Blogs from Vilcabamba, South, Ecuador, South America - page 9

We stayed at a nice Hostel called the Secret Garden Hotel. It did have a secret garden with a banana tree, also lemon and grapefruit trees with fruit on them. Hammock for resting on and completely surrounded by a wall that you would not know there was such a garden inside. We were surprised at how clean the countryside and towns are and how modern the cars are, to the rest of South America. As we traveled here we thought the countryside looked very much like New Zealand and the local National Park is called Podocarpus after the trees that are Kauri, also toitoi and tree ferns and other ferns. We felt like we were at home except for the different architecture, roading, horses and donkeys. The weather was cooler but the sun was hot. This ... read more

Ok, so I appologise for the long gap in blogs here...but on the 12th May we went for some rest and relaxation in Vilcabamba to the south of Cuenca. Definately in need of it after Quito last weekend! Arrived on the Friday night and stayed in an amazing hostal at the edge of town with the best brekkies I have had for a very long time! Had a nice long sleep and woke up fresh and re-freshed on the Saturday in time for our brekkie (yus!) and then off on a massive 4 hour hike up to the top of a big hill...views were incredible and hopefully will get someone elses photos on here soon (long story...well not really but ill get there later) could see the whole of the valley though. Beautiful. Wandered back and ... read more

We arrived in Vilcabamba, after 2 coach rides!! A very beautiful small town at the bottom of the Andies, from here we will be going to Peru!! All the hotels (well good ones) were booked up so we ended up being ripped off for 3 nights. We had a good time though walked up a mountain which we were not allowed to take money or cameras due to muggings (so no pictures of that). We mainly relaxed here as there wasn´t much else to do!!... read more

the music here is awful. i hope its better in peru. r we are going to cross the border from zuma, which is kinda scary because its the smallest border crossing and not many gringos go there. a i´ll have much more to write about in the next episode (is dre coming out with another chronic album? because i heard he was!). f we went rafting a couple times because tina wanted to start a company. t our first experience with rafting felt like a highschool dance. we drove up to the gate in a white taxi truck. 10 of us were in the back ontop of deflated rafts we were pumped to pump up, and 4 were inside. i looked around from my perch atop the rubber boat and met the stares of the ... read more

Vilcabamba We had to take a bus from Guayaquil to Loja, and then transfer onto another bus that would take us to this little colonial town in Southern Ecuador, Vilacbamba; our final stop in Ecuador. We got there in the afternoon and found this hostel owned by a Canadian! His name is Marcel and he was excited to see other Canadians because Vilacabamba doesn’t see as many tourists as other places. The hostel was dope! It had a pool, comfortable beds, and a great restaurant. We checked in then hit town. We were sauntering through the main square when we looked in a shop and couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the classic red bandana and black beard. Geoff and Kelly ended in the town at the exact same time as us! Haha. We thought ... read more