Hotel San Pedro De Riobamba

... we are going to Baños to go rafting and hiking. Afterwards, we will return to Riobamba to do the Trainride on Friday. After that we will be going to Cuenca in the south of Ecuador. This will be our last steps in Ecuador before heading to Peru.<br><br>At the moment, we are facing problems with our cellular phone. We don`t have any network on our Ecuadorian nor Belgian phone number. The communication needs to go through e-mail or blog.<br><br>Greetz<br><br>

... like the cliche of mid 90s gap year travellers), at least we´re tough enough to get them....not like you whimpish boys!!! (lucy x) Thanks for that interruption, to be fair the idea of some long-haired metal-infested nutter called rod needling foreign symbols into me does fell rather unsettling. Anyway, our guide rightly suggets that maybe the tattoo has a different translation, but when he says ´make love´ Alex jumps to the defense of his vulnerable ...

... quite easily myself so I won´t do the same to who. The mountains are incredible and deffinately softened the blow of the 12hour journey! Anyway I shall pass you over to Phil for an introduction to the incredible place that is baños.<br><br>Due to having lots to do, I didn´t fill in my entry when I was suppose to but if you look on the 25th September I´ve written a Banos summary, which I´m sure Alex will add to with her side of the story, including the Canyoning.<br>

... there was also many sections where we road around the side of the mountains, without cars for company. The mountains and some of the waterfalls in particular were stunning, and there was that fresh, earthy, rainforest-y smell in the air. It was a great day to be out and about.<br><br>The ride culminates in a massive fall (the name escapes me but I´ll add it later) just outside of a little village, you can go onto Puyo but there isn´t much ...

... tried to do only to be told a reservation through the Government was required... However the guy at the station did say if we went by bus to Alausi we could buy tickets there for just the Nariz Del Diablo section for 11am.<br><br>And thats how we ended up on the first bus...<br><br>When we arrived at Alausi it turned out you couldn´t get tickets for the actual train but we could get tickets for the hybrid train to run just the section ...

... was really tasty, then back to hostel as we were wrecked. Saturday was our only day in Cuenca so we strolled around-really not much to see-its a pretty town but we were wrecked so we just lazed for the day watching tv and going on the internet. It was good to have a quiet day just catching up with things on the net and watching some good tv. Thank god for cable over here!!<br>We left Cuenca on Sunday- we got a bus at 12am to Banos-it was due to take 8 hours in ...

<br>Okay, our whole point to stop here was to purchase tickets for the famous Nariz del Diablo train route. Although we arrived the afternoon before the following day's departure, we were sadly disappointed when we learned that all the seats had already been purchased (which is kind of odd considering that the whole point of the train ride is to sit on the rooftop to get a better view).<br><br>For such a big city, we were surprised that it was not ...

... So habe<br>ich also nur die Felder und die Pampa gesehen...schade!!<br>Die Strasse geht zweimal auf ueber 3500 m, gut dass ich am Tag vorher schon so hoch war und es nicht spuere.<br><br>In<br>Riobamba angekommen, wurde ich von dem Sohn, Carlos, der Hacienda<br>abgeholt, wo ich die naechsten zwei Naechte verbringen wuerde. Eine<br>knappe Stunde Fahrt mit dem Jeep Richtung suedost, den Berg weiter<br>hinauf, ueber Pisten und in eine Art Canyon ...

... why oh why did i, vicki, come here???? the shopping. so in three hours i bought so much stuff that i then had to buy new luggage. i know, i am bad :( but this is one of the reasons i cannot go to otavalo (the biggest artesenal market in ecuador)...because i would buy everything. in trying to find the market, i randomly asked a girl for help. she was very nice and actually me to go out with her and her friends tonight ...

This morning I hiked another mountain trail from Baños, one which eventually leads to Tungurahua Volcano (which the Lonely Planet guidebook says is suicidal to climb, so I wasn't going to go all the way...). The trail started off quite wide but gradually got narrower and narrower until I really began to doubt whether I was on the right path; I seemed to be making my own path through the damp woods. After about two hours of walking I reached a field with a great view down ...