www.ecuadors.org

[Becky]

Hi there,

We will be travelling in ecuador next month and were wondering if anyone could help us with transport information. We plan to travel from Riobamba on the train but are unsure whether we can easily get to Guayaquil from here after the recent volcanic eruption? Any local knowledge would be appreciated!

Thanks

[Lenny]

buses are running fine so that's not a problem to get to Guayaquil. But where are you planning to do that from? The train isn't a normal service, it's a very touristic thing, so normally folks take the train from Riobamba and then the bus back to Riobamba. I don't think you can take the train all the way to Guayaquil, I know there used to be such a line, but when I took it the line ended at some town starting with an S that is just a little ways from Alausi.
So you could potentially take the bus from Alausi to Guayaquil, but it's a small town so you'd want to check the bus schedule to make sure that the bus is coming through town that afternoon.

[Ilya]

Riobamba is 85km north of Alausi - that is, 84 km farther away from Guayaquil. So it definitely makes the most sense to try and go from alausi to Guayaquil. I am sure there are folks that have done that, but unfortunately, my guidebook (Footprint guide, which is the most comprehensive I've found) doesn't detail that info. What I'd do is check with the South American Explorers Club in Quito - they know just about everything, their office is near the Mariscal.

Oh wait, I also have the Let's Go guide, and they do have this bus info!
Buses to Guayaquil depart at 9am and 1pm. Whether those times will work depends on the train that day. The day I went the train ran only from alausi (didn't depart in riobamba) and was actually an autoferro (a bus that runs on the tracks, has seats on top as well as inside) - and the ride was about 1hr, and there were two departures that day because there were so many people - one at 11am or 11:30, and the next at 12-12:30. It's first come -first served. So you'd have to be sure to get on the early train to make the bus to Guayaquil.

My brothers-in-law took the train from Riobamba, and when you do that it's the steam engine, not the autoferro, and they felt it was well worth the extra hours on the train, and have spectacular photos of the Chimborazo volcano. If you do it that way, I'm not sure that you get back in time for the bus to Guayaquil, you may have to add a couple of hours to your travel time and head back to riobamba to catch the bus to Guayaquil from there.