Blogs from Riobamba, Centre, Ecuador, South America

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South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba August 16th 2019

Dear All Greetings from the Ecuadorian Andes! A small city called Riobamba, to be exact, where I am currently spending two nights before heading to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito tomorrow. I believe I last wrote having just reached the end of my amazing Galapagos adventure, I still feel so touched by these beautiful islands and their natural inhabitants, the spectacular wildlife. Indeed, I think my experience there will stay with me for a while. Since then, I spent one night in Guayaquil again, enjoying the luxuries of a four-star hotel, and in fact what was more welcome, the super-fast Internet connection. I was able to upload all of my photos from the Galapagos Islands (and there were many!) onto my OneDrive cloud, freeing up much-needed storage space again on my laptop for more photos. I ... read more
Ceremony
Vicuna
Me, Laguna Llaviucu

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba July 21st 2015

Distance driven today: 193 miles / 311 km Cumulative distance driven: 9,648 miles / 15,527 km Today’s trip: Ibarra to Riobamba, Ecuador Drive over the Equator: yes, but it was very hard to find due to complete lack of signage As we started getting close to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, during our morning ride, Zoe and I were on the outlook for the sign posting that we had reached the Equator, i.e. the imaginary line on the Earth's surface that is equal distance from the North Pole and South Pole. This line is commonly used to divide the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, and we were looking forward to make a stop at the exact location and take a photo. However, we were disappointed as it turned out that there is no ... read more
Latitude 00.00.000
Welcome to Quito
On the spot repair of the rear mud guard attachment

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba July 26th 2014

So after Quito this was our pointless detour to Riobamba. After Quito we hoped to spend a couple of days in a nice mountain town whilst we planned a bit and caught up on some internet stuff. Unfortunately this was where not having a guidebook was a bad idea. We took out our Ecuador map which we received when we crossed the border from Colombia and looked for somewhere between Quito and the coast where we could hang out. Riobamaba was marked on our map as a historic town so after a brief internet search we decided to head there from Quito. There were lovely views of the snowy volcanoes on the bus ride and we got into Riobamba early afternoon. The bus station is on Epiclachima and Leon Borja. We had looked up a couple ... read more

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba June 13th 2013

Kaip jau įprasta iš ryto keliauju į autobusų terminalą. Čia išklausinėju visų vairuotojų ir agentūrų koks autobusas važiuoja į El Altar. Sako, kad reik važiuoti į kitą terminalą, tad su taksi važiuoju iki kito terminalo. Čia yra autobusas, bet tik už pusvalandžio, tad turiu laiko papusryčiauti. Taigi sėdu į autobusą ir važiuoju. Autobuse mane užkalbina vienas senukas, su juo kartu ir išlipu, nes sako parodys kur čia man reik eiti. Čia miestelis pavadinimu El Paklausinėju jo apie šią vietą, bet pagal pagal jo aiškinimą visai viskas čia ne taip kaip aš tikėjausi. Čia ne tik miestelis pavadinimu El Altar, bet taip vadinasi ir visas slėnis. Bet senukas mane patikina, kad savaitgaliais čia būna pilna turistų. Prieš iškeliaujant senukas man pasiūlo sugryžti čia ir papietauti su juo ir jo sese. Slėnis čia tikrai gražus ir diena visai ... read more
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South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba February 7th 2013

Hello again I promised more detail about Saturday 2nd to Tuesday 5th Feb in my last blog, so here is some of it. Ive added (or rather Caroline has added for me) a very small selection of the photos I have taken on the trip so far. The ones on this blog actully relate to Monday day which I,ll tell you about. But first, I must catch you up on Sunday. We walked around some of the central parts of the Capital City of Quito; a huge spralling place spreading over, I think it was, 44 km from end to end. I forgot to take my camerawith me so have no pictures of that day, but Croline took some good ones and hs written up a very full blog about Quito so have a look at ... read more
Arriving at Otovalo Market
Beautiful Hats at the Market
Fabulous Plants at the Market

