Re: G&Q Lasso and Cotopaxi

John,

We are not doing any of the former TUT tours. This our own tour planned and operated by our company. Wings and Rails will be operating our tour as Steam in Ecuador from Sept 25 to Oct 4 2009. This is different dates than TUT was planning.


It will be tough year for tour operators. We have been to Ecuador this past week and know what is being done and what the railroad can do. Much of the work that was expected to be done by 2008 has not been finished. It is more realistic to believe that trackage from Sibambe to Urbina and Latacunga to Quito will be ready for increased train traffic.

Don't expect the Chan Chan canyon to be open in 2009. In fact that is why we are not planning any operations out of Duran this year. I think that this will low on the priority list for 2009 repairs. Improvements have been done and things could be better off than for the last 15 years on parts of the railroad.

We will our itinerary on our website at www.wingsandrails.com. I expect we will have our updated website up soon. Write to us at tourdesk@wingsandrails.com.


Dale Brown
Wings and Rails International Expeditions