Saraguro, Loja, Vilcabamba, Podocarpus National Park

So, sorry not to have updated for awhile, but the Internet has been pretty slow and I had some fiascos involving graduate school recommendations not getting sent, and those took priority.

So after Cajas National Park, we spent Saturday night in Cuenca. On Sunday, we took the bus to Loja. Loja is a very boring ugly town. The only exciting part about Sunday was stopping in Saraguro on the way there. Saraguro is a small Quichua town halfway between Cuenca and Loja. The indigenous people there are some of the leaders of the national indigenous movement. They wear very dark colors, long black skirts, and shawls fastened with antique nickel pins. These pins are called tupus. And I was able to buy one that was four hundred years old. Normally, they would never sell them because they are heirlooms, handed down from one generation to the next. But as the woman who sold it to me said, the young girls are no longer interested in dressing in the traditional way and the heirlooms are being discarded. I also had my first, very short, conversation in Quichua with this woman. It went like this:

me: Quichuata yachacuni (I am learning Quichua)
her: Quichuata alli yachacunqui. (You are learning Quichua very well)
me: Quichuata yachacuni. Cuencamanta shamunchi. (I am just learning Quichua. We are coming from Cuenca)
her: Cuencamanta shamunguichi? Lojaman ricunguichi? (You both coming from Cuenca? You both are going to go to Loja?)
me: .... at this point, I am so excited that I am speaking Quichua that I answer "sí" in Spanish instead of the Quichua "Ari" but that´s okay. I spoke Quichua!!

The women also wear these hats that have cowsking underneath so they look like advertisements for Gateway computers! They also wear these huge beaded necklaces that would be more common in Africa, I think. So I bought a tupu and a necklace. Everyone in Saraguro asked Eva and I if we were in the Peace Corps because they didn´t see very many foreigners and figured that is the only reason we would be out that far from any large towns.

Sunday night we stayed in a disgusting place in Loja. The only good thing about Loja is that it is near Saraguro, Vilcabamba, and Podocarpus National Park. Monday we went to a botanical garden in Loja that sounded nice but was a big disappointment if you´ve spent a lot of time in the real rainforest. We decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge, er, Loja, and we took the bus to Vilcabamba.

Vilcabamba is a beautiful tiny village in southern Ecuador. Even though it is the last town before the Peruvian border, it is a very rough 9 hour trek to Peru. The valley of Vilcabamba is famous for its old people. Legend says that residents regularly live to be in the 100s and are quite spritely for their age. I don´t know about the magical water or climate, but we sure had a relaxing time in Vilcabamba. We splurged on a hillside resort with spectacular views of the mountain, a German restaurant, a pool, wonderful showers, and included breakfast. It came to 8 dollars a night to stay at the Hosteria Izhcayluma, the most I have paid in my travels for a room. On Tuesday, I went with a local guide to the Podocarpus National Park. We went trekking through the cloud forest south of Vilcabamba, and I even spotted a quetzal bird! Then we found fresh puma tracks in the path. They were very fresh because it had been raining! You know that I have had quite enough with big cats, so I was happy that we did not run across that puma!

On Wednesday, I trekked with some new friends to an overlook of the Vilcabamba valley. We were the first people to test out this new trail, and it was amazing! I mean it was amazing that the route counts as a trail! We were walking along the ridges of high mountains with sheer drops into the cliffs below! And the ground was very crumbly. We were shocked to find cows and horses up there. We have no idea how they do not plummet into the abyss as we almost did. After that adventure, the cool pool and hot showers were wonderful!

Vilcabamba is a wonderful peaceful place to be, but the Internet was horrible when it worked at all, so it was hard to update. We were also staying a thirty minute walk from town.

After Vilcabamba I had no idea what to do with myself next... you´ll never guess what I decided... to be continued...