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba December 27th 2012

Monday 17/12/12 –We woke up with a grim mind-set in preparation for the border crossing. However I had a more immediate problem to worry about: my bike wouldn’t start this morning. It wasn’t even receiving enough power to kick the starter motor over, so we immediately knew it was a dead battery. I pulled out my battery whose cells were all bone dry (except, of course, for the inspection cell that is used as a guide for judging water levels – this one was full!). Twenty minutes later, we were riding off towards Ecuador and on our approach to the border we met another adventurer on a KLR. We pulled up at immigration and chatted to our fellow rider who was a young Russian guy (Alexey) who had bought the bike 3 days ago and never ... read more
We made it to the Equator!
Riding onto the monument
The only sign indicating we had crossed the Equator

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba September 10th 2012

Allez cest le depart pour RIOBAMBA! On arrive dans cette ville assez bruyante et peu attrayante. Mais nous savons que ce qui nous attend est extraordinaire. En effet, RioBamba est la ville de depart pour se rendre au Chimborazo est le volcan et la montagne la plus haute de lEquateur avec une hauteur de 6310 m. Nous ne sommes pas encore assez entrainees et adaptees pour monter jusquau sommet, mais nous avons decide de monter jusquau premier refuge qui se situe a 4800m. Pour ce faire, on doit se rendre a lentree du parc et marcher ensuite 8 km pour se rendre. Nous partons a une altitude de 4300m pour arriver a 4800m, ce qui fait 500m de denivele. Avant tout, je me dois de vous raconter notre ride de bus pour se rendre a lentree ... read more
Lea et moi
5000m
Parque Nacional Cajas

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba May 22nd 2012

The long awaited departure from Guayaquil had finally arrived and we returned to the ankle-spraining bus terminal to hop a ride to Riobamba. The 5 hour trip took us away from the hot & humid city and up into the lush and much cooler Ecuadorian highlands filled with farmland and rolling hills. We took a cab downtown to find a hostel, agreed to the first reasonably clean and cheap one we saw, then walked/hobbled to the train stain a few blocks away. We planned to take a rooftop train ride down ¨devils nose¨, a steep switchback mountainside outside of Riobamba. After finding out the price had increased significantly ($11 to $25) and that it was no longer possible to catch the train from Riobamba but instead a 2hr bus ride outside of the city, we declined. ... read more
Soon to be town square

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba March 29th 2012

Wednesday 21st March - Baños to Alausi Again we both felt a little better so it was time to take the opportunity to get out of dodge and get away from the hostel which seemed to be a magnet for chumps. 2 hours on the bus and we were in Riobamba, followed by a walk and another 2 hours on a different bus and we were in Alausi, a small town and home to Ecuador´s most famous railway tourist attraction, "Nariz Del Diablo". We´d hopefully ride the train the following morning but judging by the complete absence of gringos in town it wasn´t looking promising. In the meantime we got to enjoy the delights of our new hotel, The Panamericano and what appeared to be a crumbling flee pit. Nice! Being a small town there wasn´t ... read more
The Panamericano Alausi....
At the Devil´s Nose

South America » Ecuador » Centre » Riobamba July 15th 2011

What do most people do before a hike? Maybe look for an acceptable distance for their fitness level, do some research, talk to locals and get a map? Well not these two. We decided on a particular trail that left from Riobamba mainly because it mentioned the words “cloud forest”, “hummingbirds” and “hot springs” in the description….never mind the parts that talked about wet trails, run-down refugios and a general lack of trail maintenance. We didn’t even take much notice of the advice on bringing your own machete. Well I guess we read it because we brought one, but didn’t really put two and two together on that one. Anyways, upon arrival in Riobamba we realized several other things: 1. It was cold. Remedy =buy gloves and scarves. 2. Couldn’t find our torch. Remedy= Buy a ... read more
At the top of Laguna Negra 4000m+
Trail Maintenence?
Sunset from the Refugio




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