Land of the Old Timers
Trip Start
Nov 24, 2007
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Trip End
May 15, 2008
Vilcabamba,
Ecuador
Friday, January 25, 2008
1 The leaning bridge or the leaning Maya?
. Unfortunately, as a result of my desire to pick up a newspaper, practice my spanish and skim through daily happenings in the area, I now know the 'truth' of how often buses rolls, crashes and collisions are linked to accidents all over the country. Lucky for me, these horrific bus crashes Iīve heard about numerous times while traveling will probably be quite vivid in my mind the next time I hop on a bus.When we got on board our bus to head south for Vilcabamba this weekend and see for ourselves why people call this area the īvalley of the immortalsī and if it were true that the residents of the area have an uncanny average life span high into the 90's, the only bus troubles we encountered were the usuals: crammed seats, standing room only, relentless food vendors, diesel fumes, stale air, potholes, way too curvy roads, dirty seats, motion sickness, men spitting lugeys on the bus floor, people throwing their trash out the window, the quintessential crying baby, the occasional individual puking up their last meal out the window or in a plastic bag, the nonstop annoyance of the deep voiced ticket and money collector yelling 'sube, sube' as quickly as he can or shouting out the destination so people will get on board and off as fast as he can get them and not to be forgotten, the pubescent couple who stop at nothing to grope each other and viciously make out because it is the only privacy they probably get and it's not much at that. Oh the joys of travel. Life on the road in S.America. After 6.5 hours of bus time, we were finally here.
As I was saying, Vilcabamba, near the boarder with Peru for those who donīt have a map, is a relaxed little town with a main square comprised of, well, like most smalls towns, a park and a cathedral, a few quiet roads and not much else
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. It is beautifully set at the bottom of a green valley where sugar cane fields extend to the base of the surrounding mountains and people casually sit on their porches watching time pass by in ease. In addition to the laid back 'let it go my nice friend lifestyle' it also happens to be famous for its mineral-enriched water, hallucinogenic San Pedro/aguacolla Cactus (basically mescaline I suppose) and also for how long many of its residents live compared to the average Ecuadorean. Since I suppose back in the days of Carlos Castaneda, Vilcabamba has become a famous little town for all sorts of foreigners and the passing entourage of artisan hippies. Iīll save my rants for later... Anyway, while Iīll be the first to say that the water canīt beat the purity of Opal Springs water (thatīs Earth2o for those who arenīt familiar), there just may be something special about this place. While I was sitting in the park before embarking on yep, you got it, another bus ride, there was an old man shuffling passed me with a twinkle in his eye and a big smile. When approached by two young local boys asking him how old he was he simply replied, a young 99 and then shuffled over to a park bench to take in the sunday afternoon pleasures.We did a little hiking in a natural reserve outside the town and took in the easy-going feel and pretty countryside as much as we could and then Maya had to return to Cuenca for the start of next we so she could get back to her classes and the orphanage while I decided to stay behind to see a little more of the south and hike around a bit more. I saw a little more of Vilcabamba, hiked to the top of Cerro Mandango which overlooks the town and visited Loja for a day. My intentions to head east back to the Oriente and into Shuar territory as well as visit Parque Nacional Podocarpus near Zamora feverently changed when on my way to Zamora our bus was greeted by a road block that put the only plausible access road out of commission for the next 10+ hours. In anger though I knew this was the way of life here I decided to reimburse by ticket and get on a different bus to Cuenca in order to be back in my own bed and comforting apartment in a mere five hours. Yes. I believe living in Cuenca has made me nice and lazy.
And thatīs all Folks!
