Mountains Part 2

The top picture shows more of the high altitude farming, and gives an idea of the steepness. The second is a picture of Quito from a place right by the 3rd picture. At that altitude, you can really feel the difference. I tried running and was quickly winded. There is a cable car that gets you from Quito to the overlook. It was put there by the phone company to have service access to communication towers on the mountain top.

The last one is of an indegenous person with a load of fodder. We saw several such scenes with donkeys loaded with sticks or fodder. I presume the sticks are for cooking fires. A lot of the rural places have no electricity.

High on a Mountain Top

I think I am nearly through spamming you all with trip pictures. Most of our travelling was up in the Andes. I was expecting to see ragged rocky snow capped mountains. Here and there we did, but they were usually dormant or smoking volcanoes. Mostly what we saw was agriculture. These shots of the patchwork quilt on the mountain sides don't really show well how steep they are. Many of the places are at least 45%. Only a couple of times did we see a single bladed plow pulled by a team of oxen, but everywhere we saw people grubbing at the soil with mattox. They grow corn, beans, carrots, onions and potatoes up there, and pasture their cattle on the mountain sides. I expected to see lots of goats but didn't. Their cattle are like mountain goats. They also graze sheep, llama and alpaca up there. These photos were taken at 10,000- 12,000 feet .

The first picture was of a little mountain restaurant. The barbecue is like a ferris wheel, and the cook turns the crank and slow cooks the cuy ( pronounced cooey). Cuy are guinea pigs and are a delicasy to them. They get their name from the sound they make. There were people around to the other side in the shade all waiting for them to get cooked and waiting to pay $13 apiece for them. I had a hard time believing these poor people would pay that much to eat a rat, especially after I tasted one. One of our travellers was Mexican and she had a hankering for some so she bought half a cooey and shared it. I am not a fussy eater, and am willing to try anything. Believe me, they aren't just like chicken. What prompted us to stop there was a flat tire just down the road. Picture three shows living fence posts. The deep, rich volcanic soil, and sun which is not too hot and the rain, insures that whatever gets planted grows. Drive a fence post in the ground and it sprouts limbs and grows. We saw that everywhere. Mostly the cattle and sheep don't get fenced. Shepherds on foot or on horseback keep watch. It seems to frequently be kids who aren't big enough to swing a mattox.

I really enjoyed the mountains. The temperature was just about right all the time, not too hot or too cool. I can't say the same for Guayaquil. Debbie likes the heat better than I do. Pete

Mission Bliss

Carrie-- here is my photo for your building blocks-- I thought a picture of me in my usual chair reviewing Espanol would be my most current activity--- serving a Temple mission in Ecuador and learning a new language. Faith, obediance, service, learning and adventure-- that's what I'm up to right now. Put a picture of me surrounded by pictures of each of my grandkids on another side of the block--that is my most cherised pocession. I love your idea!
Debbie

Ambato

The train out of Riobamba was full, so we couldn't get tickets for a return ride. We got on a bus and went to Ambato and left from there, but the train returned to Rio Bamba. We had a couple hours to wander around Ambato and see the sights. It was still early in the morning and all these people were in from the country and lined up in front of the bank. They dress differently than the Otavalans, except for the hats. They are colorful, but undecorated. High in the Andes in the lee of the Chimbourazo glacier they dress warmly, all bundled up in layers of wool.
Picture 4 shows two women sitting on the sidewalk in the sun having a visit and cleaning lentils. They spread out a thin layer in the tray then pick out the pebbles, weed seeds and bits of sticks and leaves. I gotta keep showing how versatile these three wheeled bikes are. Who knows, the way things are going, we may be seeing them on the streets of North America before many years are passed.

El Nariz del diablo

The trip continued. This was another stop on our trip in February.

In the town of Rio Bamba is the start of a train ride around "The Devil's Nose", and through a rocky chasm. I guess it must have served an important commercial purpose long ago when it was blasted out of cliff face from solid rock. Today, the locals have dubbed it "the Gringo train". Indeed, most who were on it were tourists. The train itself is actually only one big car which is engine and passenger vehicle. Noisy and fast. You are no longer allowed to ride on the roof, which surprised me, because I have never yet seen in Ecuador where safety or liability issues get much attention. The train does get used by the locals who live back in some pretty remote areas herding animals of various sorts and farming. When I say farming, I mean huge scale gardening, with the grub hoe being the sole means of cultivation. It is amazing how much ground they can keep under cultivation in difficult places with a mattox.

The Devil's nose is about an hour and a half by train from Riobamba. In the back of the train was a lively card game going with some locals who were heading for places that were accessable only by train. No roads. The train rattles along at a pretty good clip and lurches from side to side as it goes. Looking along the tracks you can see the reason why. The tracks themselves shift from side to side. In fact, the ties are in terrible shape, many rotten and unreplaced. At one point on the edge of the Devil's Nose the driver gave everbody a thrill by picking up speed on a downgrade with the cliff face about two feet from the edge of the ties. The train rattled and lurched and shook while everybody contemplated what it would be like if it just tipped over and went down. I expect that it will one day in the not too distant future, and that will be the end of that. All the locals who depend on it to get in and out with their produce and needed supplies will need to get donkeys and use the rail line for a road. It was thrill enough without riding on the roof. I don't think many of the other passengers figured out what was causing all the lurching and swaying of the train.

This first picture is a stop made at the bottom, near the river. In the background you can see where an entrepreneur had set up with a charcoal barbecue made from half an oil drum grilling bananas that had been split with cheese in them. I had to try one. I'm cured. I don't need any more. I finally met some Ecuadorian food I don't like. In this picture, look down. Where we were standing the tie had completely disintegrated with rot. It looks like it has been a long time since maintenance has been done.

The final picture shows a woman shepherd. We came barrelling around a curve and there she was with a herd of sheep going down the tracks. She jumped into action with her stick trying to get them off the track, which she succeded in doing at the last minute, with the brakes of the train screeching. For awhile they just stayed on the track and tried to outrun the train or the mad woman with the stick as the train came on trying to stop. We were nearly stopped when we passed her and I got her picture. She looks remarkably calm considering that she was all action only seconds before. It looked like her herd of sheep all went under the train, but apparently they were all safe on the other side. I looked back down the track after we passed and was relieved to see no sheep carcasses on the tracks.

We nearly cleaned a small herd of pigs further along. Once when we crossed the highway, a car hit the brakes and skidded along the wet highway and slid sideways and came to a stop about 50' from the train. The engineer forgot to blow the horn until he was in the road. There are no gates, or flashing lights at road crossings.