Vilcabamba

This weekend, I went to Vilcabamba with some fellow teachers. Vilcabamba is a hazardus 45 minute drive through the mountains from Loja. It's a tiny town of only 4,000 people and only one main square, but the hostel we stayed at, Hosteria Izcayluma is outside the city and is pretty much a jungle sanctuary. It was such a beautiful place. There was tons of flora and awesome views since the hostel is on a mountain outside of the valley. So beautiful. Hammocks all over, a lagoon style pool, a covered outdoor restaurant where I ate stroganoff with chicken and homemade pasta. The hostel is owned by two german brothers I guess. They have their own bar and pool and ping pong and a giant chess set. It was pretty cool. I would have liked to stay longer, but we only went from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon since we all have to work today. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Vilcabamba on Sunday. Even though it was Sunday, most places in town were open and people were walking around everywhere. Vilcabamba is pretty famous because it is known as the valley of longevity because people supposedly live to be 140 years old there. Of course, it's not true, but the bottled water there advertises longevity as do some of the businesses, like the ice cream shop across the street from the restaurant we ate at. Ice cream of longevity. If only... haha.

Anyway, it was a