The train traveling between volcanoes

The train traveling between volcanoes

Since the sticky Pacific coast to the snowy peaks of the Andes from Guayaquil to Quito by Ecuadorian rugged geography, with ascents and descents of 3600 meters to sea level. A path blessed by natural beauty : volcanoes, rivers , lakes, mountains and the legendary Devil's Nose , aboard a nineteenth-century train travel taste of yesteryear.




"It is the demon spewing smoke." They say that in this manner received the arrival of the railroad in the early last century, these remote indigenous populations lost in the folds of the Andes. He was born the train called half the world and burst with his birdie on rails, with his old horn steam, to the amazement and fear of some isolated communities for which this machine could only be the embodiment of progress coming from afar, señoreándose between rivers, lakes and mountains. It was not easy in this land of bad roads, as nicknamed by Ecuador in the colony. Telluric land of a country born of fire and basting of majestic volcanoes. Land with one of the most complex orographies the planet. So the company had been the dream of General Eloy Alfaro, Ecuador considered the best ever. In his exploits, which include the abolition of slavery, the vote for women or the establishment of secular education, the desire to connect the coast with the highlands, the tropical Pacific to the icy Andes also had, lighting and passing the hope of modernity in the nation.




The Ecuadorian railroad , completed back in 1908 , not only finished this dream but also fostered something nature would never allow : the liberation from the yoke of some peaks which hinder the integration of regions , the union of two poles defying heights dizziness. Today , many years later, the train returns to address this journey from Guayaquil to Quito ( and vice versa) , after decades of neglect in which he had to settle for certain short routes ... and crowded with travelers on the roof of the cars load . An experience that bears no resemblance to the one proposed now has been renamed Cruise Train : Railroad with an elegant taste of yesteryear which includes not only accommodation in estates scattered along the route but also excursions and guided tours.