November 25: This is not a damn train

On a stop in the mountains

Katy and Caitlin

This is a bus on tracks. Pooey.


November 25, 2009
Location: The damn "train"
Weather: Cool, cloudy and sunny

I am not pleased. Rarely am I disappointed on these trips but it's unanimous: we are not pleased. We're on a bus running on a train track. This is not the quaint, old-timey bus we were expecting. This is a bus running along the mostly-boring country side with a very loud, obnoxious guide shouting at us through her microphone and trying to get us to sing. I have slept for most of the trip.

We had been told that this train was one that people used to ride on top of to see the sides. "Used to" is the key verbiage, here. Apparently a couple dumb tourists sat too high when the train was going under a bridge and--whing!--were decapitated. Now, that's prohibited. Now, they've adapted the train to be a one-car bus on wheels.

I'd rather be climbing chimborazo at 20,000 feet.

Fortunately we've had a very pretty stop at a mountain pass that makes it look as if we're miles away from civilization (we are, I suppose...) but we've made the best of it!