One Day in Ecuador - The Train from Ibarra to Lita
The trip in Ecuador lasted for six and a half weeks. During this time, I spent a good amount of time in a Spanish language school and the rest of the time traveling in this equatorial country. There are numerous highlights, but instead of retracing all of them, I have chosen to publish one day of the trip from the journal which I not so faithfully kept throughout. This day was one where I took a not so ordinary train trip from the high sierras down to the coastal lowlands. Here is the journal entry from that day:
Got up at 5:30 again this morning, and tried hard not to disturb my traveling companion Jens, but of course.... Was out the door by 6:07 and walked through a waking Peguche. Two corner "tiendas" were both "abierto" and a number of houses had their knitting machines already going at full speed. The local dogs were also out to greet me, as were a couple of "mujeres" and "hombres". I followed the dust road down to the Pan-American, and flagged down the first bus to Ibarra.
On the west side of the bus the morning rays of the sun were shining nicely on Mt. Cotocachi, a 4900m snow covered peak. As we motored toward Ibarra, I watched the mountain become illuminated, first from the peak and then slowly down its slopes. It was a wonderful start to the day.
We arrived in Ibarra at 6:50 and I headed for the train station. The temperature here at 2210m was 12º, although it was colder in Peguche earlier on.
On arriving at the train station, I was slightly surprised to see only one car in the station. Certainly there must be more coming. I looked up toward the roof and saw three people on it - two tourists and an Ecuadorian boy of about age 10. Suddenly a man came up to me and asked if I was going to San Lorenzo - obvious looking tourist that I was. I responded by asking if it was possible to take the train to Lita - the halfway point, where the guidebooks say the scenery kind of dies out - and then take a bus back to Ibarra? "Si" was the response and he ushered me into the ticket room where I was shown the tourist price of 75,000 sucres($15) whereas the locals pay 9000 sucres or about $2. I kept hearing a "rapido", and knowing the train's starting time was only minutes away, deduced that they were trying to get me to hurry up. so I paid, snapped a quick shot of our train, and asked how I should get up on the roof. "Ventana" was the reply , so I got on the bus, walked to the back, climbed out the window, and with the help of Rudi, crawled up on the roof seconds before the train left the station.
How should I describe the train - most likely it is best described as a bus body with engine, set on a train carriage. It definitely looks like it does not belong on railroad tracks. The body was partially rusted, with some holes in it, and rivets were missing in numerous places - this we first noticed when we were on the roof. There was also a small snowplow shaped device attached at the front - we would find out later what that was for.
With me on the roof were two Swiss backpackers, Rudi and Sabine, and an Ecuadorian boy, most likely the son of the engine driver. Rudi and Sabine were on a 3 1/2 month trip around the western part of South America. They had just come from 2 plus weeks in Colombia where they had an excellent time, and were also planning time in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile, It was great to have them along - I would have felt conspicuously alone without them.
We left Ibarra on a downhill slope, hugging the side of a hill as we meandered toward the Rio Mira canyon, which was to take us on our journey. We made a couple crossing of the river, but none as spectacular as the first one, when we were 500m above the river gorge, riding on the roof of a train, with no safety railing on train or bridge! Many of the later crossings were also breathtakingly high above the river. We however didn't get any pictures here, as we were still working on how to sit ourselves on the roof. Reason being is that there was nothing- read my words -nothing, to hold onto up on the roof. At this time, the boy sat in the front, Rudi and Sabine were in the middle, and I was perched a meter or so behind them. We concluded that it was best to sit with our legs in a V shape, and have our arms as the third and fourth legs behind us. This was to be our sitting position - "mas o menus" for the next five hours. I had my jacket on and gloves as well, and felt chilly, but comfortable as our little train chugged along - guessing at about 25 - 30 km/hr. Did try to take a picture of our shadows as we passed some houses on the outskirts of Ibarra, but missed the shot of our train's shadow as we crossed the first bridge - a huge span over that deep gorge.
The scenery was fantastic, and the vegetation around us changed as we descended toward the coast. By 8:00 we were at 1500 m and we had entered what I termed was a desert habitat. Many cacti lined the tracks, and after having passed a couple of beautiful haciendas where the dogs chased our train for their morning exercise, we were now in an arid area. By 9:00 we had passed through 1200 m, and had made our first stop.
Shortly after 9, we had to stop as some workers were shoring up a section of track where the earth beneath and around the track was beginning to erode away. We waited for them to dump their load of earth in the proper place and then the workers dismantled their little carriage so that we could pass. 500 meters after we passed them I noticed a small rockslide which had spilled some large chunks of earth onto the rails. It was a split second of seeing what had happened but not really realizing what the consequences could be. A second later, Rudi yelled back at me, "We're going to hit!" and BANG we did - not a major collision, but just our train running into the immovable force - large clumps of earth on the track. The driver tried to reverse, but we were not only stuck in a pile of earth, but derailed as well, with the four of us still perched precariously on the roof. The driver sent one of the Ecuadorian passengers back to the workers for help while all those who were riding inside the car went out to inspect the landslide.
A few pictures and 10 minutes late the mounties arrived in the form of the four laborers whom we had just passed. They proceeded with pick and shovel to break the large chunks into smaller pieces and then shovel them away. After the front of the engine was cleared the engineer set the engine in reverse, and with the help of the men outside, the train was pushed back onto the track. We were still bogged however, and the engineer could only go in reverse, which he did so that the remainder of the track could be cleared. 30 minutes after the collision, we were on our way once again.
At times I was just amazed that Ecuador had actually run a railroad on this terrain - in many places they had to cut a ledge into the side of a steep cliff, which then had us hanging on the precipice, overlooking the river below. Many people know I'm a big Durango - Silverton fan, but this is much more of an adventure. I was amazed - here I am traveling by antique train in the middle of a South American jungle. At times we went through tunnels, sometimes getting wet from the water which was dripping from the ceiling, but all the while we descended to what was now at under 1000m, jungle and rain forest terrain.
We stopped at a few more villages along our 100 km stretch to Lita. The dwellings became increasingly run down until we saw what amounted to clapboard huts here in the jungle. A few together may have constituted a village, although some villages did support a church as well. In all cases however, when we passed a set of dwellings, the inhabitants heartily returned our waves.
The faces changed as well on our descent. What we had left in Ibarra - the brown Spaniard type skin had now turned to negro - as the area close to the coast is inhabited by blacks - descended I think from the slaves that were here over a hundred years ago. their income seems to be derived from an agricultural base - lots of sugar cane and banana plantations, especially farther toward the coast.
At Estacion Rio Blanco, we lost our Ecuadorian boy, who went inside the train. We were now at 700 m and were soon to learn why he had deserted us - the next 10 km of track as we ventured even deeper into the rain forest, was covered by such dense vegetation, that many of the tree branches reached down onto the roof of our train. Therefore what had started as some minimal swatting at tree branches turned into defending ourselves against the onslaught. About 10 km later we reached an area which had been pruned by the track workers, and the remainder of the journey was most enjoyable. Yes, here we were, traveling through the South American jungle.
Have I talked about the Rio Mira, our faithful companion on this epic? As expected he widened and widened and carried more water - a silty brown - as we continued further downstream. He would not let himself be breached except by an occasional hanging footbridge crossing the swift torrents.
I had shed my jacket at one of the first stops, and as we continued our descent, and the day wore on, each stop we made had us baking a little more in the sun. I took out a sweatshirt and wrapped it around my neck like a shawl for sun protection. Later in the deep jungle, a cloud cover protected us from the intense heat. The sun's heat was especially acute after a stop, when upon returning to our sitting place on the roof, we found it to be "mucho caliente" and too hot to sit on.
The tree ferns were now with us, as were many other species of plant which I could not identify. There were also some larger birds, resembling hawks, with a wing span of about a meter. Also the papaya trees were abundant.
At 11:44 we reached Lita, our end on this journey. We descended the train by putting our feet onto the open windows and then with the driver's hand to slow our fall, jumped the two meters down to the platform. Here at Lita station we had to show our passports to the Ecuadorian military, which is stationed as you cross from one state in this country to another.
They (the soldiers) actually escorted us through Lita and up to a restaurant (shack with plastic chairs set up under a sun roof) which would be at the local bus stop, for our ride back to Ibarra. The village was a number of wooden dwellings, but the locals were most friendly, volunteering "buenos tardes" as we walked along with our armored military escort - one ahead and one behind. I almost felt like we were in a military state.
We were now in 30° heat and the walk up to the restaurant was not as hard on the lungs as what we had been doing at higher altitudes, even with the heat. We did work up a sweat though. At the restaurant we attacked what we knew we could trust - Pepsi Cola - and then ate the local lunch menu - soup, chicken, rice, beans and potatoes.
The bus arrived as scheduled at 1:30, changed a tire, and we were on our way first over a gravel road, and later a paved stretch back to Ibarra. The best views here were on the left, so I didn't see much. There were good views of volcanic Mt. Imbaburra as we neared Ibarra, and even saw Mt. Cayumbe come out for a nice evening dance.
Can't leave out the Ibarra market - the smells were great! Now after the best shower in Ecuador, am back at the hostel's restaurant enjoying a nice evening fire and memories of a brilliant day.
PS. An added note - Rudi, Sabine and I joked that any engine driver on this train would not be able to get life insurance in the US or Europe. At least if he did it would have very high premiums.
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