Falling Ash=Dirty Car

Spent the day in Ambato training teachers. All day there was a dirty, misty rain. No, not rain. It was ash falling from nearby Tungurahua. Going to be a real pain to get off the car.

Tungurahua

tungurahua
Originally uploaded by kalymiller.

The other night my father-in-law gave us a copy of a homemade video that some of his friends near Ambato took the day the Tungurahua began exploding. It was impressive. I was really glad to see it, since I hadn't seen any of the images on TV when it was happening (having two little kids means that all you see on television are Barney and Elmo). The explosion was much bigger than I imagined. If I can figure it out, I will try to put a clip up on the blog. Until then, here is what the volcano looked like about four months before it exploded. It is now about 200 meters shorter, and isn't so cone-shaped. (It has actually been somewhat active for the past seven years, so has been slowly reshaping itself over that time.) This picture was taken on the way down to Baños. We happened to witness quite a few ash clouds that day.