The last of Ecuador.

So, I'm way behind here. I have enough problems keeping track of time on a day to day basis, so I'm sure you can sympathize with the overwhelming task of "chronological order". In realidad, I am in Peru: recovering (hopefully for real this time) from six weeks of mal functioning organs, experienced a country wide strike (here's to hoping Machu Picchu is open), got off of Malaria pills (maybe until Bolivia), and am now acclimating to altitudes of 4000+ meters, again. But I had to get from Cuenca, Ecuador to here, so I regress to Vilacabamba, Ecuador....



Vilcabamba, or the Sacred Valley, is known for its peeps living well into their hundreds. Some man in Baños tried to dismantle this "myth" by telling me that, historically, when someone inherits land, that person takes on the name that is tied to the deed. So, three generations of land owners, literally, appears to be one person who lived like 120 years or something. Following this conversation, the man handed me a business card entitled, "Mariposa Man" and then pointed to his hatchback finger painted with butterflies, like the gesture and the car validated his identity. I've been really open to meeting fellow travelers, but this guy seemed lost. Upon arriving at Vilcabamba, I believe that people live well into their hundreds here: open skies, lush valleys, wild horses and views to take your breath away. Yep. Pretty radtastic:

Following this amazing ridge line trek, Michelle, Lizz and myself got lost, as we tend to always do, and ventured into three miles of overgrown river beds- streaming with water, ransacked with steaming cow pies and thicketed in spider webs. Mis amigas cleverly named me ¨Dora¨as in Dora the Explorer after I climbed into the air conditioning unit in our hostal room in Baños. Apparently, besides just being a curious soul, Dora gets assigned to machete through blankets of enormous spider food traps. Which, I am proud to say, I did. Another encounter with wildlife on this trip has been the cows. I am completely scared of them. Especially when they travel in packs of 20+ and have horns. 4-H did very little to ease this fear. Por ejemplo, on the easiest hike offered in Vilacabamba, we encountered cows, had to take like ten detours to get around them and wound up sweating and exhausted after five hours of up and down through terraced country side. Geez, these things crap everywhere, pollute the water ten fold, make it impossible for me to order the Ecuadorian ceña cause its usually beef.... friggin cows.

So, in Vilcabamba, we met up with German, used to be rock star, Sven. He endured getting lost, avoiding cows, and bowel movement conversations for a whole day and plans on meeting up with us later...in Peru. Here we come Peru!