Alausí is a hillside town in the Ecuadorian Andes with a railway platform at its heart, and the railway is the reason most people have heard of it. The town perches at about 2,300 metres in the province of Chimborazo, and a few blocks from the main square the Nariz del Diablo, the Devil's Nose, drops away. This is a sheer rock spur that the railway engineers of the early twentieth century could cross only by a system of zigzag switchbacks, in which the train descends by running forward onto one track, reversing down the next, and so on. It was part of the line between Guayaquil and Quito, an immense undertaking, and a symbol of national unity. Today a tourist train runs from Alausí down the switchbacks and back.
The town itself is small and slightly steep, with a church, a pleasant main square and a long street of shops leading downhill. A large statue of Saint Peter stands on a hill above the town, looking over the valley. People here are mostly farmers, and on market days the plaza fills with produce from the surrounding slopes.
The road to Alausí is part of the Panamerican Highway, which runs along the central valley of Ecuador, between the two ranges of the Andes, and is known as the Avenue of the Volcanoes. Coming from the north, the road passes the city of Riobamba, under the snow-capped Chimborazo, which at 6,263 metres is the highest mountain in Ecuador, and because of the Earth's bulge at the equator, its summit is the point farthest from the planet's centre. The riding is good, with long curves through open highland, farm fields and small villages, but altitude brings chill and fog, and landslides can close the road in the rainy season. Take warm clothing, because even at the equator these heights are cold.
Fuel is available in the town and in larger places on the highway, and a few simple restaurants serve soup, grilled meat and potatoes. The dry months, from June to September, are the best for clear mountain views. Leave time to see the railway, and consider an early train, when the valley is full of morning mist.