Mar. 15-16 - Return to Riobamba

Today we started our week long, Semana Santa trip around the area just south of Quito. Even though we were never more than four hours away from Quito, we still weren't able to exhaust the possibilities available to us. Our first stop on our journey was in Riobamba, and since Kat was running late (as usual) Anna and I headed down first to find a place to stay and make sure we got tickets for the train the next day. Kat and Lee would follow along later, we weren't surprised when that meant 6 hours later!!

Anna and I arrived around 4:00pm in the afternoon and after no time at all we were able to find a great place to stay and headed off to the train station to buy the tickets. The ticket master was very quick to inform us that, sadly, there had been a landslide so the train was departing from Alausí, two hours to the south. If we stil wanted to ride on the train we would have to take a bus at six in the morning. We figured that since we had come this far, six wasn't too early.

As I had warned Anna, there wasn't much to do in Riobamba, so it didn't take long before we had walked the strip. By 5:00pm we had run out of things to do (one hour ... that's all it took to get a hotel, buy train tickets and see everything in the town), and by that time I had already slid down a statue with the local kids. We opted to sit at a cafe and wait for Kat and Lee, but when they called to inform us they would be 6 hours late, we decided to dine without them. After dinner, Anna and I stumbled upon a performance by the local indigenous people at the train station. This performance consisted of many traditional dances, in a multitude of different costumes, all to the local folk music.

The next morning we all got up quite early for breakfast and caught the bus at the train station to head down to Alausí. We were lucky as our bus took the road that followed the train tracks, so we were able to see the same beautiful scenery that we would have seen from the train. When we arrived in Alausí we went upstairs to try and get a ticket only to find out that the person in front of us in line got the last ticket (the price for being a nice guy and letting everyone off the bus first). We were informed that there was a 1:00pm train and there was also a chance a tour group wouldn't show up and we would be able to ride on the 9:45 train.

While we waited we started exploring the Sunday morning market. This was the first authentic Ecuadorian market that I had visited (the others were touristy; this one was just for the town and the people in it). The stalls were pretty much non-existent and everything was sold in the market. Some stalls sold pots and pans while others were just selling potatoes or bananas. They appeared to all be manned by the family that produced the crops. They even had a stand that was cooking cui for people to eat later.


When we got back to the train station we found out that the tour group wasn't coming so we were able to make it on the 9:45 train. When it finally arrived we were able to see that the train wasn't actually a train, but a bus that had been refurbished to fit on the train tracks. In the past you were able to sit on the roof of the bus/train in order to better see the scenery, but after an unfortunate accident involving two Japanese tourists and a telephone wire, this isn't allowed anymore. Instead we sat inside the train/bus to observe the scenery.

Not far outside Alausí is La Nariz del Diable (Devil's Nose), a hill where the train descends 1,000m. This was the hardest stretch to build when they built the train from the coast to Quito (hence the name) and the decent is accomplished through a series of switchbacks. We didn't understand that the train doesn't actually turn around at these switchbacks but instead descends backwards down the track. This brought along with it a different sensation and makes for a nerve-racking ride, especially when you look over the cliff (the train actually leans into the hill at about a 15 degree angle to make sure it doesn't fall over).

When we reached the bottom we noticed that, currently, there is no where else to go. Due to neglect, the track ends in the middle of nowhere so there's nothing else to do but turn around and head back up. After I had talked to the tour guides, they agreed to let me hop off the train at one of the switchbacks so that I could take some pictures. It was tons of fun jumping off a moving train and running alongside while it changed directions. If the scenery wasn't enough, this certainly was.

When we ended our train journey, we hopped on a bus and headed to Baños after making a quick stop in Riobamba to pick up our bags.