Salt Lake Tribune | 1999-12-26 | Page 123

The Salt Lake Tribune TRAVEL Rates paid in the United States for each dollar changed. Currency exchange rates change daily and these figures are intended only as a guide. pape perv more favorable abroad. Hs Sunday, December26, 1999 Train to the Clouds: Riding the Rails Into Argentine Highlands BY BILL CORMIER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INCAHUASI, Argentina — A powerful locomotive belches diesel smoke as some 600 tourists, sult sleepy at dawn, clamber the red-and-yellow pas- ae cars. Wheels creak and soon weare riding a narrow-gauge railway up to a 14,000-foot plain oy en 's border with Bo- Weloome at aboard the Train to the Clouds. It doesn’t suggest the mystery of the Orient Express, nor proffer the quaintness of the English “Train at the End of the World”in southernmost South America. Butit is breathtaking. Rising up a rocky ridge against a stark blue sky, the train chugs through a thinning atmosphere along a twisting track through Hungary (forint) Inia yy 48 Indonesia (rupiah) 7,262.50 1,270 curbs, 21 tunnels, and across 13 steel train trestles. As the train leaves lush tobacco-growing lowlands, the sun rises over our heads and our guide, Jorge Lizarraga, warns of altitude sickness. Heinsists it can be psychological, even though the steadily thins out over the ensuing hours, To be sure, a doctor travels aboard and each rail car is equipped with an oxygen tank. Red-jacketed waiters serve “Coca Tea” from Styrofoam cups for $1 each. Some passengers chew wads of green coca leaves, much as in- digenous inhabitants of this re- gion have doneforcenturies. A legal and milder variety of the plant from which cocaine can be derived, the leaves are a time- tested palliative for ores They raed He “Train to the Clouds”climbs to a heightof 14,000 feet on a narrow-gaugetrackthattwists and tumsthrough 1,270 curbs, 21 tunnels and across 13 steel trestles on its way to Incahuasi, Argentina, and finally to the La Polvorilla viaduct. pee cere region of eneup a narrow slot into ° towering ‘The Associated Press soon We are one at a leisurely 25 mph. Welcometo Quebrada del Toro, London’s Travel Pass 2,uee V-shaped break in the i Ter A Bargain for Visitors KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE London-bound visitors have a A quebrada is a slot cut into a mountainside by an ancientriver. Op Aeatee toca TiVo drops away,giving a sensation of new discountpass to consider: The LondonPass visitorcard, which is an airplane taking off as the landscape stretches out behind us. Trains were brought to - distinguished by its unlimited train-tube-bus fare plus entry to tine in the mid-1850s to exploit the able in one-day,three-day and sixday versions. The adult/child cost is about $30/$18 for the one-day minerals in the mountains began this train route just after the turn about40 tourist sites. It is avail- pass; $70/$36 for the three-day pass; refor the six-day pass. Among the 40 attractions are ee eke SeeCoe HMS Belfast, the tall ship Cutty Sark, the Battersea Park Children’s Zoo, the London Brass Rubbing Centre at St. Martin-in- the-fields Church, the Jewish Mu- vast beef, farming and mineral wealth. Adventurers pursuing of the century, and by 1929, laborers using only pickaxes and dynamite had reached the high pampas —a brushy mountain plain remi- niscentofthe desert Southwest. It was not until 1948 did they manage to connect the Argentine route with Chile across the And- ean divide. Freight trains still erthe entire distance from cliffside at El Alisal, 1,806 yards the enormity of the landscape.I thrown and the train suddenly lurches. It rolls backward up a second pair of tracks. After a few never seen anything like this, not even in the Alps,” says Balletto, wrapped snugly in a parka against to a stop, then rolls forward again up a third setof tracks. “Whenthey built this track, the engineers found they only gain greater altitude by zigzagging back and forth up the moun- Andit gets colderall the while. Tourists drink mate, a traditional Argentine tea sipped from a gourd through a metal straw. mall talk dies away as pessengers lose breath. We climb past 2,000 yz i above sea level. A switch is hundred feet, the train shudders tain side. Some say they learned “Coca tea! Coca tea!” the waiters