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Published: August 16th 2005
Chef Nick´s Aji Surprise
Nick tries his hand at grinding the chilies and tomatoes...harder than it looks!Yo! It´s Tuesday night and we´re back at the archaeology sites for the last week...this past weekend was full of adventure.
Saturday we all took a quick trip to the town of Sicalpa (home of the arch sites and also the hole Sarah fell into) to visit one of our worker friends for lunch. He had promised to have us over in order to show us how to make Aji (a-hee....a hot salsa) and the peanut sauce which they put over potatoes. The Aji was made by pounding or grinding chilies and tree tomatoes together in a mortar (man, we really have to get one of those things when we come home - "No Nick, we CAN´T bring one home from Ecuador"), and subsequently adding water onions and cilantro to taste. For us Aji is the new ketchup - it goes on EVERYTHING. Apart from the cooking class, the experience was wonderful because we were able to spend time with Pasquale´s whole family, including his parents, wife and two children, and see how they cook their daily meals. The cooking was all done on an open fire enclosed in a small kitchen structure in the courtyard of their property.
The Nariz del Diablo
The view from the roof at the beginning of the train ride - look at all those gringos! We look forward to bringing our new recipes home and trying them out on all of you. Don´t worry, we haven´t gotten sick from either of these recipes.....yet.
On Sunday morning, bright and early at 5 AM we awoke to get ourselves down to the local train station in order to get a good seat on the roof of the Nariz del Diablo, The Devil´s Nose train (aka "The Gringo Train"). It´s two English names come from the fact that it traverses switchbacks down a mountain known as the Devil´s Nose, and of course only tourists or Gringos are willing to pay $11 US to sit on the roof of a train for 8 hours straight. It was a little overwhelming to see so many tourists packed onto this train - people must really think we´re bizarre as we ride by. Even though we got there at 5:35 AM, we still didn´t get on the preferred right side of the roof, but had to settle for the left. Despite all this craziness, the scenery was breathtaking and diverse, and definitely worth the sore legs, back and bottom - it´s a great feeling to ride in the open air with
Sweet Toque
Leaving no doubt about our country of origin, Sarah flaunts her gear. a nice breeze.
Of course, in the morning it was quite cold....good thing Nick had thought to purchase some stylish pairs of toques and mitts the day before as he bought tickets. By the time noon rolled around, however, we were both out of our layers and wearing nothing but t-shirts in the blazing sun. The train travels south from Riobamba for approximately 6 hours, stopping for food in a few small stations along the way. Important fact: if you are ever on this train, make sure to try the banana empañadas (deep fried bananas) that the vendors are pushing. We love them. At the end of the 6 hour ordeal, we came to the town of Alausi, the starting point for the actual Devil´s Nose track. Of course, as soon as we got into town, our car DERAILED, leading us to wonder whether it was really a good idea to continue along a steep switchback track, but after a scorching 45 minutes they had us back on track (literally) and it was definitely worth the ride.
We will probably finish our fieldwork this week, and are planning to get over to the Spanish colonial town of Cuenca
Chimborazo in the Distance
On this clear day we had a beautiful view of the mountain that caused Sarah´s downfall...literally. (and of course to Ingapirca, the Inca ruins just north of there) this weekend.
Our tourist activities have finally begun and we are feeling like the trip has STARTED.
Cheers,
Nick and Sarah
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Dave
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Top of train ride
Only $11 to ride the roof of a train?!?!?! That's a steal! Any discount for the ride when it's raining? That must have been some ride! Awesome pics of your trip!