As i sit in my house (temporary Ecuadorian residence) stroking my slowly developing beard i ponder my next move. By weeks end i will be finishing up a very successful three weeks of Spanish lessons. Where the first week was a little undisciplined as i indulged in the various festivities of Baños, after that i have been very structured during the week for my classes. As stated in my last blog i had a pretty good week with exercising, eating well and completing my homework. I once again returned to Quito for the weekend to give myself a break from quiet Baños life.
This weekend was quite like the other times in Quito. We had a pretty solid crew on the Saturday night and hit it up to all hours. I awoke the next morning with a plan, but the execution was less than delicate. Being my third time in Quito i was determined to finally make it to the Mitad del Mundo (The Equator/Middle of the Earth), for which Ecuador is not only famous for, but also named after. After the night that i had, unaware at the time of waking, it was no surprise that i was still extremely drunk. After terrorizing some of the guests at the hostel for a bit i managed to round up a little bit of a crew to join me on my expedition. There was, however, a preliminary requirement that needed to be fulfilled...KFC!
This was on my mind like crazy, and like coming home over the West Gate Bridge after a messy Saturday night, it was pretty much a mandatory part of my mission. I got to KFC and ordered the biggest box set they had and then proceeded to stuff my face for the next 10mins without breathing until i was bursting full of processed chicken goodness. Then it was off to the bus station to catch a crowded, stuffy, bumpy and rickety bus to our destination for the next two hours. Can anyone see where this story is headed? Needless to say after a torturous first leg of the bus journey i disembarked at the platform and ran straight to a private area to power spew like i haven't done since i was 16 drinking goon bags!
By the time i got to the Equator i was feeling pretty darn rough, but i preserved and it paid off. It was a pretty cool experience. I was still feeling pretty sketchy though so i may have trash talked and thrown a bit of disrespect the Equators way! I mean come on it deserves it! It isn't even the real geological positioning of the official line (approximately 250m off), but there is still a massive statue honouring its misinformation. There is another official museum that houses some historical information and gimmicks regarding the Equator, but we ran out of time. On the way back i once again felt quite ill, but still managed to generate enough power to stay up for a while before crashing. The next day it was back to Baños to finish my last week of studies.
It is also at this point that i should inform you about the famous Volcán Tungurahua that has been plaguing the city of Baños for not only all of eternity, but particularly the last couple of weeks as its fresh batch of eruptions have put the town in a state of panic. During the middle of my stay in Baños is when the first real signs of the potential volcanic threat arose. It started all in progressive stages one morning while i was in Spanish class. The windows started vibrating and shaking, every now and then giving out a shake and boom to indicate some growth in the developing eruption. These constant earth tremors continued on for a couple of days as the volcano reminded everybody just how close it really was. It would shake the whole town like mini earthquakes very regularly and the grumbling thunderous sounds that escaped it's ready to explode peak would keep us up at night. It was quite an exciting time around Baños as it became the talk of the time. And with my Spanish improving it was nice to be able to communicate with the locals about the ever changing status of the volcano.
The weekend i left for Quito and returned i was quite surprised to hear the great deal of misinformation published around the news regarding the volcano. Friends from Quito were literally emailing me to ask if i was ok and whether I'd been evacuated yet (an event that has happened in Baños in the past when the volcano got really big). While i was gone things in Baños got a little more heated as the volcano began to erupt. Although not directly in the line of lava flow, Baños' danger is being in the area for any potential hot mud slides (think Pompeii) or volcanic ash that is quite harmful to breathe in. On the bus back into town i got some great pictures of it erupting during the day. It pumped out smoke and ash all the time, but you could only really see the lava at night when the night was clear.
So my last week in Baños was quite exciting as the level of anticipation and waiting grew in response to the Tungurahua's latest advancements. The talk around the town was to be on alert for a whole town evacuation (a plan previous implemented and enforced in times of eruptions). As people were gearing up to leave the city the municipal of Baños decided to refresh everybody's memories on the plan and run a mock evacuation. Think high-school fire drill, but with a town of 15,000 people. We knew the day it was going to happen, but not the time. So we waited around on the day to hear the siren. Sure enough it hit at the most inconvenient time (right in the middle of the day). We had to bring our backpacks and really simulate the town plan. There were designated checkpoints and the town seemed to know what to do. We followed our Spanish grandfather as he made our way through town. It was actually a pretty cool experience to be part of. There were news crews interviewing people (mostly trying to reassure tourism and travellers that Baños was in fact safe), kids all in school groups being escorted by teachers and police making sure everybody stuck to the plan.
After everybody congregated for roughly an hour around the spots the people in charge deemed it satisfactory for everyone to return so that's what we all did. After that the continued excitement continued, but unfortunately my time in Baños was coming to an end. This upcoming weekend was my last in Baños and i thought it necessary to have a decent send off. And that's pretty much what i did...in style! I also, during one of the nights out, got to see the volcano erupt at night. It was by far one of the most awesome experiences to date. 4Am, sauced from a good night out, sitting on a lookout hill watching lava shoot out of the crater of a volcano like fireworks on the 4th of July. Very cool!
So on the Monday after a bit of a three day bender I'm headed off to my next destination. Time to get back to the beach and enjoy some sun, surf and sand. I was missing the beach heaps so i was off to Canoa. My beach trip is another adventure, and one that leads me on a completely unknown and different adventure. Until then!
