After Cuenca, Eric and I bused down to Vilcabamba, a small town a hour and a half beyond Lojas. I thought we were going to go to Lojas because from what I had heard from another traveler, I thought it was a smaller tourist town like BaÑos. Lojas is actually a larger city for its region in Ecuador and Vilcabamba is the small tourist town. I figured that out after talking to Eric and consulting the Book after my last post.
We spent the last two nights in Vilcabamba and did some hiking yesterday at the Rumi-Wilco Nature Preserve. It's an absolutely beautiful place with amazing veiws of the Vilcabamba Valley. We tried walking to a waterfall earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon a zoo, but failed in our attempts. On the path to the waterfall we encoutered a gate and the end of the main road, so we turned around. Later we were told that you just ask someone in some house around there which trail to take... We really didn't know what was up with those instructions. We made it to the "zoo," which turned out to be a "mini-zoo" in a recreational area that looked like more of a local haunt just as it started to rain. We hung out under a covered bridge for a bit and then just turned back and stopped at a corner store and split a beer on the porch while we waited for the rain to stop.
We bused back to Lojas this morning so that we can catch a bus to Piura, Peru. We have a few hours to kill until that bus leaves, but then we'll get to enjoy a 9 to 10 hr ride. From there we'll either do an overnight bus if we can catch one or find a place to stay for the night and do more busing tomorrow. Busing definitely isn't my favorite part of traveling, but it's been worth everywhere we've been and everything we've seen. The bus system down here is actually really impressive. Most places, we've been able to walk into a terminal and get the bus we need within an hour.
And Ecuador has been really amazing because if you doze off on a bus for an hour, the landscape is so different when you open your eyes again. It's the most biodiverse country in the world, and you can tell just from riding aroudn. It's also gorgeous, especially where we've been traveling in the South now. Lots of rolling green hills, mountains, and lush valleys.
I'm still missing the kids from Katitawa, but we've met some interesting people since we left and have been enjoying our time back on the road. In Cuenca we befriended a restraunt owner who's from Cuenca but lived in New York City for ten years, and his cook. At the bus terminal in Lojas on our way to Vilcabamba, we realized that a couple we saw at a museum in Cuenca the day before had been on our bus and then was on our bus to Lojas too. Had we not reserved the last room at our hostel, we would have been at the same hostel too. We saw them around town a few times, but unfortunately never were able to grab a meal or drinks with them. Finally, we chatted with the owner of our dinner restraunt in Vilcabamba last night, an ex-pat from Virgina who was just a little strange in a mostly entertaining way.
Meeting people, talking about the world, and making friends has certainly been a highlight of our travels. And I'm sure we'll make a few more before were through.
