Tag Archives: Alausí

Alausí

The town of Alausí is home to less than 6,000, but it exudes a charm that would fill a larger city. The buildings are colorful:

Alausí

The food is colorful:

Lunch at El Mesón del Tren

The train station is colorful:

Alausí train station

Alausí train station

The interior of the small nearby church was colorful:

Small church in Alausí

Even the wares on the streets hit you with color:

Colors of Alausí

I’m going to skip ahead and save the Devil’s Nose scenic railroad trip for next week. For now I’d like to mention a charming little place where we ate lunch immediately following our rail journey. This would be El Mesón del Tren (The Inn of the Train), just a few minutes walk from the train station:

El Mesón del Tren

Inside we were greeted with a pleasant atmosphere, friendly staff, and good food:

El Mesón del Tren for lunch

Welcome to Alausí, Ecuador

Thursday, February 18, 2016 proved to be a very busy one for our tour group. We left Cuenca and were due at the beautiful resort La Andaluza north of Riobamba later that afternoon. In between we would drive high up into the Andes, catch a breathtaking train, and visit the oldest mission in Ecuador, all in just one day.

The road to Alausí

The bus ride was fairly spectacular, as you can see from the photo above. What we didn’t realize just yet was that the railroad tracks you see far below in the next photograph was where we would be going later that day:

The Devil’s Nose railway tracks

But before our date with this scenic train, we would first would have to crest some high terrain, and descend to reach Alausí:

The road to Alausí

Alausí from above

We reached Alausí with plenty of time to spare, so with almost an hour to wait for our train, Ursula and I hit the town for some quick sightseeing:

Alausí

Alausí

Alausí

Alausí