Thursday, December 06, 2007
Baños
I am in Baños for a couple of days.
Recap: Tuesday afternoon I arrived here looking for a place to kick back a little bit after my high altitude mountaineering adventures. And I found it.
Baños is extremely touristy. It's definitely a resort town, probably the most tourist-geared town I've ever been in. There is a plethora of restaurants (all serving the same food), travel agencies, souvenier shops, etc - all in a very small, concentrated area. I think this whole town is about the same area as Gringolandia in Quito.
The major feature of this area is the volcano Tungurahua. In the Quechua language (the language of the Inca descendents living in Ecuador), "tungu" = "throat" and "rahua" = "fire". So "Tungurahua" = "Fire Throat", a fine name for a volcano. Tungurahua is big (5016m) and only 8km away, although you can't see it from town because of some closer hills. In 1999, the sucker became active and Baños was forcibly evacuated for about a year. These days, the volcano belches smoke and ash on a near-constant basis. The locals don't seem to care too much, although I figure if there's a big enough eruption, Baños is toast despite there being rather obvious gullies for lava to flow down away from town.
In short, Baños is very scenic, nestled at the bottom of a river valley and surrounded by mountains on all sides. No wonder it's a huge tourist draw.
Yesterday, in the spirit of checking out the mighty Tungurahua, I hiked across the river and up a big hill to "Los Antenas" aka "The Antennas". It's a solid 800m vertical gain over 8km to get a great view of Tungurahua and the town proper. It was fun. Pictures coming. In the evening, I did the other local attraction, which is a bus up to a nearby lookout to see if we can spot magma at night. It was somewhat overcast, but I can confirm that I did see some flashes of red from the vicinity of where I figure Tungurahua was located. It's very exciting.
In between all this, I also ran into Haiko and Grit, a German brother & sister duo I met on the Nariz del Diablo train - Heiko was on the back of the train taking pictures the whole time. Whereas I returned to Riobamba after the train ride, they proceeded to Cuenca and just got into Baños yesterday. It's amazing how travellers' paths cross & re-cross in a matter of days. Incidentally, where the Germans get their names is a mystery for the ages. In this case, "Haiko" is a man's name and "Grit" is a woman's name. They joined me for magma-watching last night, and I'm meeting them later on tonight.
This morning, to continue in the spirit of volcano-watching, I actually took a trip up to the flank of Tungurahua, and hiked to a refuge at 3800m on the volcano's north-east side. For this trip, I hired transportation and a guide, and since I'm a solo traveller this always ends up being more expensive than it should be. As it turned out, I had not one but two guides - the second having come for the trip to see the route, I think. So, two young guns & I wandered up the hill to the refugio.
It sould be said that unlike yesterday's Antenna excursion along a road, this was an actual hike in the forest. This is also the first time I spend any time in an Ecuadorian forest, and for that alone I think the trip was worthwhile. It's a neat trail. For a good chunk of the distance (4km and 1000m vertical) the trail is really a trench, with mud walls two meters high and overhead canopy of vegetation. You are heading uphill in a tunnel! Quite cool.
We started late (hit the trail around 10:30) and got to the refugio at 1 PM. It should be said that there are actually three separate refiguios up there, but unfortunately two of them have been previously destroyed by Tungurahua. It certainly adds confidence to the venture, let me tell you. Also, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that you are close to a volcano, as volcanic ash coveres literally everything you see and touch. It's impossible to walk without getting completely covered in it, to say nothing of breathing it and having the ash go in your eyes. It's just fantastic.
As luck would have it, when we got up there the summit was covered in cloud, and we could not see anything. We could, however, hear rather ominous rumbling and the occasional sounds of falling rocks. I got nervous. After an hour at the refuge, and the start of rainfall, we left. And, this being my luck and not a lucky person's, when we were 90% of the way down to our transport back to town, the weather cleared and we finally got a good view of Tungurahua billowing smoke several kilometers into the atmosphere.
As far as volcano-watching goes, today's trip was a bust. As far as an OK hike in Ecaudorian forest, it was worthwhile.
Tonight, more R&R in Baños - meeting Haiko and Grit later on this evening. Hopefully will manage a visit to the hot springs either tonight or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, I am heading back to Quito sometime in the late morning, and on Saturday heading to Otavalo and the huge Saturady artisanal market there - apparently the biggest in Latin America. And on Sunday... travel back to the great white north.
