Apr 13 - The Devil's Nose !

Apr 13 – The Devil’s Nose !!

Another early start today 6.30 again !!! Enough already…

Down to Rio Bamba station to board the train for today’s journey through to Bucay. This first section of today’s journey was on a beautiful old steam train and the locals were as keen to take photos as we were !

The trip through the countryside with the steam train puffing & tooting at every crossing was lovely.

We stayed on board to watch the switch from steam to diesel again at Colta and then headed on to our next stop at Guamote.

We were really lucky here as not only was the traditional market in full swing, but as it is Good Friday tomorrow, the indigenous people from the villages were all in town buying the things they need to make the traditional soup called Fanesca they have on Good Friday.

Market right beside & usually on the train tracks

This little piggy went to market...

Local colour everywhere

Market day gossip !

It was a riot of colour, noise, smells and a lot of fun !!

From there it was on to the Devil’s Nose where the zig zag track descends 600m in hairpin bends as we move from the Altiplano to the cloud forest region of Ecuador. Very dramatic scenery.

We descended from the clouds at the top round the hairpin bends you can see on the hill

Then through the Cloud Forest which was very beautiful and lived up to its name by being 

very wet and humid. There were lots of beautiful butterflies and wild orchids in this very

green rainforest area. The whole area is incredibly fertile with black soil rich in minerals and 
every available inch is farmed as a small holding giving the whole area a patchwork effect.

Manual logging....

The track continued on its downwards track, taking us overall from a height of 3000m down to just 294m at our final stop Bucay. Steve is celebrating the end of the high altitude leg of the trip and hoping for a return to eating and drinking shortly……………this could put the trip budget up a bit as he intends to make up for lost time !!

Our final stop for today was for our little hotel in the cloud forest, which was a simple little hostelria set among the trees. Dinner outside in the warm with the birds and the forest sounds as backdrop…..lovely !

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The Best of the Rest - we had hundreds of market pics....

Sheep tied up on the track