The houses are all built with "vaulted"
foundations, the better to resist the "earth-tremblings," but on this
occasion I did not experience any shocks.
Leaving Arequipa behind, the ascent continues until the highest point is
reached at Crucero Alto, where a notice board indicates that we are now
14,666 feet above sea level. It is before reaching this altitude that
the wonderful enterprise of the engineer shows up. The line goes on
winding and climbing, twisting back again but always ascending, for
hours, until a point is reached where passengers, looking down from the
carriage windows, may see right below them, only a few feet down, the
actual railway track over which they have passed an hour before. At one
place there are actually _three tracks visible,_ one right below the
other, just like steps and stairs, and I believe there is nothing quite
like it in Argentina. Leaving Crucero Alto the descent is very gradual
until Puno is reached, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, but still at an
altitude of 12,000 feet or more. I did not actually see the town, which
is a short distance from the station, but went straight on board the
"Coya," the steamer which was to ferry us across to Chililaya or Puerto
Perez, on the Bolivian side of the immense lake.
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