Banana Republic
Whilst not a Banana Republic in the true sense of the phrase (it has a `democratic´ government at least), Ecuador is largely reliant on its banana exports for its economy. It´s other major resource is oil, but as the US and UK oil companies export most of the profits with the oil this leaves the yellow phallic fruit, and you´re not surprised when you´re bussing it across the country passing miles and miles of banana plantations. The buses may be a bit shit (although they do sport a certain 70´s bad-boy paint job – see above), and break down regularly, but at least the scenery is beautiful.
Cuenca
My first proper stop in Ecuador, cool little city in the south with beautiful colonial architecture, a river running through the middle and a lively nightlife scene at the weekends. Of the two live bands we saw the second one was by far the best, playing a latin rock sort of thing with a few crowd pleasers like `La Bamba´ thrown in. Cuenca was a nice place to chill out for a long weekend before moving on up through Ecuador.
Cuenca skyline from the central plaza
Riobamba
I took a bus north on the Tuesday afternoon to Riobamba, a crap little place for travellers, but for the train that leaves there three times a week for the Nariz Del Diablo (Devil´s Nose). This journey takes around 5 hours and starts at stupid o`clock in the morning, but even this non-morning person has to admit it was worth it. The Lonely Planet, being full of shit as usual, builds it up to be some kind of rollercoaster train ride like nothing in the world, which leads a lot of people to be disappointed. If you just expect a ride through some some nice scenery, watching the locals go about their daily lives in the countryside, topped off with a journey at the end down a very steep canyon, through a set of switchbacks to a rock that looks like a nose then you won`t be disappointed. The added bonus is that you get to sit on the roof of the train – I´d like to see them let you do that in Europe.
Train ride from Riobamba down to the Devils´ Nose (Nariz Del Diablo)
Baños
Having picked up a couple of new friends on the train ride we departed together the same afternoon to get up to Baños (and to avoid spending another night in Riobamba). Thankfully the bus journeys in Ecuador are relatively short compared to the rest of South America, so two hours to Baños was like blinking and being there. The towns name refers to the local hot springs that you can bathe in (Bath would be the closest equivalent town in England), heated by the nearby volcano, Tungurahua. This is the same volcano that was in the news recently for blowing it´s hot load all over the shop. It´s still spewing lava but calmed down a lot now, though unfortunately it´s usually too cloudy to see it at the moment. Rebecca and myself took a quad bike up the nearby hillside to see if we could get a glimpse, but sure enough the clouds shrouded it. The bike was fun though so I wasn´t bothered.
Baños
Rebecca left Friday so myself and Noa, the sweet but mental Swiss girl in our group hired mountain bikes and headed off down the valley. The scenery was full of lush green hillsides and waterfalls all along the way. The best of the waterfalls had a viewing platform from where you could get completely drenched in the heavy spray off it – had to be done really. On the return journey we stopped at one of the cable cars and took a trip over the river to the other side of the valley, passing right overhead of one of the waterfalls before continuing back to town, which was an uphill bastard of a climb that I would not care to repeat. When we returned the bikes, with me on my last legs, the guy in the shop said they were going rafting tomorrow and did we want to come? Needless to say he received an earful of sarcasm from me! Today I´m enjoying being a lazy git, the sky is clear and the sun is out so I´m enjoying a well earnt rest after a hard weeks work 🙂
Tags: Baños, Cuenca, Ecuador, Nariz Del Diablo, Riobamba, South America, Travel
Ed
Ed
seem to have lost your last section!
Are you back
Matt