"From Cuenca I caught the 7:00am bus to Tambo, where, after being offered a lift to the ruins by a man with a small truck, I joined a few locals in the back of the truck, and within a few minutes we were on our way. It was a bumpy ride on the dirt road, with many short stops to pick up and drop off passengers, but it got me there, and it was only 10:30, though by this time I was getting quite hungry. To my surprise, the village had a cafe and I was able to get quite a good breakfast before setting off to explore the ruins. 
 
Having visited many of the Inca ruins in Peru on a previous trip, I must say I found these ruins a bit of an anticlimax, though the surrounding area was most attractive, and the fact that I was the only visitor there for most of the time, made it all very pleasant. 
 
After spending the rest of the morning in the area of the ruins, I had another meal at the cafe before walking back down the road into Tambo. It had been my plan to catch the 4pm train to Chunchi, but it was running over an hour late so I had time to make a few sketches and have a look around. Whilst sketching and observing the other passengers waiting for the train, I got the feeling that time seemed to have little importance in this part of the world. When the train did finally arrive it looked more like a large bus, and I had the interesting experience of sitting in the front seat beside the driver.
 
Within a short time of leaving Tambo we ran into a thick mist, the bright lights of the train only being able to light up about 30 yards of the track ahead. It seemed most eerie as we made our way along the poorly maintained, narrow gauge track, winding through farms and small villages, often stopping in what looked like the middle of no-where to allow passengers on and off. On one occasion we had to stop so the driver and his mate could get some sheep and a cow off the track, and another when we nearly hit a drunk asleep between the lines." - Mh