Erupting volcanoes, cyrstal clear lagunas and a peeing mud man.

A wee lady to start todays rambling.









Hola, Que tal?? (See ive got this lingo sussed, so long as no-one replies anyhow)

So how are we all today? I don´t know about where you are, but here the weather is a little bizarre. There seems to be frequent gusts of incredibly strong winds, which are causing small amounts of chaos, bins all over the place, young children falling to the ground, that sort of a nuisance. A phenomenon that wouldn´t normally be of much concer, however just now we are in a small town called Banos, which is situated in a small crater surrounded by a huge active volcano. When i say active, i mean actually physically erupting. Its the first time in roughly six years, (i think) and the locals assure me it isn´t dangerous just now, although they are on permanent red alert and always have a ready suitcase prepared for the moment when the spillage gets a little too close. We went to a nearby viewpoint and managed to see it spilling lava last night. A truly remarkable sight to witness first hand. It sounds cheesy to say, but was incredible to see the power of nature at work. It was an unexpected experience, and one that will definitely remain one of my highlights long after the trip is nothing but memories.

In reality the most dangerous part of viewing the volcano was actually the journey up to the viewpoint. Our vehicle was a converted truck which basically had a roof and a wooden bench nailed to it. The locals told us o get up top for the best view, we duly obliged and headed on our way. Everything was fine until we realised that power cables were sufficiently low to behead us if we didn´t react quicken enough and hit the deck and the right times. I`m not exaggertating in any way when i say some of those cables were merely inches from my crouching torso. And the stupidest thing about it all? After we made to the top alive and had spent some time viewing Tungahua in action, we all headed back up on top for a second ride. Just crazy!









I´m gonna backtrack a few days just now and tell you about our wee adventure to the Quilotoa Loop. As mentioned in the previous post, we set off from Latacunga headed towards the small town of Quilotoa, which is situated on the banks of an amazing volcanic crater, known as Laguna Quilatoa. It was a spectacular sight, it really was. We arrived and at about 3pm to the pishing rain and quickly headed to the nearest accommodation which was a wee hut which charged ten dollars for the night, complete with a free evening meal (advertised as guinea pig, or chicken although they only offered chicken. We were relieved) and breakfast. It was here that we met our new travelling companions, Aaron and Liz, the most un-american americans i have ever met, Which is funny becuase in the past couple of days we also met The most american americans, a couple of rednecks from Tennessee (sp), complete with southern drawl. A unique accent that was pretty damn bizarre to hear first hand.






Maya crouching for some unknown reason by the laguna.








Anyhow, after our first night we headed off on the second day with a new friends for 13km walk, starting around the laguna, then heading down into a canyon, and back up the other side to arrive at a wee town called Chugchillan. The walk was pleasant, made difficult by the terrain, all in all we started at 4200m, dropped down to a low of 28oom then headed back up to roughly 3800m. The altitude played its usual draining part, but all in all in was very spectacular with yet more inspiring scenery to help us on our way. We weren´t helped either by the fact that all the markers that were supposed to direct us had been removed by local guides who would prefer you to get lost so that you have to pay them to find your way back again. Bloody nuisance.

We went for a second walk the following day, with the intention of heading to a cloud forest. I think we found it, we certainly found clouds, but it was difficult to make out eactly what we were supposed to be looking at when you can only see 5metres in front of you. Still it was nice to be out the house and walking about.

To get away from Chugchillan was always going to be the most awakward part of the journey. There are only buses running on certain days of the week at strange times of the night. There was also the option of flagging down the local milk cart, which will apparently take you to the next biggest town, where there are more buses for a dollar. We were waying up our options when a kind german offered a lift with his tour group, so ultimately we made it back to Latacunga (or near enough), with a bus load of inquisitive Germans, all being very nice and offering us food and drink all the way. The eveidently though of us as impoverished travellers and were determined to fatten us up, which was a nic ething for them to do.

Once we arrived back at Latacunga we hopped straight on a bus to Ecuadors capital, Quito, although only spent one night there as the sole purpose of the unplanned detour was to buy a new camera as our one got busted with sand and the likes. Quito seemed ok, but we will get a better look when we return after our jungle tour, which we begin tonight. In total we will have five days in the jungle, staying with a wee group of indiginous folk and venturing out on walks in the day and night to see the wildlife. Should be good fun.

Just to fill in the blanks, we left Quito on Monday to arrive here in Banos. While here we passed the days with our american chums seeing the volcano, going on yet another walk to a high point, and yesterday was passed with mountain bikes and a huge waterfall, 30km away. All the exercise is really satisfying me just now. I haven´t been so keen to walk, and run and bike since i was about twelve. Which by coincidence was about the first time i got drunk (sorry Mum), bit of a coincidence don´t you think.






The view from the viewpoint over Banos. Check out the mud man peeing in the background.















Maya looking super sexy in her special helmet for the bike ride.









So thats about everything to say just now. Tonight we have a 11 hour bus journey, followed by a jeep ride and then a canoe to get to our jungle home for the next four nights. Should be good fun, i´m sure.

This is a lovely and im sure perfectly safe bridge we had to cross to see the waterfall on our bike ride. No more than five people are allowed at once. As if that makes a difference.




These are our new companions. Liz is sat with Maya on our transport back to Banos, which was a lovely open top type pick up truck. Nothing like the VIP treatment. And at the bottom is a lovely action shot of myself and Aaron trying to fix the 1960´s bike pump that was provided for us on our journey. It was a catostrophic piece of equipment which was unfrtunate as Aaron picked up a puncture. Ultimately through frustration at the piece of junk, we headed to a nearby house to ask if they had a bike pump we could borrow only for them to produce a defunct tubu with a spindle rattling inside that was surely a throughback, from Victoria`s reign. It was hilarious, but very kind of them to try and help. Its just a shame they offered us something akin to a straw.



Thats all for now.

Hope all is well

Rob