A Three-Day Tour Part 3 (Last one)

The picture at left was the scene for most of the day as we quested to find the legendary volcano Tungurahua, which apparently rises high above Baños, but you can't see it from the city. The volcano is quite active, having last erupted in full force in 1999 (I think), and still spews lava and smoke on a weekly if not daily basis. So why not catch a glimpse of the looming monster before heading back to Quito?

We started our day much more refreshed than the day before, having slept quite well after the exhausting bike ride of the previous day. We gathered ourselves and headed out to a local bakery for breakfast, where we had some extraordinarily dense bread (you could use it as a paperweight), among other things such as paper-thin pancakes and eggs and potatoes ecuatoriano-style. But it would prove to be much needed fuel as we then set out to seize the day.

As it was drizzling when we came out of the bakery, we decided to peruse the city for a while rather than immediately set off hiking, so we wandered over to the city's cathedral, where the Palm Sunday mass was going on. There were hordes and hordes of worshippers carrying their palms into the church, and supposedly there was a donkey in the mix as well, but we didn't see that. On our way out, we did get a good spraying with holy water (which is apparently stored in a grungy red bucket) by a priest at the door, who was flinging it on passers-by using some herb-looking thing (am I showing my ignorance?) that he would dip into the bucket.

So after being anointed, we set out on our quest for the volcano. The first leg of the hike started at the southern end of the city and went quasi-zigzag up the nearly vertical hill to a lookout point that features a large white cross. Man did this kill our already suffering legs. Holy moly did this kill our legs. (yes I said it twice) So we were off to a great start. We finally made it up to the top, but not before passing this rather humorous gate to a ramshackle watering hole. Apparently they were trying the advertising technique of hypnotic suggestion...

At the top, we had great views of the city (see Part 1's opening picture!), and it was here that we rested for a bit before continuing onto the second leg of the hike, which would prove longer and more frustrating then ever before. The idea was to take a trail that wound up and around the hills south of Baños, through a small settlement called Runtún, and finally to a place where we would be standing at the feet of the mighty Tungurahua. Sounds easy, doesn't it? We found the sign for the trail and embarked, braving large flying, buzzing insects and mosquitos until suddenly we found ourselves in a rather creepy, trashy part that looked like a water runoff trail rather than a hiking path:
After following it for a while, we came upon a guard rail and a road. This trail seemed to go nowhere. So we backtracked, found a fork in the trail, joined up with some other confused Czech hikers, and found ourselves on the same road. Apparently the first trail was the right way... but tired and confused, we wandered along the road until we found a clear marking for a path to Runtún. So we took it - VERY uphill, for about 2 hours, all the way to Runtún, crossing the same road several times. By this point I was the only one urging that we continue, and Jennifer and Anna were on the verge of mutiny. But we persevered, and eventually we found a small collection of houses and large tarps containing crops inside. This was Runtún. Thankfully, we heard from several of the nice folks living there that the lookout point was only 20 minutes up the road! Onward and upward we went, mumbling and grumbling, until we stumbled upon a rather idyllic looking cottage with hammocks. Had we died and gone to Heaven? Not unless St. Peter is a llama...

The owner of the cottage did come out to greet us, and she indicated that yes, we had made it to the lookout point! Finally!!! Where's the volcano? we asked, and she pointed in the distance, and after a while of staring at the clouds, we saw it.

The mighty Tungurahua stood before us, and if you can look closely, the gray in the clouds is actually an impressive column of smoke that was rising from the cauldron (the picture doesn't do it justice). So we sat and stared at it for a while, resting from the grueling journey and chatting with a nice Canadian lady who lives on the property and showed us the quickest way down back to Baños. Exhausted and beat, and having fulfilled the quest for the volcano, we meandered down the road until we managed to flag down a van-bus that was happy to take us back to the city. Once safely back, we wasted hardly no time in getting our stuff, buying a few morsels of food to take, and high-tailing it out of there on a bus back to Quito. The ride was uneventful, except for this little hiccup...That is a rock-slide in progress. Thankfully it was just mostly tiny little rocks hurtling themselves towards the street, so our bus driver felt OK in making a wide arc around it. We were in the clear, and hurtling ourselves back to Quito. Arriving at the bustling half-modern, all-bizarre, Soviet-bloc reminiscent bus terminal in Quito was certainly a welcome relief! We were home.