Ecuador

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Following my snap decision to flee the heat of Costa Rica, skip Panama and Colombia for that reason, I flew into Quito, the capital of Ecuador and another of the highest cities on earth. People had warned me about Quito being dangerous, but I had no problems. I spent the majority of my time wandering the streets and enjoying a quaint little hotel. See a bit of Quito at http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Quito

The city is divided into old and new sections, so you run across colonial buildings, smallish skyscrapers and a lot of smokey traffic everywhwere. It also is surrounded by mountains, offering great views from most locations.

From Quito I flew to the city of Cuenca, as a rather large volcano had just erupted in my planned bus route. Cuenca epitomizes colonial charm, is an easy city to navigate, and has a splendid public square, flanked by several cathedrals and features live music in the park many evenings. I visited one of the original factories of the Panama Hat. Evidently they were made here, then shipped to Panama during construction of the canal. I had them make/mold a black one for me to try on. A mixed blessing of illness and staying at an interesting hostel gave me plenty of time to chat with fellow travelers, among them a Belgian couple 10 months into a tandem bike trip that started in Canada and simply headed south from there. Others included an aged and somewhat infirm (in body and mind) American man who had been a professor of Russian and German. I impressed him with my limited skills gleaned from my Macedonia time.
See some of Cuenca at http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=Cuenca

Almost healthy enough to travel again, I decided to take a 7 hour bus trip to the famed area of Vilcabamba, farther south. There is no doubt this is a special place. Vilcambamba town probably has a few thousand residents, but the surrounding hills/mountains, idyllic altitude of around 4000 feet, eternal spring-like climate, negative ions (a good thing they tell me-makes the air always feel like it does after a lightning storm- clean, fresh and energized). Evidently this area has the higest concentration of centenarians on the planet, and many studies have been conducted over previous decades to find out why. Likely the aforementioned conditions, healthy eating and physical activity contribute to this.

I ended up staying here for 10 days, at a most peculiar place called Madre Tierra. Take a look at the website www.madretierra1.com and learn more about the area, the serenity and the why I just couldn´t seem to move on from the place.

Enchanted with the surroundings, I also took the time to research and look at some real estate, thinking this might be a place I could settle. See www.vilcabambahomes.com and see what I saw and considered. I have not ruled out the area as a possible future home, just thought I best keep searching in case something better comes along.

Finally leaving there, I went to the city of Loja an hour away for a night, in order to catch the bus the following day to Peru.

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