Next day we drove by winding and scenic roads to the town of Alausí, a journey of approximately two hours. It's fairly commercial, but it's worth seeing the incredibly steep countryside the railway has been zig zagging over - called the Devil's Nose.

Construction of the railway between Quito and Guayaquil began in 1899, and the Devil's Nose section is considered a masterpiece of railway engineering. From Alausí, the train descends down the valley by advancing and backing up on zig-zag tracks along the Devil's Nose, a huge perpendicular wall of rock. The train arrives at Sibambe and the local museum 'Condor Puñuna' built and run by the Nizag community, see the display of local handcrafts and watched local dancing, very vigorous and entertaining.

Then off to Ingapirca on the Pan American Highway, passing through stunning mountainous scenery, a journey of approximately two hours.

Food note: Ecuadorian hot chocolate is the best! Using a rich dark, locally grown cocoa bean the chocolate is a whole bar melted into warm milk. Thick and divine. Also common to most meals is a form of sopa, often vegetable, sometimes with a chicken drumstick or similar. Very tasty. Chimichurri is a tangy salsa, some chilli, which is always on the table for seasoning. (finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, chilli flakes and red wine vinegar or similar)

The Ingapirca ruins are Ecuador's most important Inca site and located along the famous Inca Trail. Ingapirca's massive fortifications are believed to have been both a religious and administrative complex, as well as a fortress. The ruins include a roofless structure constructed of masterfully carved and fitted stones, courtyards, storehouses and the Temple of the Sun. We walked around it all, amid the llamas grazing, ate lunch at a local restaurant with our guides, then continued on to the city of Cuenca.

Cuenca is tucked away in a southern valley on the site of a once important settlement along the Inca highway that joined Cuzco to Quito during the last pre-Columbian empire. Today, Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador. Ecuadorians consider it to be their most beautiful city. Cuenca has colonial buildings, red-roofed houses, cobble-stoned streets, graceful iron balconies, flowered plazas and courtyards and religious art treasures that recall the long association with Spain. Charming ornate wooden houses are situated above the Tomebamba river, which skirts the base of the city. Cathedrals dominate Parque Calderon in the heart of the city. Near the main plaza and right at the flower market is the Convento de el Carmen which is preserved almost as it was at the end of the 1600s.

Accommodation: Santa Lucia for 2 nights

Ted wrote on October 17th:

'Next day we were off early and through another local market before going up the Quilotoa volcano with its 3km wide crater and spectacular crater lake. That night we stayed in a more modern Hacienda just outside the town of Riobamba. Sunday we were off at 6am to catch the Devils nose railway excursion. We zigzagged and travelled down 100's of meters to the end of the excursion then after about an hour of activities.... locals dancing, hot chocolate, small museum, we went back to where we started from. Then on to the Ingapirca ruins which is the most important Inca site in Equador and then on to Cuenca which was the third biggest city of Equador. All this time we are driving up a km, gaining 1000 meters of height and then down a 1000 meters... up and down. Cuenca was at 2600 meter elevation with a population of 550,000. We stayed at a nice old hotel there for 2 nights. Had a full day of touring Cuenca with the highlight being about 2 hours at a Panama hat factory. Stunning Catholic cathedrals. Today was again an early start as we travelled from Cuenca to Guayaquil. We went for about an hour hike at 3900 meters elevation......that's right, higher than Mt Cook.... And again spent lots of time looking at vegetation flowers and towards the end of the hike birds we hadn't seen before. Hike was about 2 kms and we had a hot chocolate before it was back in the van and climbing again. The saddle was at 4200 meters then down hill all the way to Guayaquil where we are in the Hilton Hotel at sea level. Our guide made the point that it you measured mountain height from the centre of the earth we would have been only 200 meters lower than the top of Everest. Because we are basically on the equator. Last 40 kms we were on flat land with coco tree plantation, bananas, rice , sugar cane. So it's been a great 4 days with our excellent guide and driver and we have a full day here tomorrow with a new guide before flying to Galapagos.'