Firstly this morning we and two other couples from our group rented some Dune Buggies to cruise the surrounding area of Banos. We travelled out of town and along some small country roads, it was quite a fun morning until everyone else’s buggies started to break.... thankfully nothing too serious so we all returned safely. After lunch we enjoyed a massage and did some shopping.
We then joined up with the rest of our group and drove up to a lookout called ‘The Tree House’ from where we could get a great view of Tungurahua Volcano which is the active volcano that overlooks Banos. At the lookout there is a station which is manned by Carlos, a volunteer who monitors the activity of the volcano and has done for the last 10 years. The Tree House is actually a small carved out area in the trunk of a large tree on top of the mountain that acts as a shelter for Carlos when the volcano erupts. All day the volcano had been grumbling and there was a fair amount of ash in the air but this was nothing compared with what we were about to witness on top of the mountain just 2.5km from the crater of the volcano. Carlos gave us a little talk about the volcano, its previous eruptions, and the complex system of monitoring its activity, as well the towns evacuation plans and then we went outside to watch this magnificent mountain as her rumbles were becoming more frequent. With our eyes fixed, the thundering noises became louder and then she erupted. The bright red hot molten lava came exploding out of the top and through some of the smaller cracks in the side of the volcano. It was brief but absolutely awesome, yet another amazing experience for this year... and Jack got his birthday wish!
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