one off the bucket list

Our weekend trips continue to be great experiences. A couple of weekends ago the school had a four day weekend. We had decided to spend one night at Quilotoa Crater, an old volcano where the crater now is a beautiful lake, we hiked the crater rim last year with Sarah, this year it was just a one night stop-over on the way to Salinas, a small village south of Chimborazo.

Saturday afternoon while we were hiking a bit around the crater lake, we could see the Volcano Tungurahua, which is close to Banos and about 75km from where we were, erupt.

Next morning cloudy no sights of the nature wonder. We drove down to Salinas to visit a village known for its small cooperatives making salt, coffee, textiles, chocolate and the best cheese I have tasted since last time I had good Danish products of that sort.

On the trip to Salinas we took the back roads, small one lane muddy, slippery and at times rather scary down and up mountain sides. 130km which took a whole days driving. But it was worth it, beautiful scenery and the adrenaline rush when clinging to the hillsides did make one feel quite alive at times. The end was Salinas very picturesque little village

Two days were the plan for Salinas, but the thought of maybe seeing a volcano in full eruption (an experience that's been on the bucket list) was too much. So off to Banos and a Hacienda we know with full view of the volcano from the windows of the rooms.

We got our wish, impressive sights and the sounds and occasional rattling of windows from the eruptions all night were incredible.  One do feel small and insignificant when nature shows its might.

Next morning the car and leaves on bushes and trees were covered in a thin layer of ashes, and as always we are the lucky ones, we can pack up and leave while people living there will have to deal with cleaning up and living with the consequences of natures fury including very, very dangerous air quality for days maybe weeks.



Quilotoa crater lake



Tungurahua seen from Quilotoa




Going down to a village 'way down there' and then up other side, means short distances take long-long time

heading down to get salty water for salt production




bringing milk to the cheese factory



drying mushroom,,and laundry



Salinas village (quaint, isn't it?)




Chimborazo with a vicuna (wild relative of llamas
Highest mountain in Ecuador 6310m, on the top, due to the curve of the earth, one is the closest to the sun possible on this planet

picnic on the paramo

Volcano seen from hacienda room