Blogs from Vilcabamba, South, Ecuador, South America - page 6

Hello everyone! A lot has happened in the last two weeks. Most importantly Nova had her puppies! She had a litter of six beautiful little huskies, which currently look a little bit more like rats. Anna checks on them religiously and hopefully they will be opening their eyes in the next few days. As of now there are 13 volunteers on the farm, a few more americans and some french, and we are expecting another belgian tonight. It has been a bit more difficult cooking for so many people and Sam has thus been thoroughly convinced to stay on meal plan through senior year of college... Last week Tina, the woman who owns the farm, was away for the whole week on a trip to Quito to pick up a few of the more technical pieces ... read more

Hi everyone! We made it safely to the farm last sunday. In order to get here we had to take a long bus ride overnight from Quito to Loja (13hrs). During this ride we were able to watch Dennis the Menace one and two in spanish... Then we transfered to a smaller bus which took us to Vilcabamba (where the internet we are using now is located) where we transfered to another bus which brought us to a very small town called Tumianuma. The road to Tumianuma is not paved and is very windy and the boy sitting behind us was holding a live chicken in his arms... from Tumianuma we hiked for about an hour and half with very heavy packs in order to get to the farm. Generally the walk to the farm only ... read more

Day 51: Tuesday 19th August - Chilling out after not much sleep Arrive in Vilcabamba at 7am. The hostel I'm staying at is 2 miles outside the town but the bus drops me at the entrance. Although I'm shattered after spending the night sleeping on buses/the bus station I'm immediately energised on seeing the sweeping views of the valley from the hostel. I think after the views from the black sheep on the Quilotoa loop, it must be the best view I've had in Ecuador. Laze about the hostel talking to fellow travellers in the morning until my dorm is ready. Grab a shower to freshen up, but unfortunately its cold water, so its over a week since a hot shower still. The hostel is very chilled out which is why I picked it, apart from ... read more

Vilcabamba A good climate, a fantastic location and a high enough (but not too high) altitude make Vilcabamba a lovely place in which to spend a few days. But however many days you plan to spend here, it just won't be enough. Vilcabamba is often called the Valley of Longevity as people living here supposedly have a higher life expectancy than average, with many living well beyond 100 years. We've heard stories of travellers settling down here permanently, seduced by Vilcabamba's laid back atmosphere and great location. A guy in our hotel mentioned someone he knew had planned to stay for 2 days...and ending up staying for a month! So was this all traveller talk or would Vilcabamba live up to expectations? We spent 4 days here trying to find out. The journey from rainy Loja ... read more

Well, we have been in Vilcabamba, in the far South of Ecuador for three days now. It is sunny and warm but still has the feeling of being in the highlands. There are orchids and cacti everywhere. We were going to stop in Cuenca after Banos but we looked at it and our timelne and decided to head straight for Southern Ecuador and skip Cuenca. We will be in Peru a bit earlier now and will have time to break up the bus trip from the Peru/Ecuador border to the Peru/Bolivia border. We are going to stop somewhere near the middle to break up the 40 or so hours of bus that it will take to get to Lake Titicaca. Vilcabamba is a sleepy little moutain village that supposedly is called the valley of longevity because ... read more