Riobamba: Christian Parade, Fruits & Chinchulines

Locaton: Riobamba, Ecuador

Christian Parade in Riobamba

And as every week, the city is filled with activity and color for the saturday market.

"Hostal Oasis" $10 for a double room ensuite, also own cooking facilities.

the owners are friendly.

Chinchulines (chin - choo- leeness)

pieces of fried loveliness at the side of the road mmm. makes my mouth water now hehe

made from bits of cow i think, not sure which bits at that.

Riobamba: Friends, Fry ups & hangovers

"Fritada"

Fried Banana,Onions,Fried potato,Cuero (pig-skin),Small Pork Chop,Small salty bits of pork,Beef, nuts...and other stuff i dont know the name of

but by far the wierdest thing about this meal is they give you a spoon to eat it with.

The drink is called "Chicha Huevona"
among the ingredients are:

Beer,Spirits,Egg

..although a read through the ingredients is nearly enough to send me to the vomitorium its actually fairly nice!

Ecuadorian dictionary:

Borracho - drunk
Hecho cerdo - drunk
hecho rata - drunk
Chumado - drunk
Tomado - drunk

bien pluto - very drunk

Chuchaqui - hangover (pronounced (choo-chacky)

..and we think the irish are drinkers?


went out with some ecuadorian friends, we went to watch the football match (Ecuador vs Uruguay) at about 3PM in "Diablo" one of the local nighclubs (that i hadnt noticed before actualy). as soon as the match ended, it was on with the latin music and amasingly to me the dancefloor was packed in the nighclub from 6pm onward...anyway to cut a long sory short we got drunk. hehe

Aguas Thermales
today we went to visit the "aguas thermales" thermal waters of Guayabamba which is close to the town of Chambo. thermal waters are water which comes directly from underground close to a volcano, the water is heated up by the magma under the surface. its beautiful to swim in and there are lots of places around who have harnessed these waters in swimming pools for the public. The ones in Baños are quite popular, but there are so many people in them day in day out that you can d little more than stand on the spot in the water. The ones in Guayabamba are a little more secluded and in a beautiful rural setting surrounded by mountains, rivers and small waterfalls. when we went there today we had the pools all to ourselves. unfortunatly i didnt have my camera with me as i left it in someones house last night in my drunken state (later retrieved). i had one of those "never again!" hangovers today but i have to say, there is no better way to forget your hangover than spending a few hours wallowing around weightlessly in a steaming hot pool of volcanic water. highly recoomended!!

Todays song "Nigga: te quiero"

Riobamba: Where to eat

I have to confess that despite trying to be open minded, i have been always looking for restaurants that have a european look and feel to them, because thats what i know and trust! I guess from my life experience to date i have just come to expect poor service where ever i go, unless its expensivly decorated and charging you for it.

im slowly learning where you get the value in ecuador. you have to go to the places that do "ecuadorian food"

going by what we get at home this littel place looks like a dive, with its plastic chairs , no written menu and not much in the line of decoration. but who needs decoration anyway? this is about food. and the food and service in these places is spot on!


Seco de Pollo
plate of Rice with leg of chicken in some sauce, a bread bun with somthing similar to mozarella cheese. a pint of freshly made fruit juice with banana or pineapple or whatevers available, and a cup of coffee! not bad for $1.50

interesting how countries differ when it comes to coffee.

here they basically give you a cup of hot water or hot milk depending on what you want. and then they give you a jar of coffee and a bowl of sugar and you make it yourself.hehe
i have to say though , that i find this a refreshing break from the growing worldwide trend of snooty names like "frapuchino" or whatever.

Riobamba: Students & The Referendum

Not everyone works the land in Ecuador. here are some students at the Politechnical University of Chimborazo, in Riobamba


This banner says "I vote YES because i believe in the citizens revolution".
It is about the referendum on the 28 of september in which several changes will be made to the constitution. The charismatic president Rafael Correa seems to have won the confidence of the majority of ecuadorian people (that i have met).

Riobamba: The Devils Nose Train ride

Nariz Del Diablo
"The Devils nose"

This is a "fairly" spectacular train ride from Riobamba to Simbambe, since the 1920s the final part of the journey for sightseeing only, and doesnt actually take anyone anywhere.
The trip was apparently supposed to take about 5 hours. but due several little problems such as de-railings of carriages (which was slightly scary at times) it 10 hours and 30 minutes.

there are no seats on top of the train (despite the advice of getting there ar 5.30am to get a a good seat!). instead you are allowed to rent a cusion to seperate you from the corrigated rooftop of the hundred year old train. i imagine this might have been a wonderful experience for the first traveller or two who convinced the conductor to let them sprawl out on the roof for the more exciting parts of the journey but crammed up there for 10 and a half hours with 70 odd other tourists (some of whom i considered throwing overboard hehe) makes this train ride the work of the devil indeed.

If you can judge an experience by weather or not you would do it again, than this one is a NO NO.

however there were some wonderful moments, and some sights i will cherish.

One very special aspect was the opportunity to pass through mile after mile of rural land where we were greeted with smiles and waves from the local people in the fields.

Forgive the blurred quality of some of the fotos here. most were taken from a moving train.


Amidst the dust here you can make out a child and an adult herding sheep.






People at the railway station in "Alausi"










The second last carriage was de-railed here. took about 1 and a half hours to fix it. note the guy selling biscuits & stuff, he was delighted with himself every time the train broke down.


Switchbacks. train changes direction multiple times to descend the hill in a zig zag motion.


aaaagh!


this is it! the Devils nose........................... zzzzz

Riobamba: Indigenous Market

Riobamba

Just an hour bus ride from Baños, Riobamba has a very different feel to it.On arrival i was beginning to think there may be very little to see or do here.

However Riobamba has quickly won me over.

no sooner had my rucksack hit the ground but i met a canadian couple and we decided to go out to one of the few nighclubs here.
few clubs can be a positive thing though, because they are certainly packed with people. As per usual the music is a mix of latin and electronic dance music. $1 entry, beer $1.25 per pint bottle. Everybody dances in these places, and boy do some of them know how. actually it is impossible not to have fun there.



on a walk into the centre i was taken by surprise by a huge indigenous market. this certainly rivals the Otavalo market for sheer size, but its a different kind of market. based mainly on food. Lots of hollaring and lots of Ecuadorians bargaining over stuff. In fact i was the only gringo i saw here today.

$1 dollar baught me a nice lunch with rice, fried potatoes, fried egg, salad and a hot cup of something sweet (like coffee or hot chocolate but neither). As i was eating my lunch, a baby bird of some sort rain through the seating area and out the other side amusingly followed by man in persuit.

Goodbye Baños.

i loved it here, but it felt like it was time to move on.
Baños will always have place in my heart.
here are some last fotos.


a ghostly empty street just outside of Baños