Return to Tungurahua....A year later.

A year ago, August 2006, Jose and I, along with a couple of friends made the trek from Cotalo, across the Champa River, through the devestation of the July eruption, to Cusara and on to Baños. In August of 2007, Julie from Canada, Nieve from Ireland, Fabiola, Jose and I took the trip again and found that the terain had changed considerably after the mid-August eruption.Decending halfway down the mountain from Cotalo we look across at Tungurahua and wonder if we can even get across the large canyon that was carved last August.

The hike down from Cotalo and across the river was the same as the year before but sfter a short up-hill trek we came to the area where the lahars flows have created several canyons blocking our path....Some of them very deep.

This was our first little detour to get across a gap where a bridge had been taken away. As we learned a little later this was a "piece of cake".
When we started this downhill we were not sure if we could get across or not. The sand was very unstable and at this point Fabiola was in front and started to slide. I jumped in front and used my boots to stop her. It was not not life thretening as we were pretty close to the bottom by that time....Just a little scary.

After this crossing the rest of the trip to Baños great. We walked into Baños five and a half hours after we left Cotalo. What an adventure.

Thank you Julie for the great pictures.