http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Ecuador , Centre , Riobamba en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:58:16 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:58:16 UTC Riobamba was the starting point for our descent south into Peru. The town is famous for the spectacular train ride to Sibambe stopping in Alausi before making its way down to the world famous Nariz del Diablo or Devils NoseWe didnt do a whole lot in Riobamba except wait for a few hours for the train tickets to go on sale. We stayed here one night and set off early the following morningNeil an http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-349456.html I am exhausted thoroughly worn out which is too bad because I have to say I really dig Riobamba its a really interesting energized Metropolis with lots to see do and most definitely to buy.Let me start with yesterday which turned out to be a suprisingly beautiful and long bike ride. Having ridden thousands of miles in the past couple years of my life I can now truly appreciate my biking shor http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-348870.html After packing up our backpack and putting our other stuff in storage we moved out of our apartment and hopped on the bus 6 hour bus to Riobamba the fourth largest city in the center of Ecuador. We got there in the late afternoon and had hopped to go to a soccer game that night only to find out that it was actually an afternoon game and it was already over. I was extremely disappointed but it http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-346662.html The good thing about being here is definitely the weekends. On Friday we didnt really feel like having class so we played cards quaranta with the teachers and 3 other students. Yes money well spent. Then we left to the bus station. Same people as last weekend minus Marc. It was a complete mess soooooo many people trying to get out of town. We got on the bus and it poured the whole way. Same c http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-341662.html Gisteren zijn we naar Parc Nacional Cajas geweesteen uitgestrekt natuurgebied met 235 meren in de Andes.Een zware tocht waarbij we hebben gehiked op 4200 meter hoogte samen met een gids en 5 andere backpackers.We lagen al vroeg onder de wol.Vandaag hebben we 6 uur in de bus gezeten naar Riobambaeen schitterende rit dwars door de Andes.Nu zijn we aan het plannen voor de komende dagendownhil biki http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-335227.html As the title suggests we having been cramming a lot in and so for everyones sanity we will keep this one to the point We have also been trying to download all our photos for this entry but technology in Per has proven a headache so more photos to follow...Up in the Mountains we went to a a place called Papallacta which is a beautiful area but due to its location also generally very wet and grey http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-334843.html Dear all... May we continue the story...when we last spoke I was clinging to the roof of a train... Surviving the Devils Nose... Fear not I survived to tell the tale In fact it was not the James Bond style escapade I was imagining. We queued as instructed at 6am it was a cold and drizzly Andean morning and only the brave boarded the roof. They rented seat pads for 1 a piece much needed b http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-326099.html Dad David this one is especially for you both I know you would have loved this ride Looking forward to roof from Riobamba all the way to the Devils Nose... only to find out on my way there that the line is broken and has been for some time. Hmm this was a problem the sole reason for going to Riobamba was to take the train... I figure surely there must be some option of taking the train http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-315473.html Day 39 Thursday 7th August A day with a few twists and turnsAs I awake today I'm planning to cyyle the 60km from Banos to Puyo on the edge of the Amazon jungle. I'm planning to do this with a guy in my dorm and then catch a bus late in the day to Riobamba to ride on the famous train ride that goes from there. However its a wet morning and I'm still feeling the effects of Cotopaxi so decide to http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-310196.html The bus from Cuenca dropped us off on the highway overlooking Asuasi and after feeling lost for a few minutes we trudged down the hillside to try and find the hostal Europa that we were booked into. Alausi is a small town with its fair share of gringo visitors as the Devils nose train ride was running from here instead of Riobamba due to a mudslide or something There was a great Chineese restua http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-301994.html Our last few days volunteering at Arutam were probably the best. Linda who cooked our food promised us she would teach us how to make Chicha the Shuar drink I briefly described in the previous entry. Good to her word on Monday we just the girlies headed over to Ernestos the daddy house. Crouched on the floor in the kitchen hut Linda whipped out a giant pot of boiled yuca that she place http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-301978.html Nach unseren 4 Tagen Dschungel adventure kehren wir zurueck in die Anden nach Riobamba. Das kleine verschlafene Staedtchen erwacht am Samstag Vormittag zum Leben so geniessen wir das Markttreiben und bummeln durch die Gaesschen. Wir kaufen hier Obst dort Gemuese und Nudeln fuer unser erstes selbst gekochtes Abendessen denn unser tolles Hostal hat einen wunderschoenen Innenhof mit Kueche. Doch http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-301605.html Guaranda is a pleasant country town and known as the 'city of the 7 hills'. I stayed there one night and a morning and then went on to Salinas.Salinas is interesting as the whole town lives from the production of various goods in cooperativas. Especially famous is the cheese cooperativa and they are selling their cheese throughout the country and also export it. Furthermore they produce other http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-294938.html Casa Cndor is a communitybased tourism project in the village of Pulingui San Pablo at the foot of Chimborazo. About 240 indogenous inhabitants live here. They have a great system of hiking trails with sign posts along most of them as well as an excellent map to be purchased for 1 USD at Casa Cndor based on an IGM map with the GPS tracks of the senderos displayed in different colors on th http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-294922.html Up at 4.30am aaah. It was a killer and very hard to eat breakfast which as always was accompanied by eggs at 5am. We got to the train station in Riobamba by 6am