Baños - living next to the volcano

Baños - a nice, small, relaxed town, at the foot of a volcano, Volcán Tungurahua, a very active volcano. For many years now the volcano is active and errupts regularly. And the people in Baños are living right next door...

The first two days in Baños, I wasn't quite sure what to believe. When people showed me the direction to the volcano, I just saw two smaller mountains, both not really looking impressive, and definitely not like a volcano. Finally I saw what was hiding in the clouds the days before, a high volcano, the top covered in snow, smoke coming out of the top.

About fifteen years ago, the volcano started being very active again, and Baños, being so close to it, was evacuated was several month. Fortunately, in all the erruptions back then, nothing was actally destroyed in Baños, the town seems to have been saved by two canoyons, in which the lava flew. (Also, several villages on the other side of the volcano were destroyed.) Unfortunately, however, this evacuation cause lots of other problems, as people couldn't work, and therefore couln't earn money for many months. And even when the first ones returned, there were no tourists because of the evacuation (and most people in Baños live from tourism).

For that reason, nowadays, the people of Baños have fought with the government, that in the future, evacuations because of the volcano are voluntary, people do not have to leave it they don't want to. And most people will rather stay...

But the volcano is part of the everyday life of all people living in Baños, or even just visiting. Everywhere in town, signs show the evacuation routes (as anywhere else in Ecuador close to a volcano). Police and army are around, keeping close watch of the activities of the volcano. Whenever a loud noise, people look up to the volcano to see if a cloud of ash comes out or even lava. During my stay, I did hear it from time to time, saw ash coming out once, but no lava. And we even had a small earthquake as well, which also seems to be rather normal.

One afternoon I went to visit one of the canyons, in which generally the lava flows. I went up the hill on horseback (gladly my horse, Chocolate, was basically an automatic horse, it know where to go ...). The (cold) lava we saw was only a few months old.

Next to the lava canyon was a small pond, where I could see a few bubbles coming up. When tasting the water, it was like drinking mineral water with gas. Also this was a side effect of the volcano.

Another side effect, which also gives Baños its name, are the hot springs in the area, which are nowadays used as public swimming pools. One night (unfortunately it was a Saturday night) we thought it a good idea to go and visit as well. It being Saturday, we weren't the only ones with this idea, especially as many tourists from other parts of Ecuador seem to come to Baños over the weekends. All the pools (except the one with the cold water) were packed, with already many people waiting next to it for a chance to get it. I've never seen a swimming pool that packed before. It didn't really seem to bother the other Ecuadorians, we, however, decided to go back home instead.

And the people from Baños keep on living next to their active volcano, Volcán Tungurahua ...