And we’re back online! after a hiatus spent largely on various forms of transport…
I was not overly enamoured with Riobamba. When did I stop loving cities and start longing for fresh air and open spaces? Roughly around the same time we landed in Quito, I think.
Riobamba was even worse: all forms of pollution and few redeeming features… but it is possible I’m being unnecessarily harsh because food is important to me, and there seemed to be so little of it there. Few inviting restaurants, and no comfortable cafés to while away the hours and plan future travels. People seemed cheerless and I’m convinced it’s because they unknowingly long for all those things.
Anyway, it was just a brief grey day before we could trundle clumsily out of the place.
And the train across the Devil’s Nose was certainly scenic. Not quite as spectacular as the hype had us believe, and I know now that I should have just given in and ridden on the roof with all the more adventurous folk… but in my defence, we were on that thing for about nine hours – could you sit on a bit of corrugated iron trapped between a hundred sweaty backpackers for that long?
I grant that the actual nose was an impressive feat of engineering – a series of switchbacks zigzagging down what looked like an insurmountably sheer cliff.
The ride was pleasant… until we derailed. Which was quite scary actually.
Though to be fair, the train had been moving at such a snail’s pace that I don’t think we were ever in any real danger. And Rich had fun; bouncing around taking photos, watching the whole convoluted process as they tried to get the train back onto the tracks.
After an hour, miraculously (to my mind; the train guys were obviously rather used to it all), they managed to re-rail both carriages using only a large hammer, a metal wedge, and some leaves – I’m not kidding – and we were off. Somewhat nervously.
But thankfully only slightly derailed once more, and made it back fine.
You know what, it was an experience and the scenery was nice, but for a train that doesn’t go anywhere and has a questionable maintenance record, I wouldn’t do it again. Fair play to them, but I feel like this might have been the Lonely Planet writers’ desperation to find something of interest in Riobamba.
