Riobamba

Another long day of bus travel took us from coastal Puerto Lopez to Riobamba, a small city in the sierra. We wanted to take a ride on the Nariz del Diablo, a remnant of a railway that once served all the major cities in Ecuador. The outcropping known as the Devil's Nose was so difficult to build the track around that it acquired it's infernal nickname. The train is a converted bus on tracks and makes it's roundtrip journey from the little town of Alausí, curving through a pretty river valley and along steep green hillsides. For part of the way the train has to run downhill and backward, a point at which I was glad to learn that our driver Jorge had been doing his job for 20 years.






Back in Riobamba we looked in at the little Museum of Mouldering Taxidermy and wandered through the colonial streets. And, though I don't have her photo, we found the only woman in Ecuador who cares about good coffee. (I hope this is a gross exaggeration but when you assiduously ask for real coffee everywhere and receive instant with assurances that it is real, you become bitter.) For any coffee lovers in Riobamba, Señora Pilar makes (and loves to discuss) great coffee, as well as incredible hot chocolate and delicious juices at La Quinta Dorada, Garcia Moreno y 10 de Agosto.
















Leaving Alausí we got a lift to the Panamericana and hitched a ride on the first bus to come by headed for Quito.