More Than Just A Train Ride...

The morning after our trip to Cotopaxi, we awoke early in the morning (5am) to get on a train car (ferrocarril) that would take us through the Andes Mountains to a mountain formation called "El Nariz del Diablo," which translates into "The Devil's Nose." I'm not under the impression that it looks all that much like a nose, but you can judge for yourselves:


Facial features aside, the train ride was incredible. For the first hour or so, we traveled out of the city we were staying in, Riobamba, and moved into rolling hills with beautiful rivers, vibrantly green pastures, colorful houses, and small children and farm animals chasing alongside the train car. Our train car stopped in a small village where street vendors sold food and indigenous crafts made by local artisans. The train tracks ran down the middle of the main street.

After a 10-minute stop we continued through the hills which turned into mountains and cliffs resulting fantastic views of small pueblos and rapids. After stopping in a second small town, we continued towards El Nariz. Not 10 minutes after the second town, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and the conductors invited us to climb on top of the train car to experience the ride and the views unhindered. Needless to say, I was the first to volunteer and got to ride in the very front of the upstairs "platform." A group of us rode on top of the train for about 20 minutes until we arrived at our destination. There a small group got off the train and ate some shishkabobs being sold by an indigenous family. We took our pictures of El Nariz, and headed off back up through the mountains on top of the train. Eventually we had to get off, but the trip was unbelievable.






When our train returned to the second town, our bus, the Neobus, and bus driver, David, were waiting to take us to our hostel for the night. The hostel was called "Los Fuentes Eternales," the Eternal Springs. Upon arrival, we were immediately told to change into our bathing suits to hike up a nearby waterfall. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because as we started to hike a rather torrential rain began to fall. The rain kept us from climbing up to a second waterfall. After our waterfall hike, we returned to our beautiful hostel. We spent the night playing ping-pong and pool with locals until we got our hands on a guitar and shared English and Spanish songs through the night.

Photo album: "El Nariz del Diablo"