¿Donde está el tren?

I have always loved trains. I used to look forward to my (almost) weekly train rides from Philly to New York to see Jeff when I was living with Nanno and Daddo. As a child, I desperately wanted a train set – yet another example of my deprived childhood. So, when I read about the Nariz del Diablo train ride in Ecuador, I decided that was one thing Jeff and I definitely had to do. Due to traveling logistics, working the train ride into our itinerary was going to be difficult as it only left every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Jeff was on the fence about whether we should do the train ride (of course, for logistical reasons), but I insisted that we do it. Why was I insistent that we take the train ride? Well, for starters we were going to get to sit on top of the train and take in some of the most amazing vistas imaginable. On top of that, many reports talked of throwing candy to children as they passed through the different small towns (sounds fun, huh?). The end of the ride was going to be the best part: La Nariz del Diablo (the Devil´s Nose) is a mountain that the train descends that is so steep it has caused the ride to be dubbed the most dangerous train ride in the world. Did I mention we were going to get to sit ON TOP of the train while doing this? I was so excited.

One of many amazing La Nariz del Diablo train pictures found on the internet

We caught a morning bus to get to Riobamba on Thursday in order to buy our tickets. The train leaves at 6:00 in the morning, so we found a hotel across from the train station, dropped our bags and went to buy our tickets. Unfortunately, the station was closed. I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with my Spanish, so I consulted with the guard, who told us that the boletería would reopen at 2:30, giving us enough time to leisurely get some lunch and return. We consulted our Lonely Planet and ended up getting some darn good Mexican food down the street. As we walked around Riobamba, it was clear that this train ride was its major attraction. All over the place we saw pictures of the wonderful train we would be taking, with people happily waving from the top.

We returned to the ticket office almost exactly at 2:30 and got in line to buy our tickets. There were only a couple people ahead of us, but when I asked for two tickets the salesman told me there was only one left. My heart dropped. We specifically came to Riobamba for this train ride! I had to get on that train! To my relief, the salesman´s partner insisted, however, that there were two more tickets. After a great deal of debate, and going back and forth, speaking so quickly I could only catch pieces of what they were saying, two beautiful tickets were placed in my hands. We didn´t quite understand why it was so hard to figure out if they had the tickets when this was all computerized, but we had the tickets, so who really cared.

After speaking to our mothers, we went to bed early in order to wake up at 5:30 for the train. I was so excited the next morning, I barely felt how tired I was. We hurried over to the station, some of the first to arrive, and were ushered into a waiting room. Before leaving, we were shown a short video discussing the history of Ecuador´s rail system, which was first discussed in 1861 and finally completed in 1908 under the supervision of General Eloy Alfaro. Due to nature (specifically, landslides) and politics, much of the system is no longer in use, except for a few short tourist routes.

After the video, we were instructed to go out to the tracks and line up for the train car printed on our tickets. Jeff and I rushed out to the tracks and saw two buses that had been retrofitted to work on train tracks. The station was very small, so we assumed these were meant to be shuttles to the train. We eagerly boarded, excited for what lied ahead. Though our seats were next to each other, we were both in aisle seats, which meant we could not see out the windows very well. I was not troubled by this since we were going to be able to sit on top once we got to the train.

As the buses pulled off, I was boiling over with excitement. The bus even had a little engine horn that the driver blew as we rolled down the tracks. “How cute!” I thought, “they´re getting us excited for the train.” As we rolled through Riobamba, I looked out the window as best I could (without sitting in my poor neighbor´s lap). Children in their school uniforms waived to us as they walked to school. Dogs rain beside us barking. I could barely see, but wasn´t worried since I would soon be on top of the train without a perfect view of beautiful Ecuador.

Slowly, we began to see fewer and fewer buildings, as the city gave way to the beautiful Andean countryside. After being on the rails for about half an hour, I began to wonder when we were going to get to the train. Another half hour passed and my excitement was starting to wane, as I was having a very difficult time seeing out and was beginning to worry about when exactly we were going to get on the train. “¿Donde está el tren?” I wanted to ask one of the conductors. I didn´t though, because I knew we would soon get there. After two hours on the train, we rolled into a small town. We were told that we had fifteen minutes to use the bathroom and get some desayuno if we wanted.

Still clinging to my hope of getting to ride the top of the train, I hurried off, confident that when we returned, we would be switched to the train who´s picture had been posted all over Riobamba. I was going to be one of those jolly train riders pictured on top!

After using the bathroom, Jeff and I convened near the tracks. “So when did you figure out this bus-train was it?” was the first thing he said to me. I think Jeff knew I was still holding out hope. For some reason, it wasn´t until then that I finally started to admit to myself that there wasn´t going to be a train. I was crushed.

Our inferior fake train - another disappointed passenger is in front

A lady was selling cheese empanadas on the side of the track. I bought us eah one, which Jeff and I decided was the highlight of the day so far, and reboarded “train”. As we rolled along, I watched buses on the road whizzing past. I was getting angry. I could have gotten on a bus and taken half the time!

We had one more stop before Nariz del Diablo. I delusionally hoped that perhaps they were waiting til then to put us on a train that we could sit on top of. Again, I was wrong.

A view of the other fake train from our fake train

The mechanics of going down the mountain was interesting. Due to the steepness of the mountain, we descended through a series of switchbacks, going forwards for a while, then switching and going backwards, etc. It looked as though it would have been very cool to look out the window as this was happening, but I could barely see. I kept on thinking how cool it would have been to be sitting onthe top watching all of this.

Once we made it to the bottom, we were let off to walk around for a minute before getting back on and going back up the mountain to be let off at Alausí. One of our “train” companions said the night before he had heard they changed to these buses earlier in the year after an accident. Apparently a Japense tourist was decapitated when he stood up to take a picture. Stupid Japanese tourist! 

The view that could have been