chant. Trains here can only rise 75 feet “meseta” or tableland. Soon we for every 3,000 feet of travel. But the Zig Zag gives our train boost: 150 feet higher over just a short distance. We will pass through more zig zags and other technical are rising farther, past 3,000 yards, only a rocky, maneuvers in order to reach our final goal: above sea level — two miles high. The rocks and mountains rise away like a vast lunar-like tableau. The towering cactuses and majestic alamo trees give way to short and stubby brush. Weare lofting higher than the covered under another pass rel by the London Tourist called the GoSee card (forserrat the Internet — www.londonpass. com — in which an e1 voucher prickly spines. Peasants with burros plod past. can the Britnin Visitor Contre, 1 Re. gent St. in central The Web site for the GoSee card is at www. CORA At 2,884 yards, wehit thefirst ren, landscape. Sometry te coe leaves dished out in plastic “It’s a stimulant and will help ease any symptoms.It’s like putting a pinch of oregano in your mee our guide intones. in the distance, 10 tawny iene ‘amas cavort. “Look, the eternal snows!” Jorge interrupts, pointing about to high mountain peaks smothered in powdery white dusting. Somepassengers fall ill or puff on the oxygen canisters, but not Mataitis Lituano, who noncha- merly known as the London White on the cold. that from watching mountain goats make their way up the mountains” said Jorge, the guide. clouds. A chill wind rattles the windows. Above us, the moun- ~~ Pass sites do not duplicate love the mountains but have Next up: the “Zig Zag. acl nay of points of stone Laura Balletto, a 54-year-old university professor from Genova, italy, is among those visiting the Pampas. Argentina is onethird the size of Europe, butit seems much of Argentina's wide open space is tucked right here into the vastness of the high “This is the first time I have felt IF YOU Go Getting Around by Train: @ West Andes Circuit: fol- lows the same route as the ‘Train to the Clouds with views of terraced farm fields and San Antonio de los Cobres, a crazily around itself, gaining ground in a big circle before crossing a trestle over the rails we AMAZING LOWFARES!!! tional Park, created in 1948, whose undulating hills and verdant vegetation provide cover for camping, hiking and birdwatching. Home to such species as the American puma, of forest-clad mountains and tropical plantations growing 4986; fax [phone] in had just traveled below. “Ladies and gentlemen, the train is passing overitself,” Jorge announces as passengers ‘ooh and aah. the Andean border with Chile. Polvorilla Viaduct at the train’slast mountain stop @ Northern Circuit: Traveling this route provides vistas bananas, coffee, citrus and Wehavejust gained 18 yards. Salta. eras as the train crosses a giant On we go past places with names like Meseta (2,844 yards), Tacuara (3,036 yards), and even Incahuasi ak553 yards), pro- nounced “Een Kah, Wah see. aele live in these soundtrack \dspeakers. plays from Some 4,220 yards abovesea lev- mountains, some hunting minerals or living hardscrabble knitted woolies and gaucho som- from and west and would celebrate them here on the clouds high Up next, an engineering mar- vel: “Los Rulos.” That is Spanish for the curls. Indeed, our train corkscrews tures the route to “El Rey” Na- calied the yaguarete, and the tapir. Thermal hot springs and hotels located on this route. Information: Train to the Clouds (Tren a las Nubes): For latest schedules and pricing, phone [phone] or 431- lands mining town recalling the Inca past; as well as the La lantlyspits out a coca leaf. He says he is unaffected byaltitude sickness. “I am 81 years old and don’t feel anything. I have the heart ofa sugar-cane. This also is the route to Bolivia. @ Southeast Circuit: Fea- pampas. breros, swarm about us as we admire the view for 20 breathless minutes. A boy holding a baby llama in his arms lets some take his picture — for a peso. Not a cloud in the sky. We are already far above them. Here live lamas, vicunas, Andean foxes and even wild cats. Far off to our left, a dormantvolcano rises, a blackened but long-extinct sibling of volcanoes elsewhere on eat een next hours we will go back the way we came. It’s all downhill from here. 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