23.05.07?

Youll all be pleased to nkow that marks temp stayed "normal" although were still feeling ropey! not ropey enough to stop us from getting?right up that devils nostrils!! So we stuffed up on some tucker and legged it to the train station to meet the bus. Hopefully it would turn up and the trusted chap of yesterday hadnt run off with our dosh!

An hours drive to a little town called Alausi scenery still on a par with a movie set we arrived to race for the train station to try and secure a seat on the devils nose adventure!?The queue was long but luckily we had scrambled to the front. The ticket office,? although in the trusted lonely planet says tickets on sale from 8am ( it was now 9), was still in true ecuadorian fashion closed and to be closed for another half hour!

I realised within minutes of it opening that we had not brought the passports with us which was one of the requirements if we had purchased them from Riobamba. With all the hope in the world we managed to get the tickets without sight of our passports! phew! we then had an hour to spare before our train was to depart. we took int the pretty streets of Alausi as?well as a well earnt coffee...somehow coffee is the same over here, and tea of the english kind is not heard of! It seemed that the town was about to set up fro a school festival. Children singing and playing poured on to the small town of Alausi with joy and excitement with coordinating coloured balloons to match their school uniform. Unfortunately we were to miss the festivities as our train would have departed, still this was why we were here!

As we approached the train platform, strewn with market sellers trying to earn a living from their crafts and clothing a band appeared to be setting up ! A local school band inclusive of a snare drum, a bass drum, a couple of trumpets a trombone and a souzaphone! ( a big curly one that you wear round your head!) started to plink and toot?away. Great to watch

11.00 hr -our train arrived and to some paples disapointment we were no longer aloud to ride the roof due to the accident that had occurred ?only 8 weeks ago! still we piled on to the train although really a bus on tracks! it reverses! all abord we started the adventure that we had hoped to 4 days previous. The views were wonderful and the narrow tracks you felt a need to breath in just in case ! as the only thing between you and the valley was in my case mark! and the?shell of the train! fr too far to fall for my liking!

At one point the track seemed to disintegrate to the outer edge as if they didint need to finish that bit.... we continued the?climb around the edge of a mountain with the views still astonishing as ever! the train driver allowed us gringos to take pics at intervals where there was some verge to get off!

some great pics taken check them out and?also the video clip! the train switch backed down the devils nose the bit of the mountain that if you look with a tilted head some what?similar to a you guessed it ....nose!The whole experience took approx 1hr half. WE are really gald we perservered to make the journey it was well worth it!

on the return to the bus a young ecadorian school girl came bounding over obviously keen to speak with a foreigner.. i felt quite priveleged it was me ! a small conversation took place .. no more than exchanging of our names and a hello how are you ? passed our lips but no more really needed to! it seemed that i and she were quite happy to have shared a moment.

Back to Riombamba not our favourite place before heading to Guayaquil to try and negotiate a trip to the Galapogas Is.,

The bus trip was not a particularly fast or efficient trip but more of the same hectic gotta get there before the tomoro style driving without actually getting there before tomoro!! they seem to stop for all and sundries and their dogs. The ?patatas? selling gang still hot footed and?often over exagerating on their selling techniques... i am the embellisher and even i thought they could ease up on the cold calling sales, worse than a double glazing salesmen?on speed!

We arrived?in Gualaquil no more than 6half hours later with still a bed to find! a quick look through lonely planet and a decision was made. Suites Madrid... a huge room with two beds far enough apart for even the most unnapreciated of marriages!?

thurs 24.05.07

First things first... a trip to the travel agency! we met the most friendly of guys and even tho we had spent the previous half an hour weying the pros and cons of which travel agency to trust and whether we should visit all of them probably only to return to te first (mum you taught me well on those long sat southampton shopping trips!) but we actually fell in trust with the first chap? (both theories work, this time was the see it like it buy it!...dad!) He spoke really good english and was really friendly.. he?found a trip for us although it would be that we would have to wait for another week before embarking! He told us that although it was low season there was still no short availabilty. We had read up on some of the stories about the lessor boats and the troubles that came with them. We were glad to hear that the remaining two spaces of the Monseraat II. The spaces had only been filled the night before by a group of 6 other gringos...something to look forward to we thought. The boat would be a first class boat with our own cabin and shower with food and drink inclusive prepared by the on board chef!!!! the down side was that it would only be for 4 day which alot of peaple have said you need at least 5 or 6 or even more considering the morning of the trip and the last one would cut it even shorter. Still for the price inclusive of the airfare and the fact that we could tag on an extra couple of day ofour own before frying back seemed a bargain .So we got ourselves a Galapogas trip!!! and very excited are we ! we now just have to work out what we should do for? a week!!! We thought that we would spend the rest of the day here before heading off back to the southern highlands to Cuenca the main town for the hat of the Panama!! seems strange to think that we are in the country wher they actually make the real panamas!!! even though some ecuadorian will say tat there are not pananama... its a montechrist! it was only that they were?worn by the people of the panama?to save them from the sun whilst they were exporting them to the rest of the world.

So an evening in the 3rd biggest city and a move to a hotel cos it was cheaper ! was on the cards. We moved?into a hotel on the 9 de octubre .. the main street of gualyaquil as recommended by the travel agency. It was only 11 dollars a night! the rooms a re basic but thats all you need! they are brand new and some are not finished which is why we reckon that the hotel is staring to market and sell the finishd rooms to recoup some of the money o finish the rest! thats less than 6 quid for the night for the both of us!!! ridiculous!

we spent the rest of the day mooching and walking the malecon the new riverside approach completed in 2000 for the millenium. WE took a walk up to the village aof las Penas a village where all the houses are multi coloured and look really quiant. we walked to the top of the steps all 444 of them! the fort at the top was to protect the environment from pirates! the canons are still there today.

There is a small lit church at the top?along with?a lighthouse that looks out over the city lights and?over the river. really nice way to end a great day!

On the way back up a small cobbled?road called Numa pompillas de we found Arthurs cafe! an old locals haunt??where the atmosphere was great and the food was s***!! still never mind its all part of it! mark da carne?con papas y vegetule. sounds like you cant go wrong! meat with potato and vegetable the meat was a beef substitute that had three week beaten out of it with some extra cholesteral and saturated fatty chips with what could be described as badly cooked rozen veg!! not in the least appetizing and i?thnnk i had verrry friiied bashed up scampi that were tougher than?the soles of my foot!!!?as we said the atmosphere was great and its always fun to sing along to ecuadorian s karaoke the tunes of pink floyd!!

A night cap and then bed for us where we have decided to continue?our travels to the heights of Cuenca!