Explore The Most Thrilling Train Journey In the World

Join TS Correspondent Shozeb Haider on the most thrilling train journey in the world.

- Shozeb Haider

Small road diverts off the busy pan-American Highway in Southern Ecuador, towards a quaint little town perched high up on the edge of the river Chanchan Canyon. Wrapped in a permanent shroud of mist from rolling clouds that get trapped by the mighty Andes surrounding it on three sides, the town of Alausídoes not feature on any tourist maps. The highlight is a huge statue of the town’s patron saint, San pedro, who keeps an ever-watchful eye on the cobblestone streets, lined by old multicoloured houses with wooden balustrade balconies.

Alausí is a crucial stop on the Tranandino railway, which runs along the Andean spine of the country from Quito in the mountains to Guayaquil on the pacific coast. Travelling from the coast up into the mountains was arduous before the train tracks were laid. During the dry season, the journey could take up to two weeks and when it rained too much, the mountains became hazardous and impassable. The greatest obstacle lay 130 km east of Guayaquil, beyond the town of Sibambe, in the form of a mountain that notoriously blocked the passage of the railway. In local parlance, the Nizag people addressed it as “Condor pununa” - the sacred nest of the condors.

The mountain, 984ft high, is shaped like a cone with perpendicular sides, resembling a nose. The pistishi’s nose, as it is often called, divides the steep canyon of Chanchán river into two deep ravines: one that goes to Alausí and other into the wilderness of the Andean mountains.