Advertisement
Published: January 24th 2011
Edit Blog Post
After leaving Loja we dropped down the mountains a little to the Vilcabamba Valley for five days of sunshine and wonderful hiking. We are now heading back north and are in Cuenca, back up in the Mountains at 8,300 ft. Vilcabamba is located at the intersection of five valleys and is one of those really special spots. We saw more direct sunshine in our time there than the rest of the trip combined. The town is about 4500 strong and muy tranquillo, to say the least. On our first full day in town we tried to gather information about hiking with little success, we finally found a place that sold us a trail map for .50 cents. So, off we went in search of the cascadas. It turned out the map was nearly worthless once we started on the trail up the mountain after an hour on a dirt road. There were several forks in the trail and of course we chose the wrong one. None the less we had a great hike to the top of one of the valleys with views on both sides down to the bottom, where there were beautiful rivers on each side.
The
next day we decided to hike to the top of Cerro Mandago, a very unusual mountain on the other side of the valley. We walked down the road to the trail head and were surprised to find someone charging two dollars to pass by. None of the guide books or anybody else mentioned this and we didn't have a cent on us. Neither did two young girls from Quito who also had no money. We joined forces and walked up a dirt road looking for a way around to the trail. That whole side of the road was fenced in. Just as we got to where the road turned in the wrong direction for our needs we saw a faint trail in the gravel going from the fence into the woods. One of the girls held up the barbed wire and we all crawled through. Sure enough, there was a well used trail going of into the woods. We guessed right at every fork in the trail and soon found ourselves on the main trail. The hike up was steep and hot. We reached the first peak in about an hour and the views were really nice looking across to
three of the valleys. The trail to the second peak was not well used like the other, and was very narrow as it traversed a very steep hillside. There were four bulls on the trail in front of us and the steepness of the hill prevented us from running them off the trail so we just followed along. After awhile two more bulls came up from behind, one of them a huge brahma. We were soon in the position of being a sandwich. Luckily we found a little spot where we could go up a few feet off the trail and let the two bulls pass from behind. It was a very uncomfortable feeling being up against a hillside with only a couple of feet between us and the brahma. We tried for about 45 minutes to get the bulls off the trail but finally just gave it up and climbed down the mountain.
The next day we decided to take another shot at the cascades. We got an early start and were climbing up the mountain and nearing the critical fork in the trail. We ran into a local coming down and he told us to take the
trail through the green gate. This is the other trail for us and so off we went. We had heard from another local that it was a two hour hike. Well two and a half hours later we still hadn't found any waterfalls. Just as we were turning around we met some people on horseback and the guide told us it was at least another hours walk. Since it is a 1 1/2 hour walk each way on a dirt road from town we were already looking at an eight hour walk, so back we came. About 45 minutes into the walk back it started to rain hard. We took shelter under a tree to wait it out and much to our surprise a girl climbed under the nearby locked gate and told us the waterfall was only 5 minutes away. I had seen the spot on the way up, and thought to myself, "I hope that isn't the waterfall". The truth was that we didn't really care about the waterfalls. We had a wonderful hike up to the upper portion of another beautiful valley. Some of it with open views of the valley and the river, and some of
it in the thick forest with numerous little creeks to cross. It rained the rest of the day, adding to the adventure by soaking us to the bone and turning the trail into a slick and muddy mess. We slogged into town about 6:00 pm and took hot showers, put on dry clothes and hit our favorite comidor for cervezas and a nice trucha dinner and felt great but tired.
The rest of our time in Vilcabamba we just took it easy with leisurely walks in the surrounding countryside, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We also discovered a great ice cream bar called a Magnum, that I believe is a product of Ecuador. The day just wasn't complete without a Mangum and a seat in the Parque Central to wrap things up.
Our trip back north started with an hour and a half bus ride back to Loja. We had a half hour wait at the terminal before connecting with a bus to Cuenca. It was a beautiful five hour ride up into the mountains through a very sparsely populated region. Cuenca, seems to be everybody's favorite city in Ecuador. We weren't that impressed at first, but the place has grown on us as we have met some really nice folks in the last two days. The fact is though, one can only be impressed so much by the over indulgences of the catholic church. In Ecuador, They reached new heights of pissing money away on churches that took over a hundred years to build and take up entire city blocks. The big one here is impressive for it's beautiful marble. There are many building here in Cuenca made of marble or with marble facades. It is a beautiful pinkish-rosy color. I assume it comes from some place nearby but haven't been able to find out where.
Today, I mustered it up and went to my first museum in Ecuador. It was a private museo that had over 5000 pieces of pre Hispanic archaeological items that covered 15,000 years and 20 cultures. It was really a cool place. Most of the stuff seemed pre Incan to me, a lot of simplicity but beautiful none the less.
As of now we are undecided about what lies ahead. We have numerous possible plans. We had originally planned on going from Cuenca to Guayaquil and on to the coast. But the prospects of another big city have no appeal for us right now. Especially one of over 2 million, Cuenca looks pretty big a 400,000. Stay tuned. Donna says, the episode with the bulls was way more exciting that I make it out to be.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0832s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb