Blogs from Vilcabamba, South, Ecuador, South America - page 7

Ecuador Continued The morning we left Baños Tom decided to brave the dentist as his front tooth was giving him problems. Paul the Scottsman had gone and highly recommended one in town. One filing and $10 later Tom was content and we headed for Riobamba. Feb 21st We were headed for Riobamba to catch the famous Devil´s Nose Train (Nariz Del Diablo) that runs from there to Alausi. The trains only run Wed, Sun and Fri so the plan was to catch the Friday train at 7am. When we got to the station to buy the tickets on Thurs we were told that the train wasn´t running that Friday due to excess rain on the tracks. We were gutted! However, it turns out it was´running but just not all the way to Alausi. It was stopping ... read more

Matt Writes - As expected our Christmas would be unconventional this year to say the least. After a dubious display of homemade fireworks from the local pyromaniac (obviously inspired by our street festival encounters in Banos), Christmas Eve was upon us and entertainment was provided by the local school's party games held in the main square. Consisting of teams of boy/girl holding a tomato together on their foreheads and dancing to music, then the fine art of pot smashing whilst blindfolded to get the contents of sweets and cookies. A bit like the Mexican pinata, but actually made from clay. Stand back when you smash. Pyromanic returned with some daytime bangers in case we hadn't had our fill the night before. Christmas Day started nicely with a bucks fizz accompanied breakfast with great views from the ... read more

Daniela was the first one to tell me about this mountain to the East of Vilcabamba. She said it was a beautiful 2-3 day hike nearby, with overnight stays in a refugio. It sounded interesting. I subsequently got various other pieces of information about it: there is no path up there, macchia-like wild vegetation, it is very difficult. So I concluded I should not do it on my own. But then Daniela suggested to go together, and of course I could not resist. José Maria, a local guide, had told Daniela it was 1.5 hours from the refugio to the ridge, and that it took him another 2.5 hours from the ridge to the summit. So it sounded doable. We packed food for 3 days, and up we went one morning. We first had to hike ... read more

On this trip I went again with Chris and Luc. From the hostal we went down in the direction of the village, but then went East to the small village of San José. From there we followed a partially hidden water canal, through yet again very beautiful landscape. At some places we had to search for the trail, and it was occassionally a bit dangerous, with a very narrow path dropping down at one side very steep some 30 or 40 m. However, we managed, and after a while reached the official trail to the Cascadas. We followed the river Yambala for a while, and always stayed at the left side of it, as we had been advised. After a while the path stared to climb up high. Here we ran into two locals whom we ... read more

I am quite sure this will be one of my favourite walks in the book. It is a four hour hike up the Mandango mountain, a prominent, strangely shaped hill just next to Vilcabamba. I did the hike together with Chris and Luc. We were told we should be careful, as there were sometimes robbers on the trail, and even a rape had been reported recently. So we brought very little money, and I just took my small camera. We did not encounter any robbers, luckily, and in fact the only person we met was a farmer, towards the end of the hike. We first had to walk down the road from the hostal for a kilometer or so, then pay a 1 USD entrance fee, and then walk up the hill to the first cross ... read more