We went to South America on our (delayed) honeymoon. In those days Air France operated a twice weekly flight through Manaus to Lima so we spent a few days in Amazonia and Lima before flying up to Cuzco and “doing” Macchu Picu etc. We then got the train to Lake Titicaca and the old ferry boat the “Inca” (built in Hull, sailed out, dismantled, transported and reassembled) overnight across the Lake.

On arrival we were told the train was on strike so we all piled on a bus. Halfway there someone who had a radio and spoke Spanish said “it’s not just that the train is on strike, there has been a coup d’etat”.

The bus dropped us by the railway station and disappeared. It was eerily quite and a military cordon forced into a roundabout route to our hotel but they gave us a room overlooking the main street.

That night a tank rolled up the street dropping off soldiers every few feet. Later shooting started and we retreated to the bathroom in the hope that some extra breezeblock might be a bit more protection than windows.

The next few days were a bit restricted but we did get out a little. Slowly the hotel began to run out of food. One day we were crossing the street in front of the hotel (a wide boulevard with a strip of park in the middle) when another tank arrived. The commander stuck his head out of the turret, grabbed the machine gun mounted there and started shooting. We retreated to the hotel and when the mayhem had finished we found a line of holes through the hotel sign.

Fnally we got a bus back into Peru, a train down to Arequipa (great trip but I don’t think passenger trains run that way any more) and a plane back to Lima. I believe that while we were on the train the military went round La Paz collecting all the tourists and flew them down to Lima which might have been interesting but we were happy with our decision.

We’re still married 30 years on!