Ecudorian memories

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Riobamba is the startingpoint for the Nariz de diablo railroad. It is no longer commercal service on it, only touristtrips. But what a trip. The bigger part of the trip it goes on solid ground so to say, trough countryside with some nice opportunities to photograph locals working in their colourfull dressing. After the cosey town of Alaussi it become really spectacular, then the line zigzak down the valleyside to the valleybottom on anarrow shelf carved out of the mountainside, on one side there is solid rock, on the other one it is nice view-and a lot of it, there is nothng to stop a train going wild.
Alaussi itself is little more than a cosey andean village, with a beautifull plaza de armas (citysquare) with a great backgroundview. But the weekly market is worth catching for its peoplelife and aboundance of photomotifs.

But the market i give the highest rating and almost a not to miss status is the mondaymarket taking place in a village west of Latacunga. It is easy to get there-close by the village there is a mainroad with plenty of buses. However, especially in the rainy season, very few tourists come here, and the market has a "vibe"of autenticism. Here you have all the colourfull dressed indians that you can ever ask for, here are the loaded donkeys and llamas that one must have captured on film before one can say one have seen the andean region. The parkinglot deserve to be mentioned. Lined up are trucks, buses horses donkeys and llamas side by side. Neighbouring is an annimalmarket with stubborn cows, and extremely loud pigs that scream wether they have reson or not. Sadly i must say that annimals often are treated bad, it is not allways good to watch. A sight that might make vegetarians out of many is the slaughteringsection where everything is very graphic, seeing an innocent little goat gettin its throat cut over, bleeding to death while shaking is not nice at all.
Then i prefer to have a stop at the eaterysection (watch your stomach-but if it is solid eat there-it is cheap and often good).Typical food on sutch places are vrieties over the theme chicken and cuy-guineapig, witch must be the dish the andean area is most fameous for. Worth trying is the roasted pig-sometimes the whole annimal is on the table, other times only the head. You will get a mix of juicy meat and brittle skin pluss maiz, red onion and tomato. It is DELICIOUS!!
There is some great countrysidehiking in the area. In a sidevalley heading up in the mountains from the road a little in the direction of Latacunga, there is some nice traditional settlements where the houses are made of grassmixed clay/earth and grasstatched roofs. The further up valley you gert, the more ancientlooking the buildings becomes. Many peoples are friendly and talkative, others are shy. You might encounter people, especially elders, that hide when they see a gringo. There were forexample one girl that ran into coverage as soon as she had stopped ger dog from harassing me. In the countryside, dogs are a constant pain in the butt and these days i allways have a couple of stones in my pockets. But only on one occation i have fired to hit-when some small girls sendt the familydog on me as a revenge-they wanted money from me, witch i didn´t give them.
The immage i remember best from that hike, is the ancient buildings in the background, a carvd out path with stonefencing on both sides in the front. On that path, traditionally dressed women leading small trains of loaded llamas, some with goods from the market, others with grass or firewood. Behind me are the patures with grazing annimals.

Day before eastereve i spendt in Sigchos, a village further north. I had heard it would be interresting there. During the day it didn{t look too interresting to me-on the marketsquare thwe volleyballplaying went on all day long, it is greatly popular in Equador. The rain didnt stop them-the marketsquare is roofed.
A small religious prosession appeared, carrying images of some very fameous people, holding a mini mass at every roadcross.
Then the evening came, wiith it came an incresing number of men carring roosters. "Aha", i thought. Cockfight comming up somewhere. I son found out there is a coliseum, a cockfightarena, in the outskirt of the town, entrance UN dollar, stricktly enforced by some young ladies.
The similarities between coliseum, and colosseum in Rome are clear and evident. Theres a circular fightingground in the middle surrounded by several heights of spectators. Outside the arena, but inside the buildings, there are a wall with cages for the gladiators, there is also a busy eatingpace witch soon ran out of provision. Instead people relied on certain moode and couragelifting liquids brought from home.
Before the match, the birds are matched, it looks like a carefully performed selection where both weight and temper seems to be taken into account. Then the bets are placed-the money often rest in the hand of the fightsupervisor. The roostersa get spores taped and tied to their legs before the owners bring them into the ring. The birds are held up against eachother, and their temper explodes rapidly. Then the ownners let go, and the fight is on. That is really some fight! I never really realied how mad roosters actually get at eachother before i saw it wit my own eyes. It truly is a life or death combat, and it is actually the owners who stop the fight just before it is too late. Here they prefer the birds to survive so they can fight another day-it is cheaper that way. But i looked at the postbattle fighters, and some of them definitely didnt lok well. Lying like a feterball in a corner of the cage with bloodspots on their feathers. So, what is my opinion about cockfights? It is cruelty, it reflects the general attitude towards animals. On the other hand, despite beeing staged-it is a natural fight for these birds-with th exeption of spores. It is a fight between equal oponents where both stand a chance. In oposition to spanish bullfight witch only is a reffined form of annimaltorture where one part basically is doomed.
Anyway, the atmosphere on a good cockfightevening is intense, lively, enthusiastic. Well, not allways-the supervisor made a decision in one of the fightds that a big crowd was very unsatisfied, the arena was filled with armvawing people shouting loudly. In the middle of everything was the smallgrown supervisor who desoerately tried to defend his decision. It looked like he was seconds from beeing lynched. Then another crowd entered the arena, this one agreed with the supervisor. 20 mins went by before the matter was settleed and one could go on with the show. The pubblic was like romans when the fight was good, stamping, shouting, completely into what went on down there-a heaven for a pocketlifter. As you will understand-it was noisy.

The busjourney out from this area was interresting, for several reasons. Number one is the road itself, partly high up in a mountainside with a loong way down. The other one was the crews medical condition. The busdriver was a little unsteady after a lively evening. The ticketguy was totally destroyed, falling asleep frequently-once in my leap. The passenger sitting besifde me was an indian in the same condition, he wanted to pay wityh a USD 20 note, witch is a huge sum on a local bus, obviously creating some exchange problems. Because one or the other of the parts in the transaction falled asleep all the time, the transaction took 15-20 mins. Most of the trip i sat there begging: "dont puke! DON´T PUKE". There was nowhere to hide in the overcrowded bus.

Because of its colonial center, the highlandtown of Cuenca has got its place on the Unesccolist. And there certainly are some very nice buildings left from old times. There are smoe old, and not so old cathedrals witch often find their way trough cameralenses, in particular the multicupled grand cathedral is to my likings. Outside it is a beautifull square surrounded by some palacelike buildings. Outside the neighbouring church there is a daily flowermarket, a beautifull splash of colour.
Not far from the town is Banos, site for some overdeveloped hot springs, and one day i went with "USS Andi", a chicka that i volunteered with at the Congalreserve a couple of weeks earlier. The thermal water doesent end up in natural pools, it is lead into regular sized swimmingpools. But how wounderfull it was to float in that 41-42 (something like that)degrees hot water while the rain was dripping down in our heads. Around the pool we occupied, there is a hotel witch might not be that expensive. It might be where i switch gear when this megajourney comes to an end.

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