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We were up
early to catch a bus to Baños. First we rode 50 minutes to Rio
Verde, and a couple of us had to stand the whole way. There we
walked down to the waterfall, ‘Pailon Del Diablo.’ It was a
neat hike with trees and vegetation all around and little ‘cascadas’
along the path. |
| The
waterfall was big and amazingly powerful. We saw it from an
observation area where the mist got us wet. |
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Dad, Elsa,
and I also went out over the river gorge on a rather rickety
suspension bridge made of wood. |
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We hiked up
as fast as we could to make sure we could catch a bus to Baños by
noon to meet Mrs. M. (Maren student-taught under her in Shell in
’05.) We all ended up standing on the next bus ride.
Mrs M. was
very fun to meet. We piled into the back of her Land Cruiser
to sit on a blanket on the floor. Her ‘adopted son,' Marciel, was
available to drive us around all day. Mrs. M. had quite the tour
planned out for us. Tungurahua and her mountain property for
starters! Good thing we got to Baños 30 minutes early, walked
the streets a bit, and bought some taffy at one of the dozens of
sugar-cane stands – yum! That was all we really saw of the town.
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We got a
way better insiders’ tour of the volcano than I bet most
people get from the tour companies in town who tried to sign
us up. We took a road around to the back of the volcano
that had only been open to the general public about a week.
Before that it was guarded by the police to keep looters out
of the deserted communities. Much of the road was
covered or ‘washed’ away by lava flows from the
volcano. A bulldozer had plowed its way through some cornfields and
carved a rough road into the edge of the dirt, ash, and volcanic
rock to reach the few homes and a village or two that weren’t buried
or destroyed. It was pretty sobering back there – so desolate.
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| It was hard
to believe we were actually seeing all this.
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In the USA it would have been completely off limits – especially
since the volcano is still smoking and may be unstable.
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See next
page for more pictures
and
notes from this day. |