Rushing down the mountains on the Devil's Nose Train

Today, October 2, we have been travelling for exactly six months. So much time has gone since we left Geneva on April 2. We have seen and experienced so many things: national parks, colonial towns, gorgeous landscapes, sea and mountains, deserts and forests. The journey of our lifetime, simply amazing.

Our camper is running smoothly now, like a Swiss watch, let’s hope this lasts… at least for a while… Despite being so thrilled to have our old self camper, we decided to park it for a while to take… a train… Some of     you might remember the Nescafé train, this great advertisement that was on air in Europe in the 90s… well, we took a similar train, called the Devil’s Nose Train (Nariz del Diablo) running down the mountains among beautiful landscapes. Unfortunately, we could not sit on the roof, but it was great all the same! The rail tracks were built in the late 19th century to link Quito to the coast. It was a great technological achievement at the time; the train runs across mountains that are sometimes so steep it does not allow for curves, so the rail tracks zigzag using switchbacks, quite impressive. No cogwheels like we have in Switzerland though. 

After this, we visited our first Inca site, Ingapirca and drove to Cuenca, where we are now. We are planning to cross into Peru tomorrow or Saturday, another new country. As Peru is running on 220V, we bought a voltage transformer for our camper, the biggest we could find, better be safe than sorry; it can handles 3’000V, should be sufficient for all our electrical appliances, fridge, microwave, AC, water pump, water heater and lights… This device weights ten kilos, one more thing to store in the camper. Peru runs on 50Hz, same as in the US, however, I have read that Bolivia, Chile and Argentina run on 60Hz…I am not too sure what this means, we will investigate when we get there, one thing at the time.

We liked Ecuador very much: the roads are fantastic, the best we have had since leaving the US. The country is beautiful; people are straightforward and honest, no tricks being played, and very relaxed at the same time. A very cool country, wish it was bigger, but unfortunately Peru snatched a significant part of it in a war some decades ago!