Banana's Cafe

Wednesday we headed into the Art & Design area of Cuenca.  There was some beautiful clothing, jewelry and housewares in the shops and some very nice restaurants.

We had lunch at Banana’s, an expat hangout, and met Nancee Peterson and some other’s.  Nancee moved from Tucson, about 3 miles from where my house was, about 2 years ago.   She now has a beautiful home and loves Cuenca.   

Thursday morning dawned cool & cloudy, again.   Jill took a tour of the Cajas National Park while Anna & I drove down to Loja & on to Vilcabamba.  The drive was much better than the drive up to Cuenca because we encountered only a few patches of fog and the road was not as steep.   We went up and down the mountains so the vegetation changed frequently along the way.  There are beautiful little waterfalls and lots of flowers around every turn.   Loja is a small city with several rivers running through it.  The main road has a river down the middle instead of a median.   We had lunch there and walked through the market.  Lots of fruits, vegetables, meats and everything else under the sun.  A typical Latin American market. 

Then on to Vilcabamba. http://www.ecuadors.org/vilcabamba/  One of Jill’s students has an aunt who lives here.  Jill had emailed her and asked about the town.  When we got there we found some American’s at a stall of Peruvian woven goods.   Since it is a small town we took a chance and asked one if she knew Kathy Cohen.   She looked at us strangely and said “I’m Kathy Cohen.”  Then she realized who we were and we spend an hour with Kathy & Ed talking about life in Vilcabamba.  It is a very pretty little town of about 4000 with a fair size expat community.   We decided to spend the night here and found a great little Hotel/Spa. http://www.madretierra.com.ec/

Villcabamba is lower in altitude and the skies are finally clear.  We can finally see the stars tonight.  We enjoyed a delightful organic stuffed peppers dinner and now know why this is called the Valley of Longevity.