Follow us !

The next stop was Riobamba. Our taxi driver, and old man dressed with a kilted shirt, a cow-bow hat and burned by the sun, he crossed himself while driving in front of a church, so I guess that in this calm town people have also a very strong religious feeling.

This is the departure point for trips to the neighbouring volcan Chimborazo whose pick is, due to the nearness with the Ecuador line, the farthest point from the center of the Earth. As our fitness level can not be measured to such a giant even in our dreams (even if it is possible to go as far as almost 5000 metres by taxi), we landed here with the idea of taking what remains of the old Riobamba – Guayaquil railroad, that goes through a wonderful scenery. We were not lucky though,

we discovered that there were no seats left for a while : due to the bad shape of the railroad, the train can not be used anymore and instead they have some kind of a bus over rails, thus limiting the number of available seats per trip.

So finally we only stayed overnight and kept going south towards Cuenca, the third city of the country.

Bea