Volcano Encounter

  Banos, Ecuador
Saturday, October 14, 2006

Coming out of the jungle with everything wet and smelly we arrived at the town of Banos which lies in the shadow of Tunguaraha which blew its top in July and again in August this year. Six people had died from the lava flows (basically they had not adhered to the evacuation order) and the town and surrounding area had been doused with a thick covering of ash.

We had checked the Foreign office travel web site and two days before we were to arrive in Banos it said that the area was not to be visited. On the next day, however it said that it could be visited with caution. I donīt know what this means - presumably it means we need to know where reverse gear is - but it is important because now our holiday insurance was valid again.

Unfortunately, on visiting the internet cafe in Banos, we learned of the death of my 87 year old aunt whilst we were out of contact in the jungle. She had been pretty weak when we left the UK so it was not completely unexpected. Not being available at the right time is one of the downsides of traveling to relatively remote areas and I think my aunt understood this when we used to visit her in between trips.

The news knocked the stuffing out of us a bit and we chose that night not to visit some of the thermal attractions of this lively town which was full of Gringos attracted by thrill of a fuming volcano.

Volcanoes were never far from our itinerary in Ecuador. We had already bathed in thermal springs and taken a boat ride across a bubbling water filled crater. On the way to climb yet another volcano (Chimborazu) we crossed the August flow of lava that had destroyed the main road to Riobamba. It was eerie to see the odd hotel sign still standing with absolutely no sign of the hotel itself.

Missing Hotel

As we viewed Tungurahua from a safe distance we witnessed at least three mighty explosions shooting black ash into the air in the direction of our next overnight stop.

Smoking

Today was the day that we would go to our highest altitude. We were planning to drive to the first shelter on Chimborazu at 4,800 metres and try and walk the next 200 to reach the second shelter. After our exploits on Mount Kinabalu we knew that a kilometer climb at this altitude was not going to be a walk in the park.

The minibus made up the slopes but we had zero visibility from the cloud that turned unexpectedly to snow before the first shelter. Our tour guide had never seen snow of this depth and our driver had not seen these conditions for eight years or so. Nevertheless Gill and I, Lucy and the guide, Sofy, ( Mark had a terrible cold and had been struggling with the altitude throughout the trip) set off up the snow covered trail. We made it to the 5,000 metre mark

5000 metres

which is made more interesting because the bulge of the equator makes this mountain top the nearest earthly point to the moon. On this measure I guess we were at the equivalent of 1,000 metres away from the top of Mount Everest. Martin (Roennebeck) could you please check the maths!

To date we have survived:

getting money from an unguarded ATM in Quito
taking a public bus to and from the cloud forest
two dodgy cable car rides over canyons
taking a boat ride on a bubbling volcano crater
floating down a jungle river with only two pairs of trunks for protection
spending two long nights in the jungle
sleeping literally underneath an exploding volcano with only a statue of the Virgin Mary for protection.
climbing at 5,000 metres

and now we were to take the death defying diabalo railway where gill had read in her guide book that it was more fun and a better view traveling on the carriage roof! Blimey you might say - I certainly do