Loja – the best way to say good bye to Ecuador

We decided to leave Cuenca day earlier so we could go to our last destination in Ecuador. Loja, the city with lights in the sky J

We were welcomed by Diego, our last host and his 3 little schnauzers J . The same day he took us  for a beer in a local pub. Nice music and nice chill after 8h bus ride.

On Sunday we accompanied him and his family in search of land for summer holiday house near Vilcabamba. Landscape over there is just simply magnificent. Green hills, rocky mountains…oh..we loved it. As we drove through village Nuno spotted sigh for sale on fence of field. Ladies made call, owner arrived, we all checked field and from first second walking on it we said: “this is it!” And it was the one! Field prepared for house with stream, eucalyptus trees and plenty of fruit trees like banana, papaya and guanabana. So nice. Hope, they will enjoy their holiday time over there J after building the house…

Next national park in our counts was Podocarpus. The entrance to Amazonas rain forest. So we travel to Zamora, one of the entrances of the park. Some plants from park were important for making medicine used by the construction workers of the Panama channel because they suffered from yellow fever.

We hitchhiked till the entrance and saved 2 hours of walk. The park is simply amazing. Right in the beginning we saw big, huge butterfly J At first we walked to a very nice view point and to a bridge you can see in Indiana Jones movies ;) On the way to El Mirador, we heard the strangest bird song, it  sounded just like a robot, but we could find it in the middle of the vast flora. After one hour of up, up, up hill hike we finally reach the top view of all forest. Very much tiring 6 hours walk but a beautiful day.

Next day we head to Vilcabamba, the magical city where ancients live over 100 years. Some say it is because the healthy food and magical water, others say it´s the agriculture work and chamicos (locally produced cigarettes) and there is another tale that says it is because of the energy of Hayauasca and San Pedro Cactus ceremonies.

We spent 3 days in an organic farm which produces yogurt and cheese. We met Leslie, the owner of the farm, Alejandro the Columbian coffee maker(and what a good coffee he makes ;), Carlos and Hitomi, the Argentinian/Japanese couple.  Janka helped Leslie finishing the cheese making and later we could try the delicious product and later we had a delicious meal and chilled conversation. Next day we had an amazing time climbing the nearest mountains which offered us the fool view of the valley. Vilcabamba fulfilled our energy levels and left nice memories.

Back to Loja we met Diego once more and prepare our stuff. Our journey in Ecuador was finishing. We departure in direction of Macara and cross the border with Peru

Peru here we gooooo!!!!!