Ecuador

Okay, I'm back at the PC. The post this morning (Ecuador time, of course) was written while it was raining (in the rainforest, I shouldn't be surprised, but we were lucky most of the time), and we got on with our treks as soon as the sun came out, for fear the weather would turn again.

15-16.06.: Cajamarca->Piura->Loja->Riobamba->Baños

We travelled to Ecuador, where our first destination was Alausí, from where a beautiful train ride should go to Riobamba. The conductor failed to wake us for the city, which we must have passed around 12am; this is rather unusual for South America, conductors are generally very conscientious is that regard. So we got off in Riobamba instead, which was supposed to be the other end of the trail.


Although "in Riobamba" is not quite correct: the bus let us out on the fringes of the town, about 6km from the city center, at 1am. We had a pleasant walk through R and the night -- cranky, tired and hurting from the badly packed backpacks. We finally, after lots of unsuccessful tries, checked in at El Liberador Hotel, 2 stars, $25 the room, but no cheaper place would open their doors at 3:30am.


The next morning at the train station, I found out that the train only runs anymore on a small stretch around Alausí, not from Riobamba, so we skipped it (it would have cost $20, and we still would have to get to Alausi and back) and went straight to Baños.