Baños, Ecuador

Lovely Baños from upon high (before the eruption)

Baños is a pretty little town in central Ecuador situated at the base of the (quite) lively Volcan Tungurahua. It serves as a tourist base for gringos who want to partake in various forms of activities including volcano climbing (Cotopaxi, Chimborazo etc), white water rafting and amazon treks. We came here to climb Volcan Chimborazo on a two day trek (see next entry) but as soon as we arrived we realised that there's enough going on here and loads to see to stay a while longer.


Perched on a wall overlooking Baños (pre crazy eruption)

On our second day we went for a trek around the surrounding hills offering us wondeful views of the town below. Looking up however we could see towering clouds of ash billowing up from the volcano behind us. 'Is this normal?' we asked ourselves. A local tour operator we spoke to insisted that we were very lucky and that many tourists come from miles around to see the volcano in action and leave bitterly disappointed. Hooray for us then! He also assured us that Baños is rarely affected by the eruptions as the wind is always blowing in the other direction, affecting nearby towns further east.


The mighty Tungurahua blowing

The next day we awoke to the town being utterly caked in ash. The wind was whisking it up everywhere making the cleanup operation absolutely futile. It was deeply unpleasant to go outside even for a small amount of time. The locals didn't really seem to bat an ash-covered eyelid however and went about their daily lives whilst sweeping up bin liners full of the stuff as the volcano continued on it's grey, dusty belching.


The ash-covered locals


Baños's lovely, ashy streets and hills




The surrounding valleys were utterly covered


Devestated by the Tungurahua ash cloud