La nariz del Diablo (a chapter for bikers out there)

It takes around 6 hours on a bus from Banos in the central highlands to Cuenca in the southern highlands. On a motorcycle it would have taken probably less than 4 hours if it wasn’t for all the breaks we took to enjoy the sceneries.

What can I say: what a road!
Let’s start in the right order though.

We already know about the Banos-Ambato.

From Ambato to Rio Bamba its 60 kms of boring road with old buses and trucks expelling black diesel fumes in your face......well, Ok, you have the 6300 meters volcano Chimborazo on the right side to look at.

It is just after Rio Bamba that everything changes again.

For some strange reason the road has no traffic whatsoever; you find yourself back at around 3000 meters with cultivated hills and a river running in parallel to your road.

Then, as you climb further up the cultivated hills disappear, living space to uncultivated paramo and a couple of lagunas.

The road begins its descent after Guamote.

Black clouds are hiding the top of the mountains on the right side, but luckily the sky above us is clear, no rain, just the chill of the altitude.

We turned a corner and the altipiano immediately leaves space to a canyon: it’s the so called Nariz del Diablo (devil’s nostril).

The road is pretty much in perfect condition, if not for a small land slide around a corner.

We reach the town of Alausi where, according to all travel guides, we should jump on a train that climbs down the cliff on a zigzag trajectory.

We obviously stick to the bike and we are glad we do so. The road goes up first just to dive down to the river after. But it is not over. Crossed a small bridge over the river it is now time to climb back up at the other side of the canyon on what it looks like a very steep road.

From time to time we dive into small clouds sitting in the middle of the road, just to come out with our visors covered in drizzle.

We drive through few more villages until we reach the small village of Biblian. This village, at 2900 would be unimpressive if it wasn’t for the beautiful Santuario de la Virgin del Rocio, a castle like church sitting on top of a hill.

At Azogues is where the fun ends. We are now back to a modern 3 lines road that takes us straight to the town of Cuenca.

It’s 4 pm when we hit town and we finally realise that we were so absorbed with our route that we completely forgot to have lunch.