Recap: Tuesday afternoon I arrived here looking for a place to kick back a little bit after my high altitude mountaineering adventures. And I found it.
Baños is extremely touristy. It's definitely a resort town, probably the most tourist-geared town I've ever been in. There is a plethora of restaurants (all serving the same food), travel agencies, souvenier shops, etc - all in a very small, concentrated area. I think this whole town is about the same area as Gringolandia in Quito.
The major feature of this area is the volcano Tungurahua. In the Quechua language (the language of the Inca descendents living in Ecuador), "tungu" = "throat" and "rahua" = "fire". So "Tungurahua" = "Fire Throat", a fine name for a volcano. Tungurahua is big (5016m) and only 8km away, although you can't see it from town because of some closer hills. In 1999, the sucker became active and Baños was forcibly evacuated for about a year. These days, the volcano belches smoke and ash on a near-constant basis. The locals don't seem to care too much, although I figure if there's a big enough eruption, Baños is toast despite there being rather obvious gullies for lava to flow down away from town.
In short, Baños is very scenic, nestled at the bottom of a river valley and surrounded by mountains on all sides. No wonder it's a huge tourist draw.
Yesterday, in the spirit of checking out the mighty Tungurahua, I hiked across the river and up a big hill to "Los Antenas" aka "The Antennas". It's a solid 800m vertical gain over 8km to get a great view of Tungurahua and the town proper. It was fun. Pictures coming. In the evening, I did the other local attraction, which is a bus up to a nearby lookout to see if we can spot magma at night. It was somewhat overcast, but I can confirm that I did see some flashes of red from the vicinity of where I figure Tungurahua was located. It's very exciting.
In between all this, I also ran into Haiko and Grit, a German brother & sister duo I met on the Nariz del Diablo train - Heiko was on the back of the train taking pictures the whole time. Whereas I returned to Riobamba after the train ride, they proceeded to Cuenca and just got into Baños yesterday. It's amazing how travellers' paths cross & re-cross in a matter of days. Incidentally, where the Germans get their names is a mystery for the ages. In this case, "Haiko" is a man's name and "Grit" is a woman's name. They joined me for magma-watching last night, and I'm meeting them later on tonight.
This morning, to continue in the spirit of volcano-watching, I actually took a trip up to the flank of Tungurahua, and hiked to a refuge at 3800m on the volcano's north-east side. For this trip, I hired transportation and a guide, and since I'm a solo traveller this always ends up being more expensive than it should be. As it turned out, I had not one but two guides - the second having come for the trip to see the route, I think. So, two young guns & I wandered up the hill to the refugio.
It sould be said that unlike yesterday's Antenna excursion along a road, this was an actual hike in the forest. This is also the first time I spend any time in an Ecuadorian forest, and for that alone I think the trip was worthwhile. It's a neat trail. For a good chunk of the distance (4km and 1000m vertical) the trail is really a trench, with mud walls two meters high and overhead canopy of vegetation. You are heading uphill in a tunnel! Quite cool.
We started late (hit the trail around 10:30) and got to the refugio at 1 PM. It should be said that there are actually three separate refiguios up there, but unfortunately two of them have been previously destroyed by Tungurahua. It certainly adds confidence to the venture, let me tell you. Also, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that you are close to a volcano, as volcanic ash coveres literally everything you see and touch. It's impossible to walk without getting completely covered in it, to say nothing of breathing it and having the ash go in your eyes. It's just fantastic.
As luck would have it, when we got up there the summit was covered in cloud, and we could not see anything. We could, however, hear rather ominous rumbling and the occasional sounds of falling rocks. I got nervous. After an hour at the refuge, and the start of rainfall, we left. And, this being my luck and not a lucky person's, when we were 90% of the way down to our transport back to town, the weather cleared and we finally got a good view of Tungurahua billowing smoke several kilometers into the atmosphere.
As far as volcano-watching goes, today's trip was a bust. As far as an OK hike in Ecaudorian forest, it was worthwhile.
Tonight, more R&R in Baños - meeting Haiko and Grit later on this evening. Hopefully will manage a visit to the hot springs either tonight or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, I am heading back to Quito sometime in the late morning, and on Saturday heading to Otavalo and the huge Saturady artisanal market there - apparently the biggest in Latin America. And on Sunday... travel back to the great white north.
# posted by Alex Perel @ 5:23 PM 
