Surviving a volcanic eruption.

This weekend I went to the adventure sports capital of Ecuador...I think. The journey there was absolutely ridiculous. First we had to get on Trole system that would take us to the bus terminal where we would catch a bus that would take us to Banos. Of course an adventure is not an adventure if things go right the entire time.

The Trole was packed because it was 4pm and everyone wanted to be somewhere...I guess. When we got to the bus terminal at 5pm because it takes an hour to get to the there. we booked it to the bus that was leaving in 2 minutes. Well, we missed that one and got on another one 5 minutes later, so much for wasting my energy. DUMB. Anywayyyy, we were on the road, the sun was shining, everything was great and the weather was beautiful.

It was good to finally see trees and not be trapped in a concrete jungle. When we were about 30 minutes from our destination there was a straight up stop on the highway. I asked and the bus driver why were were stopped and he said that the volcano was erupting. He said it in such a calm voice that it put me at ease.

"Oh yeah, the volcano is just erupting and we are waiting for it to clear"

WHAT THE FUUUUUUU?! My initial reacction was panic. WE ARE GOING TO DIEEEE! Then I thought, shit, this will be an epic story. I could see the headline on the Willamette website now "Four Willamette Students Die Valiantly in a Violent Volcanic Eruption in Ecuador" With the content being about how we were not wearing the right gear to survive a volcanic eruption. Also, we would have died sitting in a bus, not actually doing anything meriting the word "valiantly" but hey, people love sensationalism.

Stevie was trippppin'. "OMG,does this happen often, I am calling my host mom. Are we going to be okay?! How come we are just parked?! I need to call everyone I know and ask if I am going to be okay!!! Should I write a will?! I need to call my lawyer. Who will inherit everything I own?! OMG, who will enjoy my pink sheets as much as me?!!!! "

Me:"Steve, we are going to be fine. We would have turned around if it was that bad". My new nickname for Stevie is Steve, I use it when she is being irrational.

Stevie: "Okay, maybe we should ask someone, and by someone I mean everyone and then take the average of the responses and multiply it 4 and add 6, then we can really know if we will be okay."

Me: (Deciding to indulge her in her delusions) "Okay, on itt! Callie, go ask!"

And what does Callie go and do? She get's lost because it is night and she walks so far up that she can't remember which of the zillions of buses is ours. We use Morse code to get her back to the bus...not really. I sort of flashed my light and then waited for her to find her way back..survival of the fittest.

Callie reports back: "I asked the police what was going on and he said he didn't know but that it should only be about 15 minutes".

Of course this well informed policeman was kind of wrong...only off by 45 minutes but I had fun. And as it turns out, there was no volcanic eruption, there was only a car accident.

We got in like at 10pm and were starving so decided to go out for a bite, after we checked into the hostel. The food was great and we had talked to a tour guide and he said we could rappel down waterfalls at 9 in the morning and raft down a river next to the Amazon at 2.

SIGN ME UP.

The whole, risking my life and having fun kind of thing was new for me. I was sort of really terrified for the first rappelling down a waterfall. We had a mini-lesson before and it did not seem that terrible. And truthfully, the first two waterfalls were great, we just stepped backwards on the rock wall into the pools of water, the last one however, was a little more daunting.

The last waterfall was only a mere 140ft, so rappelling down it was going to be nbd. YEAH RIGHT. I volunteered to go 2nd and after seeing the first guy go, I was a little more scared. First he started on the rock wall then I peered down and he was just dangling....sans rock wall. WHATTTTTTTTTTT.

I looked at our guide and said: "Um, excuse me, but he is not touching the rock wall..."

Guide: "Yeah, he's fine."

Me: (Holy shiiiiiiittttttttttttttttt. I am going to die!)

I was next and the guide said told me just to lean back and walk back like usual, but then the rock wall ended... WHAT THE FUUUUUU!!!!

He told me to take my feet off the rock but I was too scared, I thought I would plummet to my death. However, the logic at that time was very flawed. My feet were higher than my head , as I was leaning back so I was going to be fine.

So I let go and felt great, the view was amazing, the waterfall next to me created a rainbow and I was able to look out into the mountains...truly an amazing experience.

After we all rappelled down the waterfall, we went and bought some food. Then we were off to raft down the Pastaza River, in between two National Parks and eventually the Amazon. It was so much fun and best of all, nobody in our raft fell out. The other rafting group sucked and always lost people. Noobs.

We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day but it was well worth it. Banos is a cool little town that I will most definitely make frequent visits to. I want to be back there now...