The Devil´s Nose

On leaving the Quilotoa circuit and moving on to Riobamba we joined the well-trodden path of travellers heading south through Ecuador to Peru (the Gringo trail). We bumped into a couple of our fellow passengers from our Galapagos experience in Riobamba, but didn´t quite realise the extent to which we would be surrounded by fellow tourists until we climbed on top of a train to the Devil´s Nose at 6am one morning. There was even a group of Dutch tourists who had got there early and lined up their cushions on the best side of the train (the right side has the best views if you ever decide to enter into this craziness!). They were the same Dutch tourists who had woken us up at 1am coming in from a night on the town in Riobamba. Rick had been laid low by the inevitable the night before so I felt very resentful. Even more so when a Herr Flick look-alike left a wet, muddy footprint on my own cushion. Being surrounded by fellow gringos obviously made me very intolerant, most of the time I´ve been very chilled - honest!

The train ride was bizarre - 7 hours sitting on top of a train is not something you would consider in normal circumstances - especially given that we had a false start and had to wait for a new engine and the train came, literally, off the rails in the middle of nowhere. By unscrewing part of the engine and manoevering a few rocks they got us back on our way...in another part of the world we´d have waited for heavy machinery to lift the train back on, but I´ve a feeling that that wouldn´t have been an option. For the entire 7 hours there were several guys walking up and down the top of the train selling drinks, sweets, biscuits, even cold beers and those same Dutch tourists buying and throwing the sweets to the children waving at us along the way.... as someone who had to have 5 fillings before setting off on this adventure I refrained from doing the same!

The scenery was amazing, as Rick´s pictures should show, and while it was a totally touristy experience, it was worth doing.