Vilcabamba- great weather in a town that is just half an hour from Loja and a few hours away from the Peruvian border. It is a small town with probably just a few thousand residents, but it is slowly rising. The cause of this is a disturbing trend of retired gringos with long, silver pony tails. Many have retired for the good life, which I have no problem with, but their population has slowly created a percentage of residents in town that are outpricing many Ecuadorian residents.
Case in point- the number of restaurants that serve the standard cheap lunch ($2.50 average price): 5, number of restaurants/hostels that cater to gringos ($7 average menu item price), maybe 10, probably a few less.
Sure, the gringos are bringing in money into this small economy, but the normal conversation that is overheard is about real estate (a market that is outpricing local Ecuadorians in a more drastic way than restaurants).
But let me focus on the good parts of this town. Great weather! It doesn´t get too hot, though it is still up in the mountains (5000 feet, 1500 meters up) and the nights did not get beyond single-blanket thickness for sleeping. Clean air! Not much car traffic, not any car pollution. Vilcabamba has the reputation and motto of having a high population of people living beyond 100 years old. While this claim has since been debunked (one man was interviewed a handful of times within a 20 year period about how old he was and his age claims jumped up by more than 30 years), there is something to be said about the peacefulness and tranquility about the living here.
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| I biked up 10 kilometers up the mountain and was treated with this view. |
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| another view of Vilcabamba from a hostal two kilometers away. |
A nice river runs out of town with a nice 5 kilometer trail along the way, providing a nice playground for people.
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| random fire in the hills |
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| this is from the top of the road that leads northward away from Vilcabamba |
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| donkeys are the beasts of burden- people just load them up with sugar cane stalks and they know where to go to drop them off. I did not see anyone guiding them as they walked down the road and made a turn at the end. |
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| a tribute to the Loja region's food options |
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| the view from north of Vilcabamba |
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| two spiders sharing the same network of webs |
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| ladybug |
Just outside of town is a restaurant called Shanta's that serves some good pizza, but is known for his Snake Juice- a shot of liquor that is sugar cane juice, aguardiente and fermented snake, possibly a coral snake?!?). Really strong stuff in proof; in flavor it was kinda like tequila, but there was definitely a reptile-taste, by which it reminds me of the smell of snakes. Not sure if I would order it again, but no regrets that I did drink it.
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| celebrating the birth of Santa with a buncha French tourists |
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| just a bug that was hanging out in the hostel |
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