After finally dragging myself away from Salinas I headed down to Riobamba - a pleasant-enough, smallish city - for one night, en route to Alausí. Here I spent the morning on "La Nariz del Diablo" - the Devil’s Nose - a scenic train journey which zigzags down an almost perpendicular mountain face and is apparently one of the world's best railway engineering feats (or was, when it was completed in the early 1900s). The train descends through a of switchbacks that are so tight the entire train has to back up momentarily to fit through.
Despite being billed as "hair-raising", the descent wasn’t dangerous or scary in any way (no doubt it would have been in the old days when you could ride on the roof!), but it was a spectacular journey through the mountains and the switchbacks they designed to allow the train to zigzag down the steep mountain face were certainly impressive.
Arriving in the small village of Sibambe, we had an hour to visit the cafe and interpretation centre (yes, I’m definitely back on the tourist trail now - albeit the tourist trail for the slightly older crowd!) before returning to Alausí. The interpretation centre included a short guided tour on how they built the railway, which was surprisingly interesting!
Despite being billed as "hair-raising", the descent wasn’t dangerous or scary in any way (no doubt it would have been in the old days when you could ride on the roof!), but it was a spectacular journey through the mountains and the switchbacks they designed to allow the train to zigzag down the steep mountain face were certainly impressive.
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| Spectacular views through the window... |
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| The switchbacks allow the train to reverse back and forth down the mountain |
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| The Devil's Nose! |
Hi Kate
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are still havin a whale of a time. If the town looks as good as the name sounds "Riobamba", it is certainly one for the travel guide.