to bag a seat inside the carriage by the window. I resisted the temptation to sit on the roof for a number of reasons1 It was very cold2 It had only recently been reopened due to the deaths of a number of tourists3 It looked unco http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-293224.html Hmmmm welll not much pics but a few things will either make you cringe or sigh... So coming up from Cuzco...a nice 21hr bus ride through mountains and desserts...past Nazca note the giant highway built straight through the middle of one on the coast and the panamerican highway north.... leaving the dessert lands of the westcoast we visited the excavated tomb of the king of Siam wow how much Go http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-284097.html Slowly but surely Ryan and I are making our way to the Peruvian border. We have spent the last several days wandering through Quitos Old Town marveling at the beautifully restored buildings imposing churches and frenetic pace The city teems with life and I could not help but feel as though I had just been swept along with it. We learned the ins and outs of Quitos complexe transport syst http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-283321.html HOLA AMIGOSHope you are all well and husbands wives boyfriends girlfriends mothers fathers brothers sisters and pets are all treating you wellArriving towards the one year anniversary of my travels I though I would give you some stats of my adventures for you to google be amazed envy or just laugh at how crazy this whole thing has been. The only stat I cannot measure for you is how mu http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-267502.html Well...I figured out the pictures finally. But it takes waaaaay to long to have them upload. Not sure if itrsquos because 1 I was shooting in 8 mgpxl 2 This blog sight is slow 3 Irsquom in south america and am using an apple II Ill have to find a faster way to share this trip with you guys...in the meantime...here is my trip so far...in a nutshell317 Flew in to Quito318 Took bu http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-259767.html Es faehrt ein Zug nach nirgendwo mit mir allein als Passagier...naja fast...zur Nase des Teufels was auch irgendwo im Nirgendwo liegt und ein paar andere Leute waren auch dabei.Von Riobamba ging es frueh am Morgen mit dem Bus nach Alausi da die reizvolle Strecke bis Alausi wegen der starken Regenfaelle in den letzten Wochen gesperrt ist. Wenigstens das letzte Stueck der Strecke ist befahrbar. D http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-251635.html hi ehjoy the long awaited photos http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-248764.html The bus from Baos to Riobamba did not take long although we were somewhat disheartened by the torrential rain cascading from the skies and filling up the road in torrents. It made the huge potholes even worse and the suspension on the bus reaching its ultimatumOnce there I am ashamed to say we went into a fast food restaurant and had burger chips and coke. It was actually very nice...nothing http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-243578.html I decided I needed a change from all the hiking. So I signed up with a local mountain bike club www.bicicleteros.com and went on a trip with them from Mocha to Riobamba. Most of the ride was along old railway tracks.We met at 5am in Parque Carolina in Quito and left at 5.30am that's perfectly fine for the Ecuadorian understanding of time. The bus dropped us along the Panamericana near Mocha http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-236014.html Matt writesToday a chilly 5.30 start to get to the nearby station and climb aboard an antiquated train that would take us south through some great scenery. Our backpacks were stowed in a locker in one of the carriages which would mean we could relax and enjoy the trip. Although it would not however prevent the barrage of refreshment sales as an army of vendors selling coffee chocolates fruit http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-229146.html Hola de nuevo a todo el mundo retomando nuestro viajeDe guayaquil fuimos a Riobamba un lugar muy conocido porque es un lugar de paso del famoso ferrocarril que unia Quito con Guayaquil construido en 1908. Debido a unos terremotos la seccion de Guayaquil a Riobamba quedo destruida y ahora solo queda la ruta conocida como nariz del diablo de Riobamba Alausi Sibambe. En su epoca fue una tremen http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-224556.html I am currently heading down to the very South of Ecuador with the final destination being Vilcabamba a small village not far from the border to Peru. My first destination was Riobamba a city which I had visited already last year. Therefore I did not do much sightseeing there mainly just bought my ticket for the Devils Nose train ride. When I arrived at the hostel in the afternoon they told http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-221820.html Riobamba is the town where the train ride to the mountain called El Nariz Del Diablo begins.The tickets cost 11 in October 2007. They should be bought the day before. The time of sale may vary from that stated in the book. Go early. I was second in line and the man before me was buying 30 tickets because he worked for a travel agent.People who tried to buy tickets at 700 AM the next morning wer http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-212987.html I had originally intended to ride the Devils nose train but after average reports by a number of travellers I decided instead just to pay this city a quick stop. What I found was a pleasant surprise a city with lots of colour vibrance and great architecture. Having taken the bus from Tena I arrived in the afternoon and unable to find the hostel I wanted I settled on a basic hostel it was http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-204932.html Actually folks I just wanted to get your attention as the last couple of blogs might have been somewhat lacking in adrenalin The quote above was from Lonely Planet and who would question such an authority and while this train ride certainly had its moments I think the bus ride later more fitted that description. But more on that later.As expected Riobamba a city of some 120000 people ha http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-204700.html Hi AllWe went rafting today and we had a great time. Apparantly the river had class III rapids. I think the stands for the time we all fell in the water. But let me tell it from the beginning. It rained in the morning in Baos like crazy but the rafting trip went ahead as planned so we went to the agency and we met a very nice FrenchCanadian girl that we met before on the flight to Galap http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-201289.html