Relaxing over Easter in the hippy hangout
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
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76
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Trip End
Jul 03, 2008
Vilcabamba,
Ecuador
Friday, March 21, 2008
The next day we didnt do much, I got chatting to Amy in our hostel who persuaded me to go to a SWEAT with her, I didnt really know what I had committed to but all I knew was that I had been a little bunged up recently so having a good sweat might help. A group of us met in a cafe in the evening in town and got a taxi up into the hills, all sorts of people were there, some guy who apparently survived on light to live (he hadnt eaten for 3 yrs and not drunk anything including water for over a year) I have to admit he didnt look all that good but I was not convinced by the whole light thing.
Butterfly
A few locals and hippes turned up along with a couple of gringos including me that had come to see what it was all about. Apparently it is an ancient Indian ritual that is supposed to clense the soul. Basically some locals had already built like a wig wam type thing whereby we had to strip off crawl inside in a clockwise direction and sit on the dirt inside which had a centre piece whereby hot volcanic rocks were placed, the door was shut and we sat in the pitch black sweating our arses off whilst they chanted and sang songs. About every 15mins more hot volcanic rocks were placed inside making the temperature inside excruciatingly hot. The whole idea is to recreate a womb and when you came out your soul would be cleansed, I have to admit I didnt feel very cleansed just very very hot! But hey it was an experience. Jamie very sensibly stayed back at the hostel, still not feeling great. Absolutely starving, we went into town to watch the Good Friday procession, where by locals carried a coffin (obviously of supposedly Christ) through the streets with lots of people following on behind with candles. We moved to Las Ruinas de Quinara a little further from town but it had a jacuzzi which you could watch films in, a sauna, steamroom, pool, bar and a good atmosphere. Feeling like we should explore the area we trekked through the woods on a nature trial with lots of beautiful butterflies and different plants following the river but never really having an idea where we were going. That evening we made the most of our more social hostel bar and went into town to watch a traditional band play.
Next day I had convinced Jamie to come horseriding with me, we set off for our 4 hour ride through the mountains with 2 other Israelie girls and John an American. Our trusty steeds were not the biggest of statue but they looked very reliable. So reliable in fact Jamie found he didnt even have to hold the reins his pony know exactly what to do - just follow the others! Mine pony was a lazy little thing, after half an hour I realised that if I contiued to kick it all the way I was going to end up with sores on my legs from by trousers pinching on the very uncomfortable western style saddle, so I let him make his own pace and subsequently was constantly left behind. The ponies did well to cart us up and down the difficult tracks for 4 hours, at one point Jamie got off becasue he thought his pony was going to collapse cantering up a hill but thankfully everyone come back in one piece, humans and all. Later that evening we went out with Tara and cant remember his name but a very nice English couple who had given us lots of travel info and had convinced us to go to Columbia!
