Riobamba and the Devil's Nose!

Entertainment on the train
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Well before I get onto the ‘Devil’s Nose Express’ I´ll fill you in on the scary part of this leg of the trip - food poisoning!!! We had been very lucky up until now and hadn’t had much problem with food poisoning, and it turns out that the place we thought would be the least likely to be a problem ended up being the culprit. It hit Emma first when she woke up in the morning feeling a bit off colour (I put it down to the free drinks the night before) but before long we could tell that it was something else! It took a little longer to hit me but when it did it was just as bad! I guess we should be thankful that it took this long, and hopefully now it’s all over and done with for the rest of the trip.

The train
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Riobamba is known as the ‘Sultan of the Andes’, and is the starting point for the train ride from Riobamba to Sibambe and then down the deadliest train track in the world – the Nariz del Diablo (the ‘devil’s nose’). The train ascends and then descends down a zig zag railway which hangs precariously over a cliff with a BIG drop. We were a bit worried that we wouldn’t get there at all on the way to the top as the train actually de-railed three times on the way. At first it was a bit worrying but then we were assured that it happens all the time and before we knew we were back on the way again!!

The locals shaving a pig
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What makes it even more spectacular is that you are even allowed to ride on the roof, or for the return leg anyway. At first we were disappointed as they wouldn’t let anyone up there (even Em who has become a bit of a thrill seeker) but then when we had made our first descent and were heading back up they came around and asked people if they wanted to hop up on the roof for 10 minutes or so. Well luckily for us 10 minutes ended up being the whole return trip so we definitely got our money’s worth. And we lived to tell the tale, bonus!!

Chimborazo, the local volcano
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Unfortunately we don’t have too many pictures of this part of our trip as SOMEONE forgot to charge the camera battery! Emma insists that it was my responsibility but I’m still debating it (you think I would know better by now but it’s worth a shot!)

Safely back in town we had a quiet night before heading off to our last stop in South America - the capitolio of Ecuador – Quito!!