Your Travel Experience with chilepro
Riobamba - Urbina - La Moya - Riobamba
The adventure begins in Riobamba, a typical Andean city nestled in the central Andes of Ecuador. The view on a clear day is impressive: the Altar or Capac Urku volcano rises on the horizon with its summit topped by five peaks. To the north, there is the majestic Chimborazo - the highest peak in Ecuador and later, if you are lucky, you can see the timid Carihuairazo briefly peeping out of the fog. As the train ascends from Riobamba to the highlands of Chimborazo, the temperature drops to almost zero degrees.
In the station of Urbina you wait for Baltazar Ushca, the man who faces low temperatures and ascends to 4,000 meters to extract fossil ice from the sides of the Taita (father) Chimborazo. While visiting the station and shelter in Urbina, Baltazar will tell you that he is one of the last people to perpetuate the tradition of going once a week to visit the Taita Chimborazo to ask it to "give its" ice, then we will taste a delicious paila ice cream. Just before returning to Riobamba, you stop at La Moya where the descendants of the Puruhá wait to tell you what life is like - formerly secret - in the Andes and share a typical lunch in the moors of Chimborazo.