#22 The incomplete Alausi trip and an Impromptu Cuenca visit

From Baños five of us, Hannah, Michelle, Amy, our new friend Riley who we met in Baños and I decided to go to a small town called Alausi. Eimear and Kirsty had booked a Galapagos trip over new year so they headed off for that adventure. The main reason for going to Alausi is to travel on the 'Nariz Del Diablo' or the devils nose train. An old train built during the 1900s to link the city of Guayaquil to the capital of Quito it was closed in 1997 and now comprises of a 12km stretch of railway skimming the cliffs' edge. Subsequently it has turned into a tourist attraction where you can complete a scary two and a half hour round trip with an active derailment on every journey and an hour stop off in a small town called Sibambe.

We took two buses from Baños:
Baños to Riobamba. 1 hour 30minutes. $2
Riobabmba to Alausi. 2hours. $2.30

The hostel we were staying in was about a ten minute walk out of town and was located on a farm. It was owned by the cutest little lady called Beatrice who lived in the main house with her family and we were the only other people staying there. It felt more like a home stay than a hostel. When we told her we had come to ride the railway she advised us to get our tickets that evening, unfortunately the ticket office had already closed that evening. The next morning we got up early to walk up to the ticket office bypassing the many barking dogs and hissing geese in the small town to buy our tickets...we were there bang on seven and were told that there were NO tickets left until the 2nd January (five days away)....S***! I guess with it being the Christmas holidays it would have been wise to book ahead but we hadn't thought of this. With the train being out of the equation and Alausi not offering too much else we had a 'family' meeting, a coffee and decided to go to a colonial town called Cuenca about four hours South that morning. We bought our tickets whilst we were in town for $6.25 and went back to grab our bags and tell Beatrice we were leaving (even she was surprised that the train was booked up for so long).

We got to Cuenca that afternoon and took taxis to a hostel called Bauhaus. It was a really nice hostel with a good kitchen, breakfast included and film rooms. It was also pretty Central. We spent the afternoon wandering around the city, admiring all the churches, park squares, artisan and sweet shops and food market where we went for late lunch. In the market called Mercado de 10 de Agosto where stands with whole roasted pigs were laid out surrounded by potatoes, vegetables and corn. A 'plato' (plate) cost about $4. I opted out of the pulled pork but tried a bit offered to me by one of the elderly ladies serving it up and couldn't get over the amount of salt on it! There were plenty of other choices from ceviche, to seafood soup (embollado), chicken and meat. They also had really good fresh juices for $0.50-1. We also came across the cutest little sweet shop with tiny handmade delicacies from coconut sweets, to small macaroons and cones filled with cream..all handmade by nuns none the less. How can you not indulge! They each cost anything from 25-55 cents.

Th next morning, Amy, Hannah, Riley and I decided to go to National Park Cajas, about an hour outside of Cuenca. We trotted off after breakfast to get the bus. When we got to the bus station we bought our tickets and only after realised the bus wasn't for another hour...fail. After pleading/arguing with the women at the ticket desk to give us a refund in Spanish she reluctantly gave in (I'm not sure if it was my persistence or my horrendous Spanish) but it worked. We then managed to negotiate with a taxi man to take us to the park for $5 each, three dollars more than the bus. We got there by 10.30 and proceeded to the information office where a lovely Spanish speaking lady asked us to sign in with passport details and talked us through the routes. None of us seemed to want to sign up for a gruelling five hour plus hike so we opted for the first route, the pink route that would take about 4.5hours...we thought we could do it in less. She advised there was no need for maps as the trail was all signposted. We set off and for the first hour, despite lots of mud the trail was straightforward. That is until we stopped seeing pink markers on the rocks.......uhhhhh ohhhhh. We did however see blue markers...a 6.5km trail and obviously not what we were supposed to be on. We carried on, cutting through other trails hoping that we hadn't added on another few hours to the hike and were totally confused when the trail lead us back onto the main road into the park.....nowhere near the information office but actually at the park entrance. Hey ho....we thought we could grab a bus back to Cuenca from here and that two hours of hiking was adequate for us. After about forty minutes a bus came along. The public buses in Ecuador are a lot different to the chicken style school buses in Central America and are actually coaches. When we got on the bus driver, and his ticket inspector told the four of us to sit down between them (in about a metre space) as the rest of the bus was full. They kept the door into the coach closed so we squished down and sat up the front of the bus like little kids in the cockpit of a plane except we were in a coach and we're in our late twenties......we sat sandwiched like this for about half an hour until some people got off...we departed to let the people out and then got back on, grabbing the comfy reclining chairs with the rest of the passengers.

Not being too disheartened with getting lost 

Riding up front with the driver 

We got back into Cuenca in time for lunch and meet  Michelle at the market again. I had a bowl of Embollado (fish soup) for $1.50. We then had a wander around the artisan markets, admiring all the woven hats that Cuenca is famous for. We also found a beautiful little leather shop where there were cute handmade leather sandals for $30. I've been very careful throughout the trip to not buy too much as it's more to carry but these were lovely and after trying on multiple pairs I chose a light brown, closed toe pair for $27. Cuenca is definitely a place you could get caught up in the beautiful surroundings, architecture, crafts and food! We didn't even get a chance to visit the multitude of museums.

The nuns sweet shop 

Cuenca architecture 

The next morning we were leaving to go to Montañita where we would all be spending New Years. I was keen to see if it lived up to its crazy reputation!

Next Stop: Montañita for New Years!
Stayed: Kila Wasi hostel in Alausi, $8 night for small dorm with bathroom although we had the place to ourselves. Owned by a local family and handy if you're coming to do the train (pre-book the train ahead)
Bauhaus hostel in Cuenca, $8 night including breakfast. Cool hostel, central location.
Food/drink: Embollado in the food market in Cuenca $1-3. Fresh juices for $1. Breakfast in the hostel in Cuenca. Coconut ice lollies...literally cannot get enough of them. Handmade miniature pastries and sweets in Dulceria El Suspiro. I also cooked in the hostel in Cuenca.