Advertisement
Published: March 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Ecuador Continued
The morning we left Baños Tom decided to brave the dentist as his front tooth was giving him problems. Paul the Scottsman had gone and highly recommended one in town. One filing and $10 later Tom was content and we headed for Riobamba.
Feb 21st We were headed for Riobamba to catch the famous Devil´s Nose Train (Nariz Del Diablo) that runs from there to Alausi. The trains only run Wed, Sun and Fri so the plan was to catch the Friday train at 7am. When we got to the station to buy the tickets on Thurs we were told that the train wasn´t running that Friday due to excess rain on the tracks. We were gutted! However, it turns out it was´running but just not all the way to Alausi. It was stopping in Palmira and then turning back but we were assured that we could get a bus from Palmira to Cuenca. That would have to do, but the best and actual ´Devil´s nose´part was the bit that wasn´t running so it was a little disappointing. It´s supposed to be the most dangerous train route in the world. People used to be allowed to
ride on the roof of the train until someone was decapitated!
Having established that there wasn´t a whole lot to Riobamba we decided not to wait for Sunday´s train and just take the inferior Friday one.
The journey was pretty cool but it was more like a bus on tracks than a train! Just one carriage full of tourists. The view at times was awesome though and it was in all a nice time. Not the dangerous rush we anticipated but hey! Dave and Helen from Liverpool who we met in Baños were on board too which was cool.
As promised there was a bus waiting in Palmira to take us to Cuenca. We broke down along the way and had to transfer to another bus who was a little further ahead in traffic! As this one was already full we had to stand most of the 5 hour journey. Tom eventually got a seat next to a Peruvian lady who was overfeeding her fat baby and at one point when we hit a bump the baby bounced off her knee onto the floor - the bang was funny and the mother didnt´bat an eyelid. Weird. She
then changed its nappy while Tom struggled to keep breakfast down!
Cuenca Cuenca is a really nice city with a real European feel to it. Cobbled streets in the old town and lots of nice cafes, bars and restaurants. The first night we stayed in a dodgy hostel with a grumpy landlady called Sante Fe. When the bathroom flooded I put my foot down and insisted that we move somewhere nicer the next night! We moved to a hotel called Milan which was fab for the price and even had cable telly so we caught some football from home too!
We hooked up with Dave and Helen again and had a really nice time out with them.
I really liked Cuenca and would have gladly spent a couple more days there wandering around the markets and eating super cheap food but alas the clock was ticking and before we left Ecuador we wanted to visit Vilcabamba, a village near the border.
Vilcabamba Feb 24th - 27th We caught the bus from Cuenca to Loja and then a connection to Vilcabamba. We knew where we wanted to stay as we had seen flyers in
most of the hostels along the way for a place called Izhcayluma. It looked amazing with massages, facials and beautiful countryside. As soon as we got to the village we jumped in a cab straight there. We were greeted by Hubert a strange but friendly German character. We decided to push the boat out and rent a private cabin overlooking the mountain. At $34 a night it was the biggest extravagence so far on a room but hey, we felt we needed it!
The place was great. Really, really relaxing with a nice outdoor restaurant overlooking the town, small outdoor pool and poolside bar with really cool bartenders, a pooltable, ping pong and darts!
During our stay there Tom had a full body massage and I had a combo of back massage, facial and Reiki. We took out the hostel bikes (that were free!), drank at the bar, played pool and ping pong and met some interesting people. It was really relaxing and just what we needed before the long trek to Lima ahead.
Over the Peruvian Border On 27th we took the International bus from Loja in Ecuador to Piura in the North of Peru.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.138s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0822s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb