The Hiram Bingham

The Hiram Bingham Belmond Train (Picture courtesy of Newsworld247.com)

To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of Hiram Bingham until I went to trek up Machu Picchu....Ignorant? perhaps...actually yes, bloody ignorant...but one can't know EVERYTHING! So thats why I sometimes (yes sometimes, OK not really...often) rely on Wikipedia to fill in the culture gaps or lack there of...
So who is Mr. Hiram Bingham and why on earth is there an amazing train that goes from Machu Picchu to Cusco named after him??? Hiram Bingham is actually an American academic explorer who discovered Machu Picchu in 1911 (or brought Machu Picchu to the worlds attention). Once again, I'd like to thank Wikipedia for this tidbit.

So what does Hiram Bingham have to do with me? Well after a 4 day trek up to Machu Picchu, sleeping in tents and not showering, we were eager to get our dirty little hands on any form luxury....hence, The Belmond Hiram Bingham train (formerly part of the Orient Express group). As soon as we set eyes on what would be our transportation for the next 4 hours, we new something special was going to come our way....we just had no clue how special it would be!

We boarded this 1920's style, beautifully retro train with shiny wood and brass accents everywhere. White cotton tablecloths and flowers on every table....it looked like a lovely cosy french style restaurant, except we were on a train. The drinks started flowing (mainly pisco sours, all free since the train ticket is all inclusive, around $400 a ticket) and then we were all asked to move in to the bar cart to see a musical performance. I was expecting some classical music, a little something Peruvian....but instead the band started playing some rock tunes and all of a sudden I found myself dancing in the middle of the cart to "I cant get no satisfaction" while the rest of the guests either looked on, or joined in on our little party.
After our dance off we headed back to our dinner cart for a lovely 3 course meal before our arrival into Cusco.

The trip on the Hiram Bingham was a highlight I would say...who would have known that The Hiram Bingham was a party train??? Which was also exactly what we needed to celebrate our decent from Machu Picchu and to shake up our muscles after what they had been through.

So Hiram, we thank you for spreading the word about Machu Picchu and we thank you for the amazing ride you gave us on your party train. Hiram Rocks!!!