Alausí and Nariz del Diablo

In America, Ecuador 2001 On  23/05/2001  No comments

I woke up early to go the famous train tour to the Devil’s Nose. The train leaves Riobamba at 7am. The tourists arrive a lot earlier to get a good place, the majority go on the roof of the cars to enjoy the landscape. It was cold and a bit rainy.

As soon as it leaves Riobamba we can see the countryside of Ecuador. Mountains squared by the plantations. Farmers working. Some people stay sitting by the railroad to see the train passing by (it works 3 times a week). Kids wave to the tourists. It must be funny for them to see a train crowded with tourists on the roof.

The train stops all the time to local people get in and off with their loads. The last stop before the Devil’s Nose is Alausi, a small town in the mountains. There some more tourists squeeze themselves to get to the roof with their photo and video cameras. The train continuous to the valley.

The way is interesting. When getting there the trains stops, the people come down to photograph the mountain landscape and then it come back to Alausi by the same way. Due to the destruction done by the El Niño, the train doesn’t go anymore all the way to Cuenca. When we stopped one of the rail workers asked me if I liked the tour, I said “yes”. He got happy saying that thanks to the tourists there is still this train trip, otherwise it would have been deactivated.