Volcano Spotting

Breaking the chronological order with this one since we did this a couple weeks before whale watching, but it was a neat experience and not one I wanted to leave out.

About 4 hours south by bus is an active volcano named Tungurahua.  I (Johnny) actually have seen this one have a pretty massive eruption before, but that was 50 miles away from the top of Antisana.  Since then, I've wanted to see it erupting up close.  I almost daily check the Ecuadorian geological website to view its current activity.  Normally it does nothing, but every few months it spits out ash and rock for a couple of weeks.  Once I saw that it was erupting again, I dragged Amber down to Baños so I could hike up and hopefully see and hear it erupting.

Where I sat 

We got to Baños at about 12 noon Saturday and settled into a quiet, cheap hotel.  I told Amber my plans of hiking up the large hill behind Baños so I could away from the city noise and get a little bit closer to the volcano.  She told me "have fun" and stayed behind.  I hiked up the trail to the Virgin statue that overlooks Baños and then continued up the hill from there until it leveled out.  I reached a sunny cow pasture which was quiet and had a good viewpoint of the volcano.  Then I sat and waited for the clouds to clear.  I could hear distant thundering from the volcano and could see a little bit of ash in the sky.  Finally, for a glorious 45 minutes, the clouds cleared out and I could see the whole thing.  What I could see was intermittent plumes of ash and steam.  When a new plume would rise, it was preceded by rocks the size of microwave ovens flying high into the air and crashing down on the side of the mountain.  I tried counting the time the rocks spent flying thought the air and some were as long as 20 seconds.  It was a very good show.  When I could hear the eruptions, they either sounded like whooshing air or a low deep rumble.  Then the clouds came back and the sun was setting, so I ran back down to Amber to show her my pictures.  I was really happy to be so lucky with the weather and clouds.  

The next day Amber and I walked around Baños and near the river.   We saw people jumping off a bridge with just two climbing ropes and a harness for protection.  No thanks.  

Bridge people were jumping off

Interesting Fact:  There are fast food restaurants in Ecuador, but they are a little different than back home.  The menus are the same with some exceptions like getting rice and lentils with your original recipe KFC, or guacamole and queso fresco on a McDonalds hamburger.  However, the cultural influence of fast food is different.  This is because the prices at McDonalds/KFC/Burger King here are pretty much the same as they are in the States.  In the States, one reason fast food is so popular is because it's so cheap.  But here, when you have a choice of spending 2 dollars on one hamburger, or spending 2 dollars on a big bowl of soup, large portion of rice and meat, juice, and dessert, the hamburger seems like a ripoff.  Usually the soup and rice dish is served faster than anything at KFC too.  I see McDonalds here more comparable to a place like Applebee's back home.  Most people couldn't afford to eat there everyday, but it's nice to treat yourself to it every now and then.   That being said, even though fast food is not as popular, there's certainly no shortage of overweight Ecuadorians.