Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Robert Selwitz

The 60-plus miles from Quito to Cuenca, Ecuador, can easily be covered in fewer than six hours by car or in one hour by plane. But those who choose to fly miss some truly fascinating sites. My wife and I learned this during a recent three-day, two-night road excursion.

Our first major stop was Cotopaxi National Park, 37 miles south of Quito. Glacier-draped and nearly 20,000 feet high, Cotopaxi, which our guide said was the world's highest active volcano, exemplifies Ecuador's topography.

Cotopaxi is a favorite site for many outdoor enthusiasts. Expert climbers attempt to reach to the peak (definitely not for amateurs), while many others enjoy mountain biking or hiking Cotopaxi's trails. En route, everyone encounters the paramo, a moorlike ecosystem that has great ability to store water and is located between the tree line and the tundra. A significant portion of water consumed in Quito comes from the fragile paramo.

Named for and bisected by the Equator, Ecuador enjoys some unique traits. For example, great heights here do not necessarily equate to great cold. Indeed, up and down Cotopaxi and other Ecuadorian mountains there's a huge diversity of plant and animal life, much of it living far higher than anywhere else on Earth. It is this altitudinal diversity that makes visiting the Cotopaxi ecosystem so interesting.

Heading south, we stopped for lunch at the Hacienda San Agustin de Callo. Today a comfortable dining and lodging establishment, it started life as an Inca palace and later became the base for a monastery. Along with potato soup, ceviche and other national favorites, we had a chance to roam a property that retains many of its original Inca stonewalls. These are made from smooth, perfectly symmetrical stones that interlock without use of any mortar. Also here is a herd of friendly llamas that interact nicely with visitors.

Afterward, we drove within view of the always-smoking, 14,456-foot-high Tungurahua volcano, which keeps all nearby residents constantly on alert. This scenario, however, does not deter villagers from joyous celebrations of special feast days with parades, dancing and flamboyant costumes. We encountered one en route to visiting a rose plantation that airlifts much of its product north to the United States and Canada. Roses are the nation's fourth most important export following oil, bananas and shrimp.

Day two started in Banos (baths), located in the Tungurahua foothills. Despite its proximity to the volcano — which in 1999 forced almost everyone to flee an eruption — Banos is a major vacation site for Ecuadorians. They come for a wide range of outdoor activities that include zip-lining across the Pastaza River and the chance for the truly fit to descend along the walls of the Devil's Canyon, a roiling narrow gorge, to hikes or treks to nearby waterfalls, rafting and mountain biking.

There's also plenty to enjoy within the city. Banos is a lively market town where visitors can sample extraordinary roast pig and visit the Basilica of Our Lady of the Holy Waters, which was constructed from black volcanic rock. Inside the walls are covered with paintings that depict life-saving scenes in which the Virgin Mary miraculously interceded to save villagers from drowning, Tungurahua eruptions and other modes of certain death. As its name implies, Banos is also a great spot to soak out stress in its dozens of thermal banos, or spas.

Heading south again, past the aptly named Valley of the Waterfalls, we encountered Riobamba, or rather its second rendition. What is seen today was constructed after an earthquake destroyed the original circa-1600s city. Points of interest include the "new" Santa Barbara Cathedral, which is fronted by a portion of the original church. It was rescued from the ruins of the devastating 1797 earthquake and ultimately placed at the front of its replacement.

Our third and final day started early, with a morning dash to hit a remnant of the railway that once briefly connected costal Guayaquil and Andean Quito, 287 miles apart.

In those pre-car, late 19th- and early 20th-century days, rail represented a real alternative to overland foot and animal slogs that could take weeks or months.

While celebrations engulfed Quito when the first Guayaquil and Quito Railway train reached the capital in 1908, its glory days were short-lived. Corruption, lack of proper maintenance, and the rise of car and truck transport all contributed to the railroad's demise. Today some sections still carry limited amounts of freight , but the only passenger services are the round-trip three-hour excursions that currently operate three times daily out of Alausi, a delightful market town,

Via the restored service, which started up again three years ago, the route links Alausi with Devil's Nose Canyon, 2,630 feet below and 8.3 miles away. Passengers ride renovated cars pulled by rebuilt engines that take about a half -hour to descend. The need to alternate forward and reverse movements along switchbacks required by the fact that the train is essentially descending along a canyon wall means that there are plenty of great photo opportunities, particularly because passengers are allowed to open the windows to take pictures.

Upon arrival at the lower station, passengers get an hour's break to explore a museum that details the history and sagas produced by the construction of this route. There's also time for a complimentary snack before getting back onboard for the return ride to the surface. During transit the highlights are narrated in several languages, including English.

Before or after the train ride, Alausai itself is worth exploring, particularly if it's a market day. This is a much less frequently visited area, and seemingly few of those who come for the train trip venture much farther than the rail station. But in the open-air market there are plenty of places to buy hats and embroideries as well as to watch Quechua natives shopping the old-fashioned way.

Our final major stop before reaching Cuenca — roughly 60 miles to the south — was the ruins of the ancient ceremonial site at Ingapirca, Ecuador's largest pre-Columbian site. Current research dates the original city to the 14th century, and until the Incas arrived it was a stronghold of the Canari people. But between 1470 and 1480, fewer than 70 years before the Spanish arrived, the Incas conquered the city.

Both Canari and Inca cultures closely followed astronomy, particularly patterns of the sun. Indeed, the most impressive structure here is a circular enclosure atop platforms that is assumed to be a temple to the sun. The temple features the Inca architectural signature of finely chiseled, tightly fitted stones. Also here is an irrigation network that presumably supplied the entire community with running water.

Nearby are a museum and a small inn with a fine restaurant serving tasty Ecuadorian specialties. This proved to be a perfect tonic for the extensive walks needed to fully appreciate Ingapirca. While local guides were available, most spoke no English, so seeing Ingapirca with a savvy guide from a tour company enhanced our appreciation of this ruin and the long-gone civilizations that built and used it.

WHEN YOU GO

Metropolitan Touring specializes in short and extended explorations of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina: www.metropolitan-touring.com.

Hacienda San Agustin de Callo: www.incahacienda.com

The Devil's Nose rail ride: www.ecuadortravelsite.org/alausi_train.html

Ingapirca Ruins: www.ecuador.us/ingapirca.htm

Robert Selwitz is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM