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Published: December 29th 2005
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Is it a bus? Is it a train??
Complete with indicators (very useful on a train) and a TV. Riobamba probably deserves more investigation than I was willing to give it based on first impressions, so apologies to anyone who went there and loved it. Initially we'd planned to spend a couple of days there, we're not fond of turning up to a place and setting straight off the next day. Might be laziness but I prefer to think of it as giving every place a fair chance. Anyway we're on holiday!! Riobamba didn't capture either of our imaginations though, and as such we decided to take the much lauded train around the Devil's Nose (Nariz del Diablo) and carry on south directly.
The train around Nariz del Diablo was apparently something of an engineering feat although these days is a tourist attraction and nothing more. You can't travel anywhere in Ecuador by train other than from Riobamba to Alausi and past the Devil's Nose. Emma incidentally doesn't reckon it looks anything like a nose although I can kinda see where they're coming from. The "nose" itself is a bit of mountain which required some genius to run a train track around - namely a series of switchbacks which the train zigzags along to get down the side of
the valley. Pretty exciting stuff, especially if you're sitting on the roof, and you know that last week the train derailed four times....
You'll probably have noticed from the pictures that the "train" isn't really a train. Emma was expecting a steam loco, I was expecting diesel, but neither of us were expecting a couple of buses with rail trucks instead of wheels! Expect them or not, that was what we got. It's an odd sensation sitting on the roof of something that looks and sounds like a bus but is rumbling along train tracks. Quite a cold sensation too. Nonetheless we stayed on the roof the whole way and enjoyed some pretty incredible scenery although I'm not sure it comes across in the pictures. It turned out that we didn't get a "proper" train because it had derailed so many times a couple of days before and so wasn't safe. Can't see how the converted buses were any safer on the same track, but there you go. One of my favorite moments in fact was when we were freewheeling down the "nose" only to encounter a bunch of track engineers brutally sledge hammering the rails that we were
about to roll over. Me? Scared? Nah. I mean that's normal, right??
(if you want to see a short video of the ride down, including the michievous engineers,
click here...)
After about 4 hours of roof-riding we were relegated to the inside of the bus-train (they're called
autoferros apparently) so that everyone got a go on the roof. About half an hour later we were at Alausi. Since there was little there of interest we headed to the village of Ingapirca, the site of the most important Inca ruins in Ecuador. The journey there was uneventful except for being ripped off by the second bus driver that we encountered who insisted we pay double fare before he would drive anywhere.... Grrrr...... The hostal was a bit more basic than we were expecting - Em and I decided to sleep in our sleeping bags for the first time, more to avoid the bedsheets than anything - but acceptable. There were leaks in the roof and a family of cats living up there too, but neither ended up on the bed. Every cloud has a silver lining indeed.
The ruins at Ingapirca were interesting although not breathtaking. The Incas didn't
The Inca palace at Ingapirca
The green stonework is original although the top part has been reconstructed. get very long in Ecuador before the Spanish came along and overthrew them, hence there aren't many ruins. We had a Spanish guide which was a challenge and required the linguistic skills of all present (ourselves, Rein & Char and Olivier). I don't know how accurate the guides explanations were (they varied wildly from another English-speaking guide we encountered) and how much our lack of Spanish fluency hindered the situation further, but everyone seemed to enjoy the tour.
What we didn't enjoy, however, was the local fiesta that went on OUTSIDE OUR HOSTAL that evening. Now I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "fiesta" I think of dancing, drinking and everyone having a bloody good time. And maybe small Ford cars. Well, think again. In Ingapirca, the word fiesta apparently means two flatbed trucks parked next to each other on which a team of wannabe musicians do impressions of some really irritating tunes that were bad even when played properly (I heard them a few hundred times on various buses up and down Ecuador so I know how they're supposed to sound - and it's not good!). It wouldn't have been so bad if the
"Moondial"
The guide tried to convince me this was a natural calendar, using the reflection of the moon. I remain unconvinced! local people were enjoying the show, but they looked as bemused as us. Don't give up your day jobs boys.... The cacophony continued until 2am although luckily we were able to knock ourselves out with a bottle of rum (metaphorically of course).
The next day it was goodbye Ingapirca (and sod off crappy musicians) - we're off to Cuenca, where we would spend Christmas, apparently the scene of colourful processions and where we would have a proper hotel room to stay in, with a proper shower and everything.......
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