'Stoy en Loja, de nuevo

Buenas tardes novia, amigos varios y famila mios ...

I'm in Loja. It's actually the second time I've been in Loja this trip, but I am only here on transfer to Vilcabamba, which I'm promised will be Gringolandia. I feel a little out of touch with other tourists, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm heading down to the Valley of Longevity anyway to recharge my batteries, which feel a little worn down today.

Last Saturday, the day after I blogged last, I spent almost a whole day travelling from Machala to Puyango where there's supposedly the world's largest petrified wood. There was indeed a lot of petrified wood lying around, but also on my 10km walk from the main road to the village there were more butterflies and things scampering in the foliage than I could name, count or even photograph. Lovely place.

Whilst I was there I met a few other English-speakers, no less than three English teachers from Loja who were kind enough to take me under their wing and chat with until what seemed like very late at night. It actually wasn't, but when I'm getting up at 7am everyday even 11:30pm feels ludicrously late, especially in Ecuador where the sun sets at about 6pm - so by 8 or 9 it's pitch-black outside. No street lights in Puyango, either. Oh no. Spent that night in a cabin at Puyango which was ... interesting. It did have running water and electricity, but not necessarily as we know it. 'Nuff said.

The next day I left quite late with the three teachers from Loja in the back of a pick-up truck to the tiny town in the clouds of Alamor. Beautiful - and somewhat interesting - place, but I didn't get to see any of it as I was being taken by bus to Loja that afternoon, which was a shame as it's obviously way off the beaten track. The busride to Loja was quite horrendous, with some rather rude Ecuadorians lying their seats almost completely flat in front of me. I felt a little stiff after 6 hours of the same cramped conditions, but fortunately once I'd arrived in Loja it wasn't too difficult to locate accomodation for the night in the form of the rather attractive Hostel Londres, which is actually about a block away from where I am now.

Monday saw me looking around Loja for quite a long time. It's a lovely city, rather reminiscent of Cuenca in some of its architecture but quieter and with more focus. Not really very easy to explain, but it's a rather delightful place. Unfortunately by lunchtime I was so stiff from the day before that I could barely walk, and I decided to call it a day and sit in the hostel reading. Rather dull, I know, but they hadn't even opened the museum for the afternoon.

The next day I left Loja for another city in the clouds, Zaruma, which is a long way off the tourist track but inexplicably so, except that it's devilishly challenging to get there from Loja. It's an old gold mining town and apparently mining carries on there even today, but I saw no trace of that. Instead I stayed at a lovely hotel with an amazing view over the valley below, as well as a swimming pool and other general mod-cons. Too nice for the likes of me, really, but I needed a bit of a rest after the journey.

I probably stayed too long in Zaruma but it's a nice town, if a little high up in the mountains. Very steep roads leading through wonderful narrow streets retaining their original colonial architectural charms. Weird but quite nice museums. A beautiful church. If I'm going on it's because it actually is a very nice place, and I really want to tell everyone to go there!

Then this morning ... aye aye aye. Had to get up before 6am to get the bus to Loja which was not much fun, but at least the bus was basically empty and I could sleep for a while. Yay.

So here I am in Loja, sitting in an internet café having some contact with the northern hemisphere. Today I'm off to Vilcabamba, will probably spend tomorrow resting a little bit ... then maybe so short day hikes etc. And meeting other tourists! Hurray.

Can't get my photos on this time, but I did try and make the last batch public. Hope that worked.