Hotel Libertador Loja

... feet tall. Perhaps I noticed it because it was making its way across the street with little legs sticking out from underneath! Then the kid would pitch the tub off it's head, roll it for awhile and then get back underneath and walk blindly down the road! I suppose any driver would surely see a red, moving tub!

Vilcabamba's celebrating its birthday. Enough, already! Sixteen days worth of nightly partying and fireworks. Not just any partying, either ...

After two nights in Cuenca we head off again....we´re heading to Peru but decide to have one more stop before the border crossing. We jump on another bus, and are quite excited at the thought of only 5 hours on a bus....then we realise we´ve chosen the fastest bus in the world with a cowboy for a driver. We hurtle round hairpin bends, over take on blind corners and made the journey in less than four hours....pretty good going seeing as the whole journey is in the ...

So after the beauty of Cuenca and it{s shrunken heads, it was the start of the charge towards Peru. It is possible to go straight from Cuenca to Peru but we opted for the slighty more social stop in Loja. In 50 years time I don{t think I will remember Loja, but I may just remember the bus journey. We set off from Cuenca at roughly midday and were told it would be a five hour journey. Upto now ...

... and back to the bus terminal with tickets in hand and wait on the ground in the sun for the bus.

Anyway we made it to Villcabamba, and if you havent guessed by now I am a little behind on the blogging and pictures, I am doing my best. Any how we were there for three nights and already on our first day we have a full schedule. We were given a list of day hikes from our hostal and did three of them ...

... a baby girl. We just couldn’t insist he come back and complete what he had started! Everyone’s crossed trained I’ve noticed, so someone else stepped in and did a beautiful job. Bruce remarked that what we paid him probably paid for the baby!!!

So, there’s the update on the property! It’s 7:35am and I’m thinking I might have a quiet 20 minutes or so to spend with you. What’s that noise? A cough? Ah, they are here again!

Vilcabamba, Loja, Ecuador intouchrn

... the driver in the left lane, flash my lights and shoot him a bird when he finally moves over.b. Honk, then zoom through the imaginary third lane between the two vehicles. 4. When someone from Europe meets you, he or she probably thinks that you are ...a. A bit overweight b. Shorter than average 5. Are your children learning a foreign language?a. No, not until middle school, when it's almost too ...

... br>
We packed up the bikes, had one last look at some property in Zamora that wuold make a great hostel - the Playos de Shako - and hit the road, planning to meet back up with Annette in Vilcabamba. We went back through Loja and took a great winding raod down to the "City of Eternal Youth" - Vilcabamba. On the way we had a soaking rain/hail storm that messed up most of the electrical equipment we have on the bike - the ...

... hats. At one point we heard a loud squealing, and thought it was a local kid, but it was a pig being slaughtered. However, we didn´t manage to avoid the "best bit", the guy proceeding to use a massive flame thrower to scorch all the hair off to make him ready for sale. The heat also activated the still active nerves of the pig though ...

... it wasn´t raining as it would have been too deja vu-like from our car accident in Cambodia at the beginning of the trip!

You gotta love the border itself - we just wandered across with not a soul around. The only way anyone knew we had crossed was when we walked into a hut where an immigration/customs/policeman combo guy stirred into life, and told us to go next door to get checked out by a nurse for Swine Flu. Brad was actually recovering ...

... vast expanses of green valley resplendent with incline-defying cows, huts and small farms dotted here and there. Grassy fields sloped up to steep hills covered in mysterious dark green forest. We passed through tiny towns along the way. On the descent, every now and then the bus would turn a corner to reveal a stunning vista of rocky dark green mountains towering in the distance. On this journey we also made a friend (though this friendship was largely forced upon us); less than an ...