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Published: August 19th 2006
Main street out of Riobamba
Thgis was the main highway out of Riobamaba which was deserted apart from a few groups of forlorn looking people and the odd police roadblock. I shudder at reading Joe´s last entry about the people of Riobamba. We woke up yesterday morning to find that a nuclear winter had descended over the city. The sky was a murky brown and it looked like a heavy snow storm was engulfing the region. This turned out to be volcanic ash from the biggest Tungurahua volcano eruption of all time. Banos was completely evactuated the night we left and is now unreachable by road, 150000 ´people are now either displaced or without electricty. The Ecuadorian government has declared a state of emergency in the area.
The streets of Riobabamba were ankle deep in dust which swirled everywhere , pervading our eyes and mouths. People had umbrellas up to protect themselves from the constant drizzle of volcanic fallout. All the shops were shut and no buses were running. We tried listening to the radio but our embryonic Spanish let us down. The advice was to stay indoors but the hotelier said that things "would only get worse". Unsure what to do we bought some masks from a street trader, to cover our faces and started to walk the 17 blocks to the bus station. It was like something from
the "Day After Tomorrow".
Disperate people were traipsing slowly through the dust storm, with all kinds of clothing, old gas masks and paraphenalia covering their mouths. A Red Cross 4 x4 drove past and some other gringos in a van signalled to us to turn back. On the way we met two other travellers, a Swiss medical student, called Judith and an American Geography student called Drew, who had just spent 3 months in the Amazon studying indigenous people. Deciding to stick together, we arrived at the bus terminal to be informed that no buses would be leaving Riobamba that day.
We were told that all roads out of the city were closed but a very determined taxi driver called Victor insisted he could get us out... for a price. There were roadblocks, police or otherwise on every road (only here would they try and keep everyone inside a disaster zone). Victor´s patience and ingenuity was incredible as he physically moved roadblocks, bribed and talked his way to the outskirts of the city. It seemed like we were going round and round in circles and had to get out to push when we got stuck in piles of
Our driver removing roadblocks
The whole city was blocked in by road blocks. Our driver determinedly removed them but was curtios enough to put them back once we had passed them. dust on a donkey track. At one point we could virtually see the Pan Americana, but a large road block with a machete wielding local stood in our way. $5 saw us being allowed to move slowly through.
Loud celebrations ensued when we finally hit the open road and within 20 minutes the dust started to disappear from the surroundings. The taxi dropped us off in a tiny town called Alausi where we stumbled across the next problem. All buses going on to Cuenca were cancelled because they were all in Riobamba..Fate dealt us a kind hand though as a passing Belgian couple picked us up and let us get into the back of their pickup truck. The journey to Cuenca was cold, bumpy but very spectacular and the 1st beer was greeted with much joy.... What a honeymoon so far !! Married life has really started with a bang and the earth really has moved.
Cuenca (pronounced like pete from big brother pronounces w*nker) is a nice old city with lots of old colonial architecture and a really relaxed feel. We have spent 2 days here and really thought about stopping to do language school here but
Another roadblock manned by local people after bribes
Some of these road blocks were manned by people with machetes. They all wanted money to let you through. have decided that it is a bit too european here and we might as well stopped in spain so onwards we shall go...
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SJT
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scarey...
So good to be able to keep in touch and follow The Incredible Journey- though I'm not sure I'll be able to keep watching if the nail-biting cliffhangers continue in this fashion for 6 months... Can't wait for next installment! Love to you both xxx