Loja & Vilcabamba

We have been busily traveling from one Ecuadorean city to another.  We've been through the Andes twice and out to the Pacific coast. 

Cuenca is a city of buses, traffic and lots of Expats.  It has an historic section but the traffic is so bad it’s hard to see and enjoy it.  On Friday, Jill went to the nearby Baños (hot spring baths) and had a fantastic spa experience while Anna and I drove to Loja, another city with an overcrowded historic district but a lovely rio (river) running thru the middle of the main street.   Then we drove on to Villacabamba, which is only a few miles from the border with Peru. We pulled into this small village with a traditional Spanish town plaza, located in the valley of longevity and felt right at home.   The water is drinkable, the food is organic and healthy and the village is small enough to be manageable.  There is a supermarket and an airport 45 minutes away is Loja.

We stayed that night at Madre Tierra and during breakfast on the patio, up the stone stairs right in front of us came a donkey hauling two boxes of stone to create a patio for one up the rooms further up the hill.  After breakfast we drove around the town a bit more than headed back up the winding mountain roads to Cuenca.  We returned the rental car when we got back to town and took a taxi to dinner.  This morning we are repacking and getting ready to fly to Guayaquil.  We’ll see that city on Sunday and I will leave for the Galapagos to start my year as the librarian at the Charles Darwin Research Station.  Jill and Anna will go back to Quito for a few days before heading back to the States.