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Saturday, September 2 (continued)

Some interesting things we heard: - Tunguragua had a big eruption in 1918 and spewed a bunch of ash again in 2000. That time they totally evacuated Baños and blocked off the city and road for 4 months. Finally the residents got so mad that they came and fought the military guard with machetes. Since then the government lets the people know when they should leave, but it’s their own problem if they decide not to. Baños’ population is 25,000. - Volcanic rocks above Baños were still too hot to touch 2 weeks after the eruption. - Our rough ‘road’ led to a village that was no more. It used to house 300-400 people, and now all we saw were a tilted cross partly buried and parts of a couple of houses.
	- A wrong turn led us to a place where out of 30 homes only 1 was left standing. Mrs. M. had tried to buy one of them a few years ago. She said we could see how God had protected her! - Baños has yellow arrows painted all over the roads. They are the evacuation routes. All other road rules are disregarded at that point. One of the evacuation routes goes past Mrs. M.’s mountain property where we went after eating at a coastal Ecuadorian restaurant. There were 15 sharp switchbacks as we climbed 1400 ft. up the mountain opposite Tunguragua. I wouldn’t really care to drive up that road, and definitely not down! Many evacuees from the area camped along the road during the eruption.
The view from Mrs. M.’s property was amazing, and the wind was terribly cold.
	Marciel grew up on a mountain farm, so the 2 of them have planted most of the land with crops: beans, cabbage, garlic, onions, lettuce, and even a bunch of trees. They will sell beans and garlic in Baños.
Our last stop in Baños was Mrs. M.’s rented house. Her yard is amazing! It’s full of plants and trees of all varieties. Papyrus, coffee plants, mandarinas, lemons, bananas, and so much more.
	After Dad fixed a couple of her phones, Marciel drove us down to the main road where he flagged down a bus. It was already very full, but we crammed on anyway and stood most of the 1 ½ hours home to Shell.