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02.01.2020: Cuenca to Biblián
After our super time at Cuenca it was time to move on ... unfortunately. Our time in Ecuador is limited because we have to save some of the 90 days for the return journey through the country heading south. So we packed up, said thank you and goodbye and drove around the corner to a supermarket for supplies. It was also coffee time because it had taken us virtually the whole morning to pack everything away!
Our first stop was a church in Biblián which was built into the mountainside. One of the interior walls is rock! We had to drive up a very steep hill to get into the town but the road up to the church was even steeper. Too steep for us so we found a fairly level part of a street where we could park and Kirsten went to visit the church first whilst I prepared chicken in garlic for our evening meal.
By the time she got back there wasn’t much time for me so I had to power up the extremely steep hill and got serenaded by the worst rendition of Silent Night I've ever heard. Yikes! It was coming from outside speakers of the church!! I got to the entrance two minutes after 6pm only to find out that they close the church at 6pm!!! So I had to make do with a peak through the gap in the front doors. At least it was enough to get a glimpse of the rock wall. I'll just have to look at the photos like you guys!!
Afterwards I climbed up lots of steep steps to get to a viewpoint over the valley but then had to come back down straight away before it got too dark. The steep climb and steps would be my sport for the day!
03.01.2020: Biblián to Alausí
The next day we had to drive through torrential rain. We were going to see some ruins at Ingapirca but decided it wasn't worth it in the rain. Hopefully the weather is better when we return on our way south because this stretch of the Panamerican Highway is supposed to be beautiful!
So we carried on through the rain to get closer to our next stop - a train that goes through switchbacks up and down the famous "Nariz del Diablo", the Devil's Nose, named after the rocky point of the hill.
Not far from a Devil's Nose viewpoint we found a lovely spot next to a small river for the night.
04.01.2020: Alausí to Calpi
In 1895 President General Eloy Alfaro took office and announced that a new railway line would be built connecting the coastal city of Guayaquil with the capital, Quito, in the highlands. Many people at that time thought the Andes could not be conquered by rail. General Alfaro hired a couple of US contractors and tasked them to build the "most difficult railway in the world." Construction of the historic line began in 1899 - not an easy task!
Frequent seismic activity, heavy rainfall, jaguars, poisonous snakes, malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever delayed progress. The most technically challenging part of this rail route, however, was a sheer rock face known as the Devil’s Nose, or Nariz del Diablo, that stood between Alausí and Sibambe. To ascend this 800 meter cliff, the engineers carved a series of steep switchbacks that allowed the train to climb at a gradient of 1-in-18 by alternately advancing and reversing up the tracks.
By the end of construction of the Nariz del Diablo portion of the track, more than 2,000 workers had died from disease, hard labour, or the climate. Most workers were Jamaican, brought from the English colonies in the Caribbean, and hundreds of prisoners who were forced to work with the promise of freedom. Among the casualties was Major John Harman, the chief engineer of the project himself.
Nevertheless, the completion and the first ascent of Nariz del Diablo in 1902 was an incredible feat of railway engineering at that time. The line continued operating, with interruptions, until 1997 when landslides during El Niño devastated the tracks, effectively shutting down the entire line. Currently, only a 12-km stretch from Alausí to Sibambe is open that takes tourists through gorgeous mountain scenery and a thrilling descent over Devil’s Nose.
The train costs $30 per person for a very slow ride. We didn't want to get on the train but just wanted to get to a viewpoint where we could see it going through the switchbacks. At least the weather cleared up so we drove to the parking spot and climbed steeply uphill to the viewpoint.
Nariz del Diablo viewpoint near Alausí - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
The train also left punctually at 11am!! We could see the town of Alausí below us and could watch the train slowly snaking it's way through the valley. Unfortunately the clouds were also coming in and the train disappeared into the clouds just before the switchbacks!!! Oh well. At least we saw the train!
We walked back down to Winnietwo and drove to Alausí where Kirsten went off to take photos of the train station that doesn't exist!! She could only find the rail tracks behind a shopping centre. Meanwhile I got surrounded by curious firemen - we'd parked across the road from the fire station - who wanted to know about our engine and motor home!
When Kirsten returned from her failed photo hunt she thought I was surrounded by police because we'd parked illegally or something! She just saw the uniforms and got worried!! At least she managed to get some photos though, because driving out of the town we got stuck in a procession and needed to wait before we could get back on the road.
We had a quick stop to see the oldest church in Ecuador in Colta, built in 1534, before driving up to the turn off to Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest mountain. According to iOverlander we could park overnight behind the police station in Calpi and the very nice officers allowed us to park there. At least we knew we'd be safe!!
05.01.2020: Calpi via Chimborazo Volcano to Laguna de Yambo
We got up early, 7-15am, to drive the road up to 4300m, an ascent of 1200m, to get to the entrance to Chimborazo National Park. It's Ecuador's highest mountain (6,263m, 20,548ft) and an extinct volcano but it's claim to fame is that it's the highest mountain in the world when measured from the centre of the Earth. 2,163m (7,096ft) higher than Mount Everest! That's because the Earth bulges at the Equator which is only 1° latitude away from Chimborazo.
It was sunny when we set off but we could see the clouds rolling in so we stopped en route to take photos of the peak. Good job because we didn't see the top of the mountain after that!
The entrance into the National Park is free so we parked on the gravel car park. Unfortunately the road further uphill towards the volcano is ash and sand and also quite wet ... not Winnietwo's favourite surface. Especially up at 4300m. So we weren't going to drive it.
I suggested we look for a taxi, there were some parking on the other side of the entrance gate, or maybe we could share. Just at that moment a taxi drove through the gate and two men got out to register. They looked like tourists, and with only 2 in the taxi there'd be room for two old biddies like us, right???? So we asked Paul (Belgium) and Rafael (Brazil) if they'd mind us sharing. Not a problem!!! Super!
We dashed back to get a rucksack with drinks, snacks, gloves, scarves etc and got in the queue to register. Paul and Rafael have taken a year off work for a round the world trip - from Australia to Honolulu, Canada, USA, Mexico City, Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras and Ecuador so far. Next is Peru and Chile and on to Europe. They're almost half way through at the moment.
The taxi ride took 40 minutes to go up to 4800m along the bad washboard road with lots of deep water furrows. Good job we hadn't tried to drive ourselves!!
Kirsten wasn't sure if she could make the walk up to 5100m high as we're not acclimatised. I don't have problems with altitude and Paul and Rafael had already been up in the mountains for a while so they would be fine. So I went up with our new friends and Kirsten said she would take it slow and see how far she'd get. We walked up to 5000m to the first refuge and then in the snow up to 5100m to see a dirty brown laguna!!! But someone had built a snowman so it was worth coming up!
That's as far as we could go because climbing further requires snow and ice climbing gear, mountaineering experience, and a permit. We couldn't see the top of the volcano and fog and mist kept rolling in. On our way back down to the refuge we met Kirsten!! She'd made it up to 5000m!! Wow!
We had a lot of fun with Paul and Rafael, gave them loads of tips, and gave them $10 towards the cost of the taxi. We were really grateful we could share with them otherwise we wouldn't have got any further than the entrance gate. But our poor taxi couldn't cope with our weight! We ditched and got stuck trying to leave the car park to get back down to the entrance and we all had to get out so the driver could get past the deep dip in the road!!
We got out at the entrance and waived them off, wishing them good luck for the rest of their world trip. For us it was time for breakfast!! We'd only had a cup of tea in the morning and managed to get up really high on empty stomachs. That's one of the beauties of having a motor home - we can make drinks and food whenever we want! So we ate some strawberries and bananas and kicked ourselves for forgetting sun tan lotion ... we have red noses!!
We left the high altitude and drove back down to the Panamerican Highway. For the night we chose a steep drive down to Laguna Yambo with a large parking area that was really full when we arrived at 5-30pm but we managed to find a spot.
There is no path to walk all around the laguna but people were coming back from boat tours to the docks. Steep steps led up to a grill restaurant, one of many eateries in the small area. By 10pm we were alone on the car park but there were still people living at the restaurants so we felt safe.
Enjoy the Ecuadorian Andes
