We arrived in Loja at 6pm on Saturday 24 December, a bit later than planned due to having missed the bus in Cuenca. From Loja, it´s another hour or so by local bus to Vilcabamba; we finally rolled into Hostal Izhcayluma (where we´d booked in for the 24th and 25th) at about 7.30pm.
Vilcabamba is known as the ´Valley of Longevity´ as folks there have been known to live for well over a century; when you get there, it´s pretty clear why... it´s a chilled out, beautiful village surrounded by green mountains. Hostal Izhcayluma is paradise... modern, comfy rooms with en-suite, a stylish dining area, bar and pool all set in lovely gardens on a hillside above Vilcabamba.
Upon our arrival, the cook rustled up some seafood rice for us, and we joined the other guests in the bar... where cocktails were on the house, the whole night! Turned out that Peter, one of the two Swiss brothers who own the place, was celebrating his birthday. We drank screwdrivers, mango changos and cuba libres all night, chatted to the other guests and got horribly smashed! It all deteriorated after midnight, with much drunken dancing and the birthday boy swaying topless on the bar. No such thing as a quiet Christmas eve.
We rolled out of bed rather late on Christmas day, and sat down to the most amazing breakfast buffet. For most of our time in Vilcabamba it rained, softly but constantly, however three of us headed out after breakfast for a walk, in an attempt to clear our heads. The valley is overlooked by a striking hill called Mandango (sounds like a made-up name, doesn´t it?) - we tackled the steep path and within 40 minutes had reached the first cross. We continued on to the second cross, on the summit (a bit of scramble up loose rocks) from where we had the most glorious 360 degree view of Vilcabamba and neighbouring valleys.
We decided to walk the circuit track rather than return the way we´d come... this involved a precarious shuffle along the knife-edge ridge at the summit, often no more than about 50cm wide - great adrenaline! Unfortunately we turned off the summit ridge too soon and found ourselves following cattle tracks instead of the actual path, so had a bit of a struggle and a panic getting down. Made it back to Izhcayluma in time for Christmas dinner, though - a marvellous buffet served at 5pm sharp.
And from there it all went downhill... After a few civilized post-dinner glasses of wine, the pool competition kicked off, under the auspices of French-Canadian manager Andreas. It was pretty competitive stuff, with the winning team, Aaron and Rob, raking in the coveted prize of a bottle of rum. Their final challenge was a game against the in-house experts, Andreas and Peter, whom they also beat... only to win another bottle of rum and the dubious privilege of performing a strip-show!
The two boys rose to the challenge, as you can see from the photos, and had us all in absolute stitches. Oh, and Andreas provided the supporting act, as well as megamouth commentary throughout the entire pool competition - hilarious. Well, needless to say the bottled prizes were generously shared around, and before long it was 3am AGAIN, with much drunken dancing AGAIN.
After another rather slow start on Boxing Day, Rich and I grabbed some bikes and pedaled into the village, on to a book exchange place and from there up a side valley, from where we picked up a hiking track which leads into the mountains of the Podocarpus National Park. We ran out of time slightly, so didn´t make it very far (probably did a 3-hour round trip), however it was a super walk with some spectacular views.
In the evening we said farewell to all our drinking buddies at Izhcayluma and headed to Loja. Caught the night bus to Piura, Peru, at about 10.30pm. After a fun Christmas in Ecuador it was time to hit the next country on our list!
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