Alausi - ´The Devils Nose´

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This adventure began from the moment we left Banos....


* Grabbed a bus bound for Riobamba, where we had intended to spend a night before heading on down towards Ecuadors´ main Inca ruins at Íngapirca´
* Our 1 hour bus ride turned into 2 hours and an hour in to the journey we decided to change our destination slightly to include the very touristy ´El Nariz Del Diablo´- The nose of the devil train ride.....is a favorite of many tourists, who travel on the roof of the train, to the amusement of locals.
The Devils Nose...more Info

* Arriving in Riobamba we jumped into a taxi with a couple from the UK and sped towards the train station to buy tickets for the next morning - however once there we found out they had sold out hours before.......
* ........we then jumped into another taxi, headed back to the bus station, grabbed another bus for Alausi, 2 hours away where we hoped we could buy tickets for a different train first thing in the morning!
* Finally arriving after 8pm we ran around the town like tourists carrying our packs looking for a hostel.....they all seemed to be closed (for good), or full so ended up in a hostel that our trusty 6 yr old lonely planet had mentioned as the WORST option!
* Steve nicknamed the hostel the Fawlty Towers of Ecuador! as the owner ("Basil"), after hounding us on the street to stay at his, mostly empty hostel had an argument with his wife while holding out his hand to us yelling ´PAY NOW!´

* After a dinner of fries (no vegeterian food in this tiny, very cute and quite lovely town), we awoke early to stand in an hour and a half queue to buy tickets for the train ride.........4 hours later we were finally herded onto the train!
* Sadly our train was kinda like an old bus on rails, and no option for sitting on the roof which is what we really had come all this way for! (see link above for a photo of what we thought we were getting)
* ......still it was a pretty cool train ride through some gorgeous scenery.......

* Having done the infamous train ride we grabbed our next form of alternative transport (back of a truck!) up the hill to wait for a bus south..........to Cuenca ..... ah....the things we do when travelling!

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