutes later we pulled up to an abrupt halt at a level crossing where we were unloaded into said car. I eventually got the jab at around 11.20pm, relieved but absolutely knackered.