Riobamba and a nice village called Guano

From Quito we caught a bus to the town of Riobamba. It was a nice place to spend two nights with its lovely churches and friendly hotel lady who cooked us a lovely meal.
There are some magnificent statues in Riobamba.
On our second day we caught a local bus to the next village which is called Guano. We went in search of a little tatty swimming pool which turned out to be a huge water park complex which turned out to be closed on Tuesdays.
Luckily Guano was a sweet place to wander round. A local official opened up the museum for us where the star attraction was a dead lady. Or gentlemen.

Climbing a hill at the end of the village near to the museum we found 'Inca' carvings in stone dotted about. These had in fact been made in the 1940's as a homage to genuine Inca works.

Sadly, or maybe luckily, the local cable car was not running. Apparently it only operates on Sundays and it is a pity we missed it in all its glory just to prove that it can in fact carry people across the valley without them plunging to their deaths. Never before had we seen or heard of a home-made cable car but this had all the hall-marks of a contraption knocked together in a shed by a local crazy boffin. The pictures show fairly well how brave you would need to be to cross. The small car is suspended from a wire which is tied around a brick building at each end of a wide valley. Supporting the cable as it leaves the 'station' are some stones. You've got to love the South American disregard for personal safety.




All around this part of Ecuador, whenever the clouds clear, there are fantastic views to be had of the surrounding volcanoes.