Well after a 3 month stay in Vietnam travelling from the North to central and coast to a Southern Island and ending in Ho Chi Mong City, I now need to leave Vietnam and I will truly miss leaving Vietnam, but I have made plans to go back to Ecuador a place that I had visited back in September of 2013, now 4 years later going back. This journey from Vietnam to Ecuador is a long journey with many flights and buses for me to get to the final destination and with many, many hours. It took 4 flights and then four buses and 3 days leaving Ho Chi Ming City and arriving in Vilacabamba.
I think I arrived in Vilcabamba on the 29th of November, talk about jet lag, I was so tired and I ended up getting very sick one night throwing up all the food, but then next morning woke up feeling good, and had days were I was sleeping at 7pm and waking up at 4 am.
Anyways Vilcabamaba is a small quiet town of 2000 or more Ecuadorians and ex-pats in the most southern area of Ecuador boasting very mild temperatures. Lola city is the most nearest city for all of ones needs for large ticketed items as furniture, cars to big grocery stores and markets, to movie theatre, night clubs and so on, by shared taxi one can get there within 45 minutes, by bus about 1 hour.
Vilca sits in a valley surrounded by mountains with one mountain called ‘Mandango Mountain’ which features ‘The Sleeping Inca’ which one can visualize the face looking towards the sky, it is a very popular mountain to hike and unfortunately a hiking trail that is not so favourable to the travellers and tourists hiking this trail up to Mandago Mountain as there have been many reports of theft involving force with severe injuries to the tourists. There are many hiking trails all around this little town and as far as walking and hiking many hills as again this is a valley surrounded by mountains, so exercise is easily achievable by walking daily.
Now with me and the first 40 days of being here, I have found it is much cooler here than the travelling I did throughout S.E. Asia, and it is rainy season. Although the rains sometimes being very heavy with lightening and thunder, these pours usually happen late afternoon around 4 or 5 pm after a day of full sunshine and very warm temperatures of 25C, so still good enough to walk around in shorts and sandals with shirt of to tan the body and in some cases burn the skin. I did make my way by shared taxi to Loja costing $2. each way for a 45 minute excursion from Vilca to Loja city, as I needed to buy things that I could not buy here. I am looking after a big house with rooms to rent out to travellers visiting Vilca, it has some gardens that are in need of much care so I am kept busy now with cleaning and maintaining things. Christmas was quiet for me, but did go to a friends house for potluck lunch as it was a small gathering but met a few other people living here. I wish I had the energy to go out New Years Eve to photograph the party and festivities happening in front of Church and central square, as it sounds like I missed out on much and especially the photo opportunities. One garden in the back of the house had some flowers with much vines everywhere under the soil as I dug all this up to transform into a vegetable garden for me to grow some fresh vegetables to eat. I created a stone walkway and a compost also, now wishing 40 days I already see signs of vegetables coming up, so yes I have been very busy.
Saturday mornings by the bus station there is an organic market selling fresh fruits, vegetables, breads, mushrooms and much more, on Sundays is the bigger market selling much more as there are more sellers, This is where most people come each weekend to buy their weekly food, I have been to both markets buying organic cacao beans to make chocolate and most of the fruits and vegetables I eat from Sunday’s market. Things are sold in pounds to the dollar or half dollar, for example 15 bananas is 1 dollar, 3 lbs of potatoes is 1 dollar and 10 eggs would be 2.50, 3 very large mangoes are a dollar, 4 cucumbers a dollar, and I get the head and faced shaved by the barber for 2.50 each time, and a pedicure costs about 7.00. I am settling in here and getting in a routine, one of them is going for a daily morning walk for about 90 minutes with a friend sometimes referred to as ‘Buddha Bob’, as we walk we will have some profound talking about life. I will keep you all posted with new happenings from where I stand now being in so-called Vilcabamba, Loja, Ecuador. For now enjoy the images i have taken here of the Vilcabamba community, peace and love always.
