69. Saved in Cerro de Pasco

69.

At “Galena” village, the train crosses a pass, which at 15,681 feet (4,781 meters) altitude gives this route the world’s record. An attendant passes through the coach with a portable oxygen bottle selling sniffs and gasps of the life preserving gas.

At La Oroya Train Station, Louise heads south to retrieve her beloved pushbike and I head north by bus.

My bus arrives in Cerro de Pasco late at night. Near the bus station, mobs of shouting people are milling around carrying torches and lanterns. Something heavy is going on but what it is I don’t know and no one is telling.

The friendly bus driver finds a truck that is continuing down the road to Huanuco and puts me aboard.

I find out afterward that the miners of Cerro de Pasco were rioting against foreign ownership (American) and exploitation of the miners.

That friendly bus driver may have saved my life.

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