How I love thee Vilcabamba


November 12-17, Hosteria Izhcayluma, Vilcabamba

How do I love thee, Hosteria Izhcayluma, let me count the ways...

I have seriously been in paradise personified these past 5 nights/4 days! All the things which bring me bliss have been present: friendly frisky cats, plentiful hiking trails, fresh air, coffee that comes from a plant and not a jar, an ooh-la-la spa offering facials (Yes, please pinch & purge my nose of nasty blackheads!), a restaurant that serves so many vegetarian options that my head spun and I automatically belched outloud in appreciation, an incredibly helpful and engaging multi-lingual staff, and perhaps most importantly, cooperative weather!

I am loathe to move on but Peru beckons and I have been in Ecuador for nearly six weeks so surely I need to forge onwards? Sigh...But let me tell you a few of the highlights of my time in Vilcabamba.

I arrived on Saturday (Nov 12) afternoon at about 2 PM and was immediately struck by the presence of oodles of hippie gringoes. The town itself is quite small and the main square is adorned with internet cafes and healthy organic restaurants such as "The Juice Bar" where they serve kale chips (but of course). My hosteria was actually 2k outside of town and I didn't realize that the white pickup trucks driving around town were a local form of taxi service so I ended up trudging uphill for the aforementioned 2k with my heavy pack and it almost killed me. Talk about a Jane Fonda workout!!

Upon checking in, I was over-the-moon ecstatic to see a friendly, familiar face -Veronica, from my Bellevista Lodge excursion!! I'd had no idea she would be here. I guess it was just meant to be and it allowed us the opportunity to cement our friendship. On Sunday (Nov 13), after a delightful free breakfast buffet with the best coffee I've had since coming to South America, we went for a three-hour hike which took in the wee village of San Jose and the river nearby in which we waded while singing the Duran Duran ditty, "Rio".

On Monday(Nov 14), although it was raining when we first woke up, we decided to risk hiking the "Waterfall Trail", which starts 4 kilometers from Vilcabamba on the outskirts of the Podocarpus National Park. Mind you, this was the muddiest of muddy walks I've ever done (except for that one time in band camp Sussex, England, when I fell into mud so deep that it literally sucked my shoes off my feet and I then had to catch a bus into Brighton in just dirty socks so as to purchase new gymshoes). Oh yeah! The waterfall was pretty...darn...impressive.

On Tuesday morn (Nov 15), Ronnie sadly departed back to Cuenca leaving me alone once more. The weather was looking undesirable so I decided to forego hiking and instead walked into Vilcabamba and had a wander around town then skedaddled it back to my hostel. I was rather eager to spend some quality time in my private cabana ($25) whcih I had moved into that day after spending my first 3 nights in the dorm ($10) with 20's something drunk backpackers prone to stumbling in loudly at night.


Wednesday (Nov 16) was HOT and SUNNY so I laced up my hiking boots once more and did a five-hour hike to the off-the-beaten-track village of Tumianuma. The way there wasn't particularly that difficult but returning was a downright bitch as the weather had gotten quite hot and the sun beat down mercilessly on my hatless head. If I'd carried a full liter of water, I'd have been hunky dory but...cry me a sweaty river!! I only encountered one other hiker that day going the opposite way so it was basically just me, the frightfully annoying buzzing flies and plentiful piles of donkey/horse poop on the trail.

The only negative thing to report during these past few days of bliss was being bitten by some invisible bugs all over my lower legs the first couple of nights in the dorm. The bites itched so unbelievably much that I actually scratched the skin off a number of the bites. Decidedly unpleasant and unattractive. I visited a pharmacy in Vilcabamba and bought some calamine lotion which unfortunately brought me zero relief. On the third day of my misery, after a long, hot shower, I rubbed my calves with an emollient pomegranate massage bar I'd brought from the States and this miraculously killed the itch!!! Thank you, thank you, Lush Cosmetics (Plug, plug)!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Overlanding in Namibia Part III

Image
Namib-Naukluft, Namibia to Cape Town, South Africa (April 3-8) Originally our ACACIA bus was due to depart from Swakopmund in the early morning so that we could reach our next night's campsite just outside the Namib-Naukluft National Park in the early afternoon. However, our seemingly invincible (and yet sadly not) bus driver Patrick had been diagnosed with cerebral malaria while in Swakopmund and was too ill to continue on as our driver. Therefore, ACACIA had lickedy split found us a replacement driver and flew him out from Jo'burg to meet us at the nearest international airport on our route, that being in Walvis Bay. Our new driver, TJ, a colossal ginger-haired South African fellow sporting dreadlocks who had apparently dropped close to 25 kilos on the Atkins Diet, once through customs, hopped behind the wheel of our truck as if Patrick had simply been keeping his seat warm and......OFF WE SPED! We arrived at our campsite, which was in the southern end of the Namib Desert
Read more

Overlanding in Namibia Part II

Image
Spitzkoppe to Swakopmund, Namibia (March 31-April 3) Spitzkoppe (March 31-April 1) Our third day overlanding brought us to Spitzkop, i.e. "the Matterhorn of Namibia." It is an area of great natural beauty consisting of a group of red rocky granite peaks rising spectacularly above the surrounding flat plains. We camped near the largest peak (1787m) and went on a short guided walk of the area in the late afternoon. During our exploratory walk, we were shown some Bushmen rock paintings that depicted different animals. The red color used in some of these paintings was achieved, so we were told, using a mixture of iron and sacrificial animal blood. Umm...lovely? Our guide kept checking his watch and trying to hurry us along for he had planned for us to reach the "rock bridge" in time to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, time was not on our side due to our dawdling so the guide suddenly urged us to " Run! (Forest) Run!! " And off we all went, sprinting towa
Read more

In the footsteps of the Incas - Part I

Image
Coming to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, I was determined to do some trekking. Being a solo traveller though meant I had to find some group with which to walk. I had purchased the South American Explorers´Handbook on Alternative Inca Trails and a number of them sounded promising and incredibly challenging to my weary bones/joints, but it was a matter of finding a group departing within both my time frame and price range. I emailed a number of the more reputable trekking companies and also visited the office of Q'Ente. Based on all of the info I gathered, I opted to go with Q'Ente even though they´re one of the more expensive companies as they have a sound history when it comes to treating their porters/guides/cooks fairly and they also believe in sustainable tourism which respects the environment. I joined a group of 5 hikers (that`s including me!) on the Salkantay Trek which lasts 5 days with the last day being a visit to the stupendous Inca site, Machu Picchu. I attended a
Read more