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Riobamba
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Capital of Chimborazo Province. The Pana climbs up to the paramo past the small town of Mocca, skirting the eastern slopes of Carihuairazo and Chimborazo, crosses the pass and then drops down into Riobamba Valley.
It's only an hour from Ambato, but for each half hour of travel you feel as if you were going back a century. Two more completely unlike provincial capitals located so close to each otherwould be hard to image.
Although Riobamba, at 8,993 ft is only 589 ft higher than Ambato, it feels much colder, perhaps because of the wind seeping down off the glaciers of Chimborazo.
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Sibambe
A few miles southwest of Alausí is Sibambe, a stop on the Guayaquil - Riobamba - Quito railway line. Betweem Alausí and Sibambe the famous Nariz del Diablo
The Devil's Nose. (Nariz del Diablo) is the most spectacular part of the journey where the line zig zags up the side of a sheer cliff on a switchback. This shot is taken from Sibambe looking up at the upper zig zag. You can see the lower line below the train which has reversed up to the switch at the right.
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The province of Chimborazo is named after the highest Ecuadorian mountain (20.702 feet above sea level), the third highest elevation in America after the Aconcagua in the Chilean-Argentinean border and the Huascarán in Peru. The summit of the Chimborazo is the furthest point from the center of the Earth, as it is crossed by the Equatorial line, where the Earth is wider. Thus, if measured from the center of the Earth, the Chimborazo would be the highest mountain on the planet. The majestic Chimborazo has attracted adventurers and scientists such as Humboldt and Whimper and has inspired artists and writers.
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