Hotel Zeus Internacional Riobamba

... as promised at 11.30am, I have to admit I was expecting an old, traditional type of train - but it was actually very modern small, white carriage, shame! In the past, tourists could sit on top of the train for the ride. But, after someone was decaptitated by a wire (ouch), this had been outlawed, and I can only assume they changed the carriages - as there was no way anyone could balance on the roof of these ones!<br><br>And off we went ...

... guys who were cycling down to the end of the world (ushaiwa (spelling totally wrong) down in the bottom of patagonia) and we ended up going for some chinese food and playing uno - finally, we played uno!! :)<br><br>went to the riobamba market on saturday morning...lots of fruit and pigs trotters, nice!<br><br>didn{t stay very long - got the bus to Baños at about 2pm, it was supposed to take 1 hour but it took 2 and went on some very dusty dogdy roads!

... were police in full riot gear and people lining both sides of the road. On cop was using his shield to pick up sand to put out a burning tire, while another used it to shovel up some rocks, it was quite the scene. Regardless we made it to our transfer, and eventually to Banos, which is a beautiful little town in the valley of an active volcano. I can only hope that our stay in Banos over the next four days is as relaxing as the bus ride today.<br>

... yourself", ensured no one else went down. A few things made this a scary experience. 1. To get to the ledge to go down was very slippy and we could not work out where the hell the safety rope was ¿No Problem, No Problem? 2. Once you got to the ledge it was a bloody long drop= again, No Problem, No Problem. 3. We thought we were going to abseil, but there was nowhere to put your feet so... 4. having gone over the edge we were essentially dangling 45meters ...

Well what a crazy week. Thank god we have wound up in Baños for a day because Baños is completely different to every place we have been too so far and its good for a change. Because its heading towards the jungle its a more humid climate, and there is a lot, lot more vegetation. And because i didn´t do a great deal of research its actually more what I expected all of Ecuador to be like... <br><br>When woke this morning and walked down the street for ...

... lost as Alausi is a very pretty little town, so mosied around for an hour and then went back to Riobamba. On the way back the police stopped us as the driver was drunk - I must be getting immune to it now as I ddn't even notice the swerving! The policeman shouted at him for a bit, some passengers shouted at him for a bit and then we sat on the side of the road for forty minutes until another bus showed up to take us back!<br><br>Riobamba ...

... ersten Reihe sitzt und die nächste Welle auf einen zukommen sieht und dann mit voller Wucht hinein das es einem beinahe vom Sitz reißt. Das ging dann bis zu einer Stelle so die mehr ein kleiner Wasserfall war und für uns nicht passierbar (VI). Wir sind deswegen aus den Booten und sind das Stückchen zu Fuß runter und die Guides haben Versucht die Boote an einer Leine von Land aus durch diese Stelle zu bringen. Ist ihnen leider zu 50% gelungen, bei ...

... we got a bit soggy and decided to stop for a while, have some food and walk to another waterfall, which was somewhere down a hill. One of the adverts for this waterfall (Puente del Diablo or something similar) proclaimed it as the "eighth wonder of the world". This it most certainly was not, but it was quite cool all the same. <br><br>After this little break we remounted our steeds and continued on. By this time (about 20km) my legs were beginning to get a little tired and ...

... aber im Grunde doch recht klein und ohne imposante Bauwerke. Leider waren die Gipfel der nahen Vulkane, wie beinahe immer, wolkenverhangen. Es hiess früh ins Bett zu steigen, da wir bereits um 6 Uhr morgens am Bahnhof für die Abfahrt des Zugs sein mussten. Doch morgens früh um 5:30, als wir unser wunderschönes Hostel verlassen wollten, stellte sich heraus, dass wir im Innenhof eingeschlossen waren und auch noch niemand da war der ...