To the coast via Loja to Guayaquil.

We continued going south for 200km to Loja after enjoying another good breakfast at our place. Seemed to take forever to get there and found our hotel just on the outskirts of town. Had a large room with three beds and a TV and a decent bathroom but it was very clean and the owner couldn't do enough for us.
There are no real attractions here and no tourists and dont know why we came here but it's  the last big town before Peru,  which is 150km further south. We walked around the town and being  Saturday it was busy with all the locals shopping and what have you and we were the only Gringo's around. We found a real nice restaurant for food and libation and had some tasty pork ribs for dinner with a beer and Charmain woofed down some chicken and mushrooms with rice and salad.
On Sunday it rained most of the day and had to sneak out between showers for lunch and then  watched the Patriots win another Super Bowl !
Well that was Loja, just another normal Ecuadorian town which was fairly clean and friendly. The hotel served healthy portions of fruit salad and juice with milk coffee, scrambled eggs and toast and there was nobody else staying there, I  sure feel for the owner because i don't know how they survive.
We left Loja for Guayaquil which was quite a drive going over the Andes, took four hours going over all the passes and dropping down to the coast and then another four hours along the coastal road to Guayaquil. We arrived at 5pm and the roads were all snarled up bit we found a hotel, was not ideal but it turned out to be okay in the end and we stayed two nights. We were a ten minute walk to where the riverfront restaurants are through a little sketchy area but it was fine. Found some surprisingly good food and a Pisco Sour so Charmain was happy.

The following  day we walked the entire promenade which is maybe 2.5km and it was hot and muggy. There is a small hill with colorful houses on and from the top you have a great view of the city. Charmain didn't  want to walk up so I went and tried to go up the stairs and an old man sitting nearby indicated to me I  can't  go up there, and then with his index finger slashed his throat several times , so I moved on. I then found nother set of stairs and proceeded up them with two policemen and they questioned me and then escorted me to the safe area and told me not to leave that particuar staircase. I proceeded up 444 stirs to the top of the hill where you had panaromic vies of the city. On my way down i tried to go off the main path and and  locl girl stopped me and made the throat slashing gesture and pointed where I was to go, so I giess it ws not a place to mess with,  never had that happen before.
We then found the iguana park and the main church in the city which ws being pinted by about ten guys dangling from ropes with a six inch paintbrush.
Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and has nothing really for tourists to see or do except for the river promenade which they have done a great job of,  but other than that it comes with the squalor and stench and poverty like the rest of South America .

Next stop Cuenca.

Driving in the Andes just seems to take forever,  the roads are good but they just twist and turn and up and down the passes constantly. So it takes while to go short distances like to Cuenca took maybe four hours but you look on the map and it doesn't look that far away.
Our place in Cuenca was real nice room with a sitting area in this chaps house, he lived in another house next door and we had the entire place to ourselves. We stayed three day's and explored the city which hs some neat architecture and was clean and had a relaxed feel to it, nothing like Quito.
We did a hike in the mountains at twelve thousand feet and that was nice except for breathing, your lungs burn and just not a good feeling overall at that height.
The room is only $32 a day and he serves a real good breakfast  with secure parking and cross the road we got a lunch of soup, chicken, rice and salad with a fresh mango juice and a bowl of popcorn for $2 each.

Dumb Train Ride.

We left after  breakfast only to see we had a half a flat wheel , so the owner pumped it up and off we went back through Banõs to Alausi.
 I had seen something about The Devil Nosed Train ride which sounded real interesting as it was carved into the steep mountainside and over 2500 died building the darn thing. We found our hotel The Europa which was a fine old establishment that needs a little TLC. We toured the town which is real small and had dinner and hit the sack but could hardly sleep with the excitement of the following day's train trip.

After an Ecuadorian beakfast we marched off to the train staion for the big event. We had assigned seats on the right hand side, but the train was not jam packed with tourists,
which was a relief. Down the valley we went, it drops 500 meters in less thn 12km as it zig zags down the rocky slopes of the Andes to Simbabe where it stops for an hour. This is where I was eaten alive by some bloody tiny black like flies that itched like crazy for several day's worse than ny mozzie bites.
 Anyhow at this overlong stop the indigenous people performed their dance and you could check out their dwellings,  which I didn't participate in, but I did buy a slice of pizza which I  regretted.
Then back on the train finally and 20 minutes later we were back at the station in Alausi. I thought it was going to be several hours actually riding on the train, not 20 minutes then wait an hour and then 20 minutes back up, was kinda disappointing and touristy.
I went from Vic Falls to Bulawayo in a compatment with bedding for an overnight journey infirst class for $12 US. Admittedly there was no shower or toilet on the train because they hd stolen everything and there was no lights working either and I ws the only white guy on the train. I could have done that trip three times as oppsed to th Devil Nosed Train trip cost.
The following day we left for Cuenca.