Devil´s nose tourist trap

Trip Start Sep 28, 2007
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Trip End Jun 25, 2008


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Flag of Ecuador  ,
Friday, June 6, 2008

We spent one night at Alausi, so we could take the train over the tricky bit of the railway descending the Andes on the way from Guayaquil to Quito. Not much of the railway has survived the El Nino rainstorms but they operate the bit from Alausi as a tourist attraction.

A tourist trap would be a better description. Both of the guidebooks we have describe the trip in glowing terms, one saying it is a highlight of visiting Ecuador. One reads: 'Experience one of the world's great feats of railway engineering from the roof of a train as it descends the Andes over the 'Devil's Nose' in a sequence of thrilling switchback turns.'

Hmm, by sequence they mean two and they are not turns exactly, the train just goes backwards and then forwards a pathetically small distance above the river. You wouldn't even think you were still in the Andes. We were very disappointed as we expected a steep cliff side close to obvious mountains with at least six tightly cut switchbacks, though the scenery was pretty. I'm sure the railway line in New Zealand linking Wellington and Auckland which has to do a spiral to get over the high central plateau is a much more impressive feat of engineering and more thrilling.
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