Day 925
Alausi
We had originally planned to wild camp on New Year’s Eve, but what with fewer miles ridden, neither of us 100%, and often cold wet nights we decided to treat ourselves and have 3 nights in Alausi, and what a good decision it turned out to be.
The town itself is fairly compact, a grid of streets spread out over the valley floor, a small hill in the centre dominates the skyline, with the monument to Saint Peter, the patron Saint of the city, standing on top. It was designed and built by Ecuadorian artist, Eddie Crespo. There are several churches, the most important and largest being ‘La Matriz’ which was built in the 18th century. The rest of the buildings in Alausi are nearly all over 100 years old. It had a charm we hadn’t seen in many small towns in Ecuador.
Alausi is also famous as a railway town. Back in the late 1800s the decision was made to build a railway linking Quito to Guayaquil. This was an unbelievably difficult undertaking, especially with the technology available at the time. The start on the coastal plains to the end at the central plateau was relatively straightforward, it was linking it together that was a technological nightmare. In 1901 the decision was taken to run the line between Alausi and Sibambe, along a mountain side known as Condor Aerie, but now re-named ‘The Devil’s Nose’ due to the sheer number of deaths among the workforce. Of the 3,000 Jamaicans and 1,000 Puerto Ricans who worked on the project an estimated 2,000 were killed and are now buried there. Just pause a moment, 50% of the workforce died.
To run the train along the side of a mountain, dropping 500 metres over a distance of just 12 kilometres was achieved by a series of switchbacks. The train would run along past one junction, back down the next section, then would go forward again. This way, the train could make its way downhill.
Due to lack of investment and low demand most of the railway line had fallen into disuse, however the Devil’s Nose section remained a massively popular tourist attraction and ensured prosperity for Alausi. Covid in 2020 halted the use of the line. Then, just when it hoped to reopen, Alausi was hit by a massive landslide in March 2023. The road in and the railway line were buried. 57 houses were destroyed and a further 163 were damaged. Tragically the human cost was high too. A local lady told us that 36 people had been killed and a further 43 are classified as missing, their bodies buried deep within the landslide still. It was such a sad sight to see the scene of the landslide and the impact on the town.
In Ecuador we knew New Year’s Eve would be special, all towns celebrating with a mix of local and national traditions. Alausi was clearly in the mood to say goodbye to 2023. Firstly, families construct a ‘scarecrow’. These are placed outside the home, with posters proclaiming just what they want to leave behind in 2023. The President, the government, the situation with the train and the economy were all popular topics. We had heard a lot of locals express their frustrations with how the country is run. From being an exporter of surplus electricity provided by hydroelectric power, they now suffer regular power cuts due, it’s said, to corruption and bad management. Next, young men dress up as women, and stop cars in the street, the driver then pays a fine to be allowed to pass. The young men dance in front of the cars, and as the evening wore on it was clear more and more cars full of families were driving round ready to pay the fine. It didn’t stop at car drivers, no. Any passer-by could be picked on. Tom and I appeared to be the only gringos in town, and being 6’4” he stood out. Naturally we were expected to join in the dancing before paying our fine! In between dances we wandered around, admiring all the scarecrows, families appeared to be drinking a very potent brew, a glass of hot strong spirit. Naturally we were offered glass after glass, it seemed to get stronger as the evening wore on! In amongst this, pretty much every child in the town, and a fair few of the adults, were setting off small fireworks, right there in the street. As the night wore on the numbers grew, by midnight it was a crazy free-for-all! Naturally there was a live band playing, with some fantastic musicians, food stalls on every street corner and family after family, cars finally abandoned, were walking through the streets. As the New Year dawned, all the scarecrows were set alight, the smoke from them and the fireworks created such a fog of smoke it was hard to breath let alone see. We returned to our hotel, handed the children there some fireworks, watched their scarecrow burn and headed for bed. It had been such a fun family event with all the locals turning out to support their town, the mood remained good humoured all night, we loved being part of it.
Tomorrow though, just the not-so-small matter of cycling up the hill out of there.
