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Vilcabamba, Ecuador a place of longevity - yes, we are going to live alittle longer after visiting for a few days!
We stayed in the beautiful Izhcayluma Hostel up on the hill side, looking over the whole of Vilcabamba. It was so tranquil and just amazing, literally you could sit and stare at the scenery for hours, over breakfast, playing scrabble or savouring the culinary delights that made there way from the Izcayluma kitchen (the chincken stroganoff was AMAZING).
Day One: Ok, this may be stupid of us but we decided to do another walk, not a hike like the Quilotoa Loop but a walk, all the same we were scared and so we went armed with sticks ready to give any dogs a good whack! We chose trail A, the easiest trail recommended in the brochure of Izhcayluma, nothing to worry about... Or so we thought.
All was going well, flat, no hills, no running away from animals, no rain THEN I was just strolling, went round a corner and BAM... was it a dog, a donkey, a cow.. NO A BULL or what I thought was a bull at a glance, huge horns and he looked right at me. Jh was wearing red so we couldn´t let him go round and look... I stood on a rock hiding int he bushes, Jh came and saw the would-be bull... ´it has udders... IT´S A COW´ I didn´t see the udders, I was concentrating on the horns. We still had to get past it and after that we thought we could handle anything.
We got a past a donkey that was lingering in the road and just when we thought everything was going well we came to a gate that we had to climb over and there were AT LEAST 10-15 cows (it may not sound as scary as a bull but in those numbers they´re beasts!) with calves so we lingered around wondering what to do, the map had instructions saying ´keep a safe distance from animals e.g donkeys and cows´then one started to move towards us (again with BIG horns) so we headed back and figured by the time we get back we would have done the whole walk technically.
We bumped in to the donkey again and this time he was in the middle of the pathway which wasn´´t big enough for the three of us, we looked back.. A DOG! Do we go towards the dog? Or risk being kicked by the donkey? We chose donkey or rather Jh did and he went to walk past and .... so close, the donkey went to move but it looked like he was going to kick and Jh ran back (hahahha) with the donkey out of the way we walked (very briskly) away from the dog.
ALong the way we made friends with a butterfly, yes, a butterfly. You´re not going to believe this but this butterfly landed on my neclace then on Jh´s back, then to his hand... yes his hand and styed there whilst we took loads of photos and then it came on to my hand... This butterfly LOVED US! He stayed with us whilst we walked for at least 30minutes, I know, a butterfly on my hand for 30minutes! He (who we named Eugenio) even flew away at one point as I was trying to give him Jh (my arm was starting to ache) and I put my habd up in the air and he flew back on!!!! AMAZING!!!
That´s day one, great times and a chilled out evening with lots of food and a small glass of wine (beer for Jh) Oh and a dip in the pool.. verrrrrry cold!
Day Two: Horseback Riding with Alvaro
THIS WAS AWESOME!!
In the rain we headed out for a four hour horse ride, the horses were beautiful but we have no pictures as we were too busy non stop trotting away and even galloping... full scale galloping!!!
At one point when we were used to galloping (which was actually better as you didn´t bounce as much) we got to a fenced off house and Alvaro told us to run ahead, then we hearc and saw two dogs that were coming for us... ALvaro blocked the way and then our horse set off running SO FAST, the dogs we coming and we jsut had to keep running, IT WAS LIKE A FILM! My water bottle fell off in all the excitment (it´s not built to be clipped on to a horse I dont´think) and Alvaro had to go back and get it, his horse was the fastest!
It was just so so so good, fantastic day!
Day three however was not fantastic, headed back to Loja and we could not move! Everywhere ached and my calves and thighs were bruised! It was agony... but totally worth it!!
Overall Ecuador ended on a great high! Vilcabamba was the perfect end to an amazing first month!
NEXT STOP PERU!!
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