Cuenca and Ingapirca

In October we had a holiday weekend, so Livia and I headed to Cuenca. Livia had been there a few times, but I hadn't visited it yet. That was definitely different than most of my colleagues, who make Cuenca the first or second place they visit, as it's very popular with expats. I'm happy I visited other places first. I would go back to Cuenca various times, a few times for work, and also when my buddy Andrew from Peace Corps visited.

 (Livia on top of the cathedral)

I never fell in love with Cuenca the way many expats do. The weather is all too often cool and misty, and the center of town is a bit crowded and dirty, and not in a charming way. It does have some amazing restaurants and some gorgeous churches. My opinion was always-Quito has just as amazing restaurants and more gorgeous churches, and Loja is a big enough city to have amenities, has better weather than Cuenca, but shares the nice, dry, clean mountain air and also boasts creative culture.

(at the lookout in Cajas National Park)

Livia and I had a good trip though, we visited the main cathedral and took the tour up to roof. We had a few good meals and enjoyed walking around the city. Took a day to visit a few spots in Cajas National Park, including the hike around a small lake, and up to the highest lookout along the road.

On the last day of the trip we visited Ingapirca, which is the largest and best preserved Incan ruins in Ecuador. It is well worth a visit, a truly impressive and beautiful place. It was one of the countless (and still being discovered) outposts or holy sites that the Incans constructed (or modified) throughout Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. There weren't many people there, so our tour was 'private' and the guide was very informative. They have llamas grazing about to keep the grass down, and Livia loves llamas, so she slowed the tour down considerably taking llama pictures. We took the extra hike along the ridge below the site to see a few rock features that they believe the Incas carved along the path leading to the site. The ridge and valley were impressive on their own. My only recommendation would be better signage leading to the site. We had to turn around probably three or four times on the windy mountain roads, and continually ask people how to get there, as the town is fairly remote, and the historical site is on the edge of town.

(above is the view of the main temple)

(up close of remains of main temple)

The Devil's Nose

The next trip I took was a quick weekend getaway with Livia. I wanted to try out one of the often promoted Ecuadorian train rides. A long time ago, Ecuador had an extensive cargo and passenger rail system. The connection from Quito down to Guayaquil was a milestone in Ecuador's economic history. Much like in the USA, the passenger rail system fell out of use as cars became more numerous and accessible. Sadly, though, Ecuador almost their entire cargo rail system as well. They have re-purposed some of the routes though, with tourist trains. There is an extensive (and very expensive) week long trip that goes between many of the scenic stops. The closest route to Guayaquil goes through a bunch of banana fields, Livia had been on it before, and said it wasn't that cool. A well recommended route wasn't too far away, and went alongside the 'Devil's nose,' a mountain ridge.

 (the view out of our hotel room window)

(you can see some of the tracks above) 

So we packed up the Yaris and headed to Alausi, the small town with the train station. The train leaves at 8 am or 10 am, either way we knew we'd need to spend the night in order to make it. We almost didn't get there, as on the way the road led to a wide creek bed, with over a foot of water in some areas. I was sure this couldn't be the way, but we asked a few cars, they confirmed this was the "road" so we went through it. We arrived in town, checked into our hotel, and took a walk to see what was happening. Very little. We grabbed a subpar dinner at one of the few restaurants Alausi has to offer. We took another walk at night, and in doing so seemed to have visited more than half of the town. It has a nice park that runs in between the two main roads. It seems the thing to do is to drive one's car and blast music around this loop, all Saturday night. We did not participate.

(the famous Devil's Nose)

In the morning we rode the train. I guess when they put in the switchback climbing up this particular mountain, it was the most difficult set of switchbacks that were put in on the Quito-Guayaquil route. This section was one of the last completed due to the difficult terrain. The train ride was pretty nice, they have a person telling you the history of the track, which I really liked. There are some fairly impressive cliffs that the train climbs down via switchbacks. The views were gorgeous, as I've said before, the Andes is a truly spectacular mountain range. Alausi is well beyond the foothills, but not yet at the top of the range. It's at 7,600 feet, whereas a lot of the cities in Ecuadorian highlands have elevation between 8,000 and 9,500 feet. The downside of the trip was once you get to the end of the route, you are forced to spend like two hours at the base of the Devil's nose. They've built a small museum, but even if you read every exhibit, that takes but 15 minutes. They hope you spend the rest of your time in the numerous cafes and gift shops that are there. We relented, got some drinks and snacks, and mostly talked about how we needed a max of 30 minutes to see the "sights."

It wasn't the most amazing weekend trip, but hey, I wanted to ride the train and I did!