The Chiva Express

 

The Chiva Express is a one-coach train, much like a bus on tracks. Traditionally, a chiva is a typical, old-fashioned Latin American bus, with open sides, so that passengers can hop on and off easily, and plenty of room on the roof for bags of grain, bananas and other parcels. Typically, chivas would be hired for a celebration, where the hosts would invite all their friends to ride on top as the bus drove around the streets of Quito with a brass band banging out favorite tunes and Andean canelazo drinks liberally poured. Moreover, the chivas themselves were a colorful part of the landscape. Now, the  Chiva Express is a unique combination of a chiva with a train, decorated with rustic paintings by a local indigenous artist from the town of Tigua (Cotopaxi) depicting the landscape, festivities and legends of the sites found along the journey.

As the Chiva Express advances along the ancient railway, the mood aboard makes you adjust to another tempo, and leisurely enjoy the way of traveling of past centuries. You are taken from the patchworks of the Andean crops, remote indigenous huts and the imposing "Avenue of the Volcanoes" to the lush tropical coastal vegetation and wooden farmhouses on stilts. One of the highlights of the trip is to "ride the roof" with a panoramic view of the stunning Andean region of Ecuador. Disembark at the station of Machachi, at the foot of the Cotopaxi, where after a light snack you will ascend by motorcoach up to the moorlands for a short hike and a close contact with this unique ecosystem. Surrounding Cotopaxi Volcano is the Cotopaxi National Park, an ecological sanctuary of 88,920 acres, especially attractive for nature lovers, with the treeless vegetation of the Andean moorlands or paramo. Bird life includes the Andean gull, ducks, several species of hummingbirds and with some luck, the majestic Andean Condor.