"The Valley of Longevity"

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From Cuenca, we took a bus to Loja with Claudia arriving at about 8:45 pm. The weather had turned pretty crap by the time we reached Loja, rain and fog. We knew Vilcabamba was pretty close to Loja but were having no luck with taxi drivers who seemed to be quoting us a pretty hefty price. In the end we managed to bargain a bit with one of them getting a whole three dollars off the price!! We eventually arrived at a hostel that had been recommended to us, with a swimming pool and private lodges and great views called Izcayluma. We were a bit surprised at how deserted the place was with no people, bar or restaurant, but in the pouring rain we were in no mood to argue and paid the taxi driver. We were met by a pretty bewildered looking woman who showed us to some brand new looking cabins. She kept asking us if we had been given a recommendation. After a few minutes conversation between ourselves, the penny finally dropped that we were in the wrong Izhcayluma! The rain had stopped so Pete set off in search of the real one. It turned out that it was next door so we left a note for the lady and hightailed it back to civilisation. The real Izhcayluma was really great, swimming pool, bar, restaurant and really nice little lodges with the most amazing huge hot showers. In a country where a reliable hot shower is an unheard of luxery, this was amazing!!!!! It proved to be the best hostel that we had stayed in in Ecuador. We were able to hire mountain bikes in the hostel the next day and set off in to Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba is known as the "Valley of Longevity" and it does certainly seem to be full of ageing hippy types. Scientists have tried to find out why most old people in the area seem to live to up to a 100! Many put it down to the nice climate, clean air and good food in the area. We spent a nice couple of days just relaxing and spending time beside the pool before beginning the next leg of the journey into Peru...

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