nariz del diablo and mike schimdt

yep, i had a wonderful day, if a poor evening. i didn't sleep but a wink at the second rate hotel i was stuck with last night. good thing it was only 3 bucks - the other places were booked solid... anyway i woke up, went to the train station at 6:10 and was told that i'd have to go to alausi in a bus and meet the train there, that there were too many people already on board. ok, so i get on this bus and head off to alausi which is a really nice little town in the middle of rolling hills and mountains - and it has the requisite religious statue overlooking the town and smiting anyone who goes astray. on the way i meet this guy - mike schmidt - a yank who's travelling by himself. we get to chatting and such and things are ok. so we get on the bus / train (it wasn't the real bus like in the pictures but a smaller bus attached to a train chassis...). the scenery is pretty wonderful. we had to ride inside on the way down the nariz but got the upstairs on the way back. it's impressive, steep descents with switchbacks that send you down the sides of the mountains. and the valley floor, with the requisite river etching it's way along is impressive. i snapped a tonne of pics - on the way down you're basically facing the luck of the draw as one of the sides faces rockface and the other blissful valley splendor. it changes about 10 minutes in and in our favour (as we were rockfacing it for the first bit) and reveals the wonder and beauty of a million shades of green. on the ride up, feet dangling over the side it's more of the same although that much more touristy goodness as you dangle over the edge and snap pic after pic without wrestling with the frames of the window. it was a good day - mostly sunny - and quite warm. i've heard that the first part is pretty frigid but we were amply dressed in long shirts and pants.

and riobamba is a very nice, cuenca-ish place, with regal churches and cobblestone streets in abundance. mike shmidt and i walked about took in the scenery along the way. he's a retired special ed teacher who's addicted to travelling. he's already pegged 40 countries under his belt, collecting passport stamps like baseball cards. we chatted about bush for a bit - he hates him too, and he's from ohio and therefore winced when i reminded him of the importance ohio played in the election. he's also collected quite the number of books about people named mike schmidt that aren't him - i brought up the baseball player.