They looked at us as though we were traveling naked through their country. And I can't say I blame them. On a bleak, damp, chilly day... on what other train does the luggage go in the warm, dry compartment while the passengers sit on the roof's metal racks? This is the train to the Devil's Nose.

The adventure begins long before the train descends through the remarkable landscape. Before six in the morning tourists, mostly backpacking types, line up in Riobamba's train station to ensure their place on the coveted roof rack. When I arrived with Tony and Angela just before six we found ourselves approximately tenth in line. Perfect.

"This is the train the crowd immediately swarmed."
Around 6:30 the line had grown considerably as the train arrived in the station. You must now forget any preconceived notion you may have of a train. Imagine a city transit bus circa 1980. Now imagine it with train wheels and a roof rack. A single "car" powered by what sounded like the bus's original 4-speed engine. This is the train the crowd immediately swarmed.

I don't dare characterize all German tourists, but the ones in the line with us need some instruction on how to stand in line... or queue if you wish. As soon as the rear door to the train opened, a herd of them dashed from the rear of the line. I had my arm and leg on the ladder to ascend to the roof as a large female attempted to proceed straight

Crowded Onto the Train Roof

through my appendages. With a strained lunge I knocked her reeling to the side and climbed aboard while listening to what I assume was German swearing. Tony and Angela had been right behind me, but I later learned that the large German girl we took to calling "Heifer" muscled her way back into the line just in front of them. To Angela's protests, Heifer responded "life's tough." Americans don't have the monopoly on ugly tourists.

"I was smacked on the head several times."
The first hour or two of the train ride was inspiring while a bit painful. It was cold, damp and windy and I had to pee. But we passed through some beautiful country, with kids and adults waving to us all along the way. The expressions on their faces saying, "there go those crazy gringos again." While enjoying the scenery it was necessary to duck and dodge billboards, tree branches and electrical wires passing dangerously close to the roof of the train. I was smacked on the head by branches several times and a train employee who was standing at the rear barely ducked in time under several power lines.

A Pickup Full of Locals Races the Train

Remember, now, that there's no locomotive. No caboose. We're just on the roof of a diesel-powered manual transmission bus with train wheels.

Finally there's a stop. I get to pee and the sun comes out. The journey is now immensely more fun as we head toward the trip's highlight. The Devil's Nose, where the train descends along a fairly steep grade through three switchbacks. By this I mean as they go down, the tracks cut back on themselves at very sharp zig-zag-ing angles. To negotiate this the train must proceed beyond the switchback, change a switch on the track to the downhill side and reverse its way back down the next traverse. This occurs twice so the train is headed forward again by the time it's at the bottom.

"It might tip off at any minute."
But the fun part of this is that the mountain falls off abruptly at the edge of the tracks, giving the feeling that it might tip off at any minute.

A Long Way Down

This feeling is especially elevated while seated on the roof. You're seriously looking at your feet dangling in front of you with a river hundreds of feet below them. There's nothing between you and a fall of what seems like a thousand feet.

The tracks beyond the Devil's Nose were damaged in the floods of the 1997 El Nino, so the train can't continue far past it. So it turns around and heads right back up the switchbacks. This is why the train is full of tourists... it doesn't actually go anywhere important.

"...not far from the Peruvian border."
After the train ride Tony and Angela decided they'd come with me to Cuenca, a fairly large colonial city in the south of Ecuador. We hung out for one more night there before I headed on south this morning. They're going back to Quito for Angela to catch her flight home to Scotland. This morning I got a bus for Loja, not far from the Peruvian border. I've decided I'm going to take a shot at doing Machu Pichu in the next week and a half or so... then try to make my April 27th reservation in northern Chile to see the world's largest space telescope.