An unforgiving landscape ( updated)

 When it’s a near miss , when we had probably seen some of the now missing ; it becomes more than some      Catastrophic event on the TV . 

In thé Andes , there is very little that is flat , and the hills and river valleys are all steep. So life is lived on the slope . Add to that , road construction involves cutting into those hillsides making them even more  unstable. Oh , then there are the earthquakes and active volcanoes. ….and the rain in the wet season . This is literally life on the edge . 

Last year it was a mud slide into Quito itself which killed perhaps 20 , narrowly missing our maid here. This year it was a big landslide which we were diverted around ( see vertiginous descent). A week later it grew into something huge ,  destroying all the roads and part of the town we drove through; plus probably another twenty more Ecuadorians. More cracks have been found in the hillside , 600 families have been evacuated.

…but life goes on , and we keep our eyes on the road , not the cliff  above and the gorge below .

We could have been under that!