NEWS # 010
Hi everyone!
Saturday. Am woken at the hotel at 6.00 am and get a taxi to the bus
station. I am given a lift by the chap who had originally taken me to the
hotel in his large van and feel that my surfboard will arrive at the
terminal in one piece.
The station is very crowded but get through the turnstile eventually and walk
up and down, looking for my bus, to no avail. Eventually, I collar someone
to explain the system for me. It seems that you wait until your bus is about
to leave and then go hunting for it. Thankfully, I see the bus across the
terminal and get on. My pack and board go safely under the bus in the
luggage compartment and I get seat 001.
The bus fills up rapidly and we are off along the Pan American highway
(which resembles the back road between Barnstaple and Exeter, with a few
mountains thrown in for good measure!) at breakneck speed but we arrive in
one piece and on time. I get a small pickup from the terminal to the town
centre and a large windowless room at the Hotal Bolivar for five dollars,
next to the train station.
I spend the afternoon wandering through the crowded street markets. At every
corner there are mad people throwing water balloons at one another. I get
very wet and decide to have most of my hair cut off.
Riobamba and the Andes beyond
Go to the train station at 6.00 pm to get my ticket for tomorrow's train and
stand behind an attractive blonde girl, being hassled by a local. She asks me
the time, in English and we strike up a conversation. I ask her for a beer
and the local guy comes too. Seems that she is called Susanna and is a
student who has studied and travelled for the last seven years!! Vincente is
the local guy.
We sit and chat over a few beers. At one point I am accosted by a huge bloke in a bikini, wearing lipstick and falsies! He sells me some
mints for a dollar and moves on. We leave early aiming to get some sleep and
promise that if one of us fails to show at the station, the other will go
and wake them up.
The next thing I know, my watch beeps three times and wakes me up which is very lucky as
my alarm on the clock is set at Galapagos time and would not have woken me
for another hour!
I get to the station at 6.00, meet Susanna and we walk round to find the
roofs of most of the carriages full. We get on near the front and sit on
tiny cushions on the corrugated iron roof.
6 am and it feels like it
The train fills up rapidly and at seven, we leave. The train goes from
Riobamba to Alausi and takes about four hours. Then there is a special
tourist section called the Devil's nose, where the train goes backwards and
forwards, down the very steep hillside.
It is very cold when we leave and we huddle together as we race through the
mountains. At each village the children shower us with buckets of water and
we use my huge holdall as a rainjacket to stop us getting soaked. We arrive
at Alausi on time and the sun provides welcome warmth. The Devil's nose is
crazy and we are derailed three times!!!
our first derailment ...
... and our second!
We get back to Alausi at 2.00 pm.
From Alausi, we must catch a bus over the mountains to Bucay, where we just
catch the bus to Guayaquil, the biggest city in Ecuador. We really don't
want to stay here but have missed the last direct bus to Montanita. We are
told to get the bus to Santa Helena from where we can get the bus to
Montanita. We catch the bus with five minutes to spare and on arrival at
Santa Helena, get straight on a bus for Montanita where we arrive at 11.30
pm. We have travelled 250 miles in 18 hours and are very tired!
Seeya,
Halesy
