On our way from Quito to Cuenca we decided to take a detour and check out a train that goes down a mountain called "Nariz del Diablo"...in english, The Devil's Nose. We had heard that this ride was beautiful, but slightly hair-raising. The first reason is that the train switchbacks down the steep face of a mountain and, secondly, that they allow people to sit on top of the train cars.
When we arrived we were a bit disappointed to find out that they no longer allow passengers to sit on top of the train because two people had been decapitated during the ride in recent years. The passenger cars were filled so our next best option was a cargo car. We actually, ended up having a better view because our windows were from floor to ceiling.
We began moving out of town toward the edge of the mountain when, BAMM, the train came to an abrupt stop. Apparently, there was a pile of logs set too close to the train tracks and the train ran over a couple and derailed. Immediately, the train's crew began working to get the car back on the track. It wasn't long before a good portion of the town's on-lookers began pitching in to help get this train on the track.
About two hours later and two feet further away from the train track we began to think this trip down the mountain wasn't going to happen. We also knew that a refund was less than likely.
Amazingly, they managed to get the car back on track and we began our journey down the mountain. The ride yielded beautiful views and there were plenty of points where there wasn't much more dirt under us than the width of the track. Thank goodness we hadn't derailed further down the mountain because if we had, there wouldn't have been anywhere for the train car to go but down.
We made it all the way down the mountain and most of the way back up when we felt the familiar halt we'd experienced at the beginning of the trip. We had derailed AGAIN! Expecting a similar timeline for repairs, a handful of people began walking back into town. Surprisingly, the crew had the train back on the track and moving in about 10 minutes. We were satisfied with our decision to stick with the train when we passed the people who decided to hoof it.
Guess what happened another five minutes after we started moving...yep, we derailed AGAIN!
At this point Brandon and I joined the faithless group of walkers. We made it most of the way back into town when we heard the train coming from behind us. Luckily, the engineer slowed down so that we could jump back on the train.
And there's another thing we can check off of the list of things to do before we die...jumping onto a moving train.
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