Vilcabamba
On Friday 11/24, we left for Vilcabamba, a place of relaxation and beauty in the south of Ecuador. Vilcabamba is often a stopping place for people on their way to Peru from Ecuador, but it is also a popular weekend spot for people within Ecuador. Simon, who actually was on his way to Peru, convinced the rest of us to go. It wasn´t a hard sell, given that Sunday was Election Day in Ecuador, which, by law, meant a dry weekend, and that meant that there would be absolutely nothing to do in Cuenca that weekend.
It was a 5 hour bus ride from Cuenca to Loha, and then another hour to Vilcabamba. Although the bus ride felt slightly long given that it was only a weekend trip, it offered breathtaking views of the mountains. Here is one picture I took from the bus window (yes, those are clouds beneath us):
While on the bus, we also saw the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen. It was incredibly vivid and it was huge, and we could see the entire arc. Here's a picture that Simon took:
In Vilcabamba, we stayed at the Hosteria Izhcayluma, a popular hostel for backpackers from all over the world. The place offers incredible views of the surrounding moutains, massages, a restaurant and bar, etc., not bad for $9 per night. I roomed with Solene (Frenchie #2) and Barbara from Germany. Here is a picture of our view from our breakfast table:
We got in at about 8pm on Friday night, ate dinner, and hung out in the hotel bar with the other backpackers. I feel asleep in a hammock at the bar watching Simon, Frenchie #1, and Taylor play ping pong.
On Saturday, we decided to go to the city center, about a 20-30 minute walk from our hostel. Tomas (from the Czech Republic) and Simon took bikes while the rest of us walked, well, sort of. About half way through our walk, we hitched a ride on a truck that was headed to the center. Here are a couple of pictures of us on the truck:
Soon after we reached the center, we realized there wasn´t much to do there, so we took some pictures in the plaza (I love that all cities in Ecuador have a central plaza). Here is one of a bunch of us:
Left to right it´s Will (Frenchie #1), Barbara (from Germany), Sarah (from the Netherlands), me, and Taylor. Frenchie #2 is taking the picture, and Tomas and Simon are on their bikes somewhere. We had lunch in the city center, and then decided to go back to the hostel for a swim. I chose to read in a hammock rather than swim.
That evening, we had dinner as a group, and took this amazing picture of all of us:
Left to right, it´s Simon (Austrailia), Barbara (Germany), Sarah (Netherlands), Taylor (Floriday), me, Jerome (California), Tomas (Czech Republic), Will (Paris), and Solene (Paris). Good times.
That night, we hung out in the hostel bar with all of the other backpackers. We played a drinking game that Simon taught us which, among other things, involved making up rules that had to be followed for the rest of the night. Violating the rule would result in you having to take a drink. By far, the hardest rule to follow was not making fun of each other´s countries. After we finished our drinking game, we started to play ping pong. I never really realized how good I was at ping pong until Taylor and I demolished the Frenchies, and they were pretty good. The funny part was that somehow everyone in the place (and there were a LOT of people there) became extremely involved in our game and started cheering for one side or another. After we beat the Frenchies, Simon and a Swiss girl challenged us to a round, at which point the crowd got even more into it. We had a referee and everything. We were killing the Aussie and Swiss girl when, for no reason at all, Taylor decided to give them a mercy point. Well, it was all downhill from there. They won like 10 points in a row, and Taylor and I lost. Devastating. We all had to recover from the excitement of the ping pong match with a midnight swim in the pool.
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, watching movies such as Crash, and Spanglish, hiking, horseback riding, reading, getting massages, etc. Definitely worth the bus ride over. On Sunday night, we (minus one Aussie) returned to Cuenca in order to be able to take our classes on Monday.
It was a 5 hour bus ride from Cuenca to Loha, and then another hour to Vilcabamba. Although the bus ride felt slightly long given that it was only a weekend trip, it offered breathtaking views of the mountains. Here is one picture I took from the bus window (yes, those are clouds beneath us):
While on the bus, we also saw the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen. It was incredibly vivid and it was huge, and we could see the entire arc. Here's a picture that Simon took:
In Vilcabamba, we stayed at the Hosteria Izhcayluma, a popular hostel for backpackers from all over the world. The place offers incredible views of the surrounding moutains, massages, a restaurant and bar, etc., not bad for $9 per night. I roomed with Solene (Frenchie #2) and Barbara from Germany. Here is a picture of our view from our breakfast table:
We got in at about 8pm on Friday night, ate dinner, and hung out in the hotel bar with the other backpackers. I feel asleep in a hammock at the bar watching Simon, Frenchie #1, and Taylor play ping pong.
On Saturday, we decided to go to the city center, about a 20-30 minute walk from our hostel. Tomas (from the Czech Republic) and Simon took bikes while the rest of us walked, well, sort of. About half way through our walk, we hitched a ride on a truck that was headed to the center. Here are a couple of pictures of us on the truck:
Soon after we reached the center, we realized there wasn´t much to do there, so we took some pictures in the plaza (I love that all cities in Ecuador have a central plaza). Here is one of a bunch of us:
Left to right it´s Will (Frenchie #1), Barbara (from Germany), Sarah (from the Netherlands), me, and Taylor. Frenchie #2 is taking the picture, and Tomas and Simon are on their bikes somewhere. We had lunch in the city center, and then decided to go back to the hostel for a swim. I chose to read in a hammock rather than swim.
That evening, we had dinner as a group, and took this amazing picture of all of us:
Left to right, it´s Simon (Austrailia), Barbara (Germany), Sarah (Netherlands), Taylor (Floriday), me, Jerome (California), Tomas (Czech Republic), Will (Paris), and Solene (Paris). Good times.
That night, we hung out in the hostel bar with all of the other backpackers. We played a drinking game that Simon taught us which, among other things, involved making up rules that had to be followed for the rest of the night. Violating the rule would result in you having to take a drink. By far, the hardest rule to follow was not making fun of each other´s countries. After we finished our drinking game, we started to play ping pong. I never really realized how good I was at ping pong until Taylor and I demolished the Frenchies, and they were pretty good. The funny part was that somehow everyone in the place (and there were a LOT of people there) became extremely involved in our game and started cheering for one side or another. After we beat the Frenchies, Simon and a Swiss girl challenged us to a round, at which point the crowd got even more into it. We had a referee and everything. We were killing the Aussie and Swiss girl when, for no reason at all, Taylor decided to give them a mercy point. Well, it was all downhill from there. They won like 10 points in a row, and Taylor and I lost. Devastating. We all had to recover from the excitement of the ping pong match with a midnight swim in the pool.
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, watching movies such as Crash, and Spanglish, hiking, horseback riding, reading, getting massages, etc. Definitely worth the bus ride over. On Sunday night, we (minus one Aussie) returned to Cuenca in order to be able to take our classes on Monday.
posted by grapefruit at 12:21 PM
1 Comments:
a bar with a hammock? now that's something i can get on board with.
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