Reventador Volcano Trip Pictures!

Reventador is a volcano located in eastern Ecuador.  El Reventador is part of the ecologic reserve Cayambe Coca established by the Ecuadorian government in 1970 (during the fifth and last Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra administration, 1968-1972).  The precise limits of this reserve area were not mapped out formally until 1979 when the National System of Protected Areas was established.  Even after the formation of a "park system" questions about the exact boundaries remained.  Over the years the administration of the reserve area has been limited resulting in poor communication and understanding of "reserve" land versus land available for colonization.  This region does have a high level of colonization (as we were hiking when we crossed out of the edge of the reserve area we went over a barbed wire fence which according to one of our guides indicated that we had passed onto someone's holding!).  The reserve and surrounding lands are subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  The most important of these was the March 1987 earthquake and the 2002 Reventador eruption.  The reserve is 390,375 hectares in size (approximately 1,507 square miles).   The eastern corridor location of the reserve combined with its relatively high altitude (Reventador reaches slightly over 3,000 meters in height) makes the climate warm (average temperatures range from 18-24 Celsius -- 64-75 F ) but it is cooler at the higher altitudes (10 C/50F at night) and rainy with a significant amount of fog. 

Starting the hike we left the main road and went up hill.  That curved gray area is the road.  The black pipe to the left is the old oil pipeline.
(Scott Barnard - New Zealand, took many of these pictures and has let me post them here.  I did not take too many pictures I was too busy trying to survive the hike!)

A shot of the rainforest we hiked through to the volcano.  The volcano rumbled on the way up.  You can't see the path but it is very muddy, knee deep in places.  The day of our hike was foggy but warm with a light misty rain.

Here we are resting for a minute before crossing the river and re-taking the path on the other side.  You can clearly see the path on the other side of the river in this shot. (I did take this one!)

This is a view of the Reventador caldera from our campsite.  The tree covered hill is the edge of the old crater, the empty dirt area is the lahar flow.  The small building on the right is a lean to where we had a large campfire.

Another view of the lahar from the 2002 eruption.  The green is new growth since then.

A shot of the river (quite cool and surprisingly fast moving) that comes down off the volcano.  This river feeds a small laguna (see next picture).

Laguna.

Sleeping quarters at the camp site.  Pretty nice digs until the rain started to blow in the back.  In this shot our trip leader Jeff Johnson has his back to us and I am in the green poncho (thank you Boy Scouts!) holding the Styrofoam cup.  This is either the morning of the hike back down or the afternoon of our arrival (I'm not sure this is one of Scott's pictures).

Campfire presided over by Conchita (army fatigues).  She was the chef extraordinaire for 30 people!

Reventador after we descended.  On the left steam is rising...

Finally a picture (SB) of a very impressive waterfall located in Sumaco-Napo-Galeras National Park.