On to Riobamba

Today we took a bus to the next major town south, Riobamba. There was a scrum to avoid having to stand in the aisle on the bus. Daniel and I used teamwork. He dealt with getting our backpacks stored in the lower compartment of the bus and I got on and scored two of the last seats.

There are two ways to get from Banos to Riobamba. You can take a nice paved road to Ambato to the NW and then the Panamericano to Riobamba. Or you can take a backroad that goes direct, but is half paved and half gravel.

Our bus took the latter road which was not for the faint of heart. The Andes scenery was beautiful though and we got to Riobamba in a couple of hours. Riobamba is a major commercial center in the southern part of the central highlands. Tourists come here to ride a train called El Nariz del Diablo (the Devil's Nose). It is also the closest major city to Chimborazo, the tallest volcano in Ecuador. The town was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1797 and moved to a location nine miles away. The lovely facade of the original Cathedral in the original town was carefully disassembled and reassembled in the new town on the main square.