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Published: August 14th 2007
Baños Baños is a lovely little town set in a valley surrounded by lush, green mountains. However, looming over it in a threatening and rather frightening manner is the increasingly active Volcan Tungurahua. Our first sighting was on the bus trip towards Baños.... a conical peak spouting grey smoke and ash.....scarily impressive until you realise that you are actually driving towards it to stay at it´s base!
On morning No1, Cath made the mistake of opening the curtains and showing hungover Richard what a beautiful day it was outside to goad him out of bed, with fancy ideas of hot springs and booking a massage. To her horror, Hungover Richard made a swift transformation into Drill Seargent Richard and informed Cath that they were to hike the hill opposite el volcan to get a better look at it. Drill Seargent Richard (DSR) proceeded to inform Bad Cadet Cath (BCC) that sitting around in hot springs would not get her up to Macchu Pichu in a few weeks time and to step to it. He marched the grumbling BCC accross town and they began their assent, while she secretly relied on DSR tiring half way up.
The volcano rumbled away
in the background, occaisonally churning out the now familiar grey ash and smoke from "mini" explosions inside it, and allowing any onlookers to glimpse the entire peak and crater for a while before the cloud covered it again.... quite an unnerving and awesome sight. This was especially highlighted when a toothless local kept pointing at it, making BOOM gestures, and laughing crazily at her own joke! What kind of crazy people live at the base of a live erupting volcano anyway? Well..... toothless ones!
Now BCC hadn´t really believed they were going ALL the way up to the top but Baños gradually got smaller and smaller, and the view got better and better. DSR was a man on a mission and was not going to be satisfied until the top was in sight. BCC trudged wearily on until they were higher than even DSR had pointed to, and they were rewarded with a fantastic view of Tungurahua.
Just so you know, Bad Cadet Cath was only allowed photos showing her from the waist up due to her choice of "daggy dad´s army" walking shorts, but got her own back upon their return to Baños by booking herself in
for a full body massage and
almost talking Drill Seargent Richard into buying some bright yellow Ecuador football team flip flops.
Riobamba The "Sultan of the Andes" says the guidebook.... Cath and Richard say "dead on a sunday, canoodling couples in the parks, fantastic view of Chimborazo (Ecuador´s highest peak), some groovy colonial buildings and fantastic icecream!
Cuenca A really pretty city to look around with some beautiful buildings, we enjoyed our stay in Cuenca..... not least because we found perhaps the nicest hostel either of us have ever stayed at. The main highlight of this town for us though, was Cajas National Park. A stunning place which kind of reminds you of parts of home (although a lot bigger.... the starting point for treks is higher than any point in the UK). Its a beautiful landscape although a tad on the chilly side. I got a few jibes from some of the others on the walk for being an English person wearing shorts (not the dad´s army ones though). Well the sun was out, what did they expect? I braved it out saying it really wasn´t that cold and that they were all a bunch of
El volcan
The view from the top of the hike. Shame the cloud came in however the noises and the smoke was scary enough!jessies..... and then got a bit worried when the guide showed us the first lake was iced over... eek! Stunning scenery though and fresh trout for lunch..... now THATS the way to hike!
Cath (Bad Cadet)
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Helen
non-member comment
you make me laugh!!
You have made me giggle out loud and so have all my work mates