Blogs from Riobamba, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 6

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 120,000 people, had little special to offer. Like all South American cities, it has more than its fair share of (Catholic) churches, but the general cityscape are not that attractive and it does not particularly cater for the tourist. Given that you can spend just so much time walking the streets of Ecuadorian cities, and we have covered a fair bit of that ground already, we decided to ... read more

Buenos Tardes! (That's Good Afternoon in local lingo) Quito review... a very interesting city which we both thoroughly enjoyed. The vast majority of the streets are in a poor state of repair, kind of like you see in a film set in 1950s Cuba, but at the same time it is a very busy, lively place. Stray dogs wander around looking for leftovers, street vendors try to sell woolly hats, and eight-year boys earn a living shining shoes (one such lad looked extremely disappointed when he thought he spotted two gringos in need of shiny shoes only to find we were both wearing flip-flops.) Yesterday we took a public bus (this trip is packed full of new experiences for Bridget!) to a small town called Otavalo, home to the biggest indiginous markets in South America. You ... read more

Off course you are wondering what I have been doing all this time. I have been visiting many indigenous communities in the most hidden and amazing places all in the Chimborazo province (Cacha, Sta Lucia, Cobshe, Shuid, Achupallas, Chunchi, Columbe,...) For my birthday on the 3rd of July I had a good steak, because all they sell in the almuerzos is fatty meat and rice, which is starting to bother me a bit. My Kichwa classmates through me a great surprise party, with lots of sweets and goodies. I´m so blessed to be living on the volcano road, because when the weather is nice, you have magnificent views of El Altar, Tunguragua and Chimborazo volcanos, Chimborazo being the tallest one of Ecuador with 6310m above sea level. In the beginning of July I moved houses and ... read more

Greetings from Riobamba, the Sultan of the Andes and home to the volcano known as Chimborazo, the country's highest peak at 6310m and due to the earth's equatorial bulge, is also the farthest point from the center of the earth--a factoid for the trivia buffs out there. We had quite a day of unexpected events yesterday all of which led us to a premature visit to Riobamba. We had hired a 4x4 for the trip to the town of Baños located below another well know and smoking volcano, but as we wound through this incredibly scenic valley nearing our destination, the traffic came to a halt. We soon learned the road was closed due to a mudslide caused by some rain the previous night. The place we got stranded was wild because it was smack ... read more

Rachael has finally left me and my working life has started. My main activities of the days are meetings and reading the necessary literature on Popular Education. One of the meetings took 9 hours, these Ecuadorians sometimes talk to much and don´t stick to concrete measures. Last thursday and friday, I was appointed international driver and we went to do workshops in Chunchi a village, south of Riobamba. I made a slippery fall of some slippery stairs covered with moss next to the chapel of the "Virgen del Auxilio", one thing I must say ... she didn´t bring me much help. We slept in the house of a Brasilian priest called Mario and I am surprised in such a Christian country as this, that the priests are so modern. Friday we went to a community called ... read more