Chiva Express Tuesday - Thursday - Saturday Quito-Riobamba-Cuenca - 3-days/2-nights Quito-Riobamba-Guayaquil or Quito - 2-days/1-night Quito-Riobamba-Cuenca - 4-days/3-nights Cotopaxi National Park - One Day Cotopaxi National Park + Hacienda - One Day

Chiva Express - by Metropolitan Touring:

A Chiva is a typical, old-fashioned Latin American bus, with plenty of room on the roof for bags of grain, bananas and the odd chicken. In Quito, these buses have taken on a new lease of life as party vehicles with adapted, high-sided roofs. Typically, someone hires a chiva for a celebration, invites all their friends to ride on top, the bus drives around the streets of Quito, an oompa-oompa brass band banging out favorite tunes, while Andean canelazo drinks are liberally poured.

Metropolitan Touring has adapted the chiva idea to the historic train ride from Quito to Guayaquil. Our passengers will enjoy an exclusive and unique trip through the Andean countryside and the coastal lowlands on board our Chiva Express - specially adapted for safety and comfort, while complementing the fun of the ride. Canelazo and brass band optional.

The Avenue of the Volcanoes:
Discover what in 1802 the German scientist Alexander Von Humboldt called the “Avenue of the Volcanoes”.  The route is surrounded by snowcapped summits and the mystical beauty that, in times past, nourished the mythology of early cultures and later provided incentive to the conquering Spanish to settle here.  Brooks and rivers run down from the mountains past small villages of adobe houses and terraced farmlands  

By Chiva to Cotopaxi::
Surrounding Cotopaxi Volcano is the Cotopaxi National Park, an ecological sanctuary of 36,000 hectares (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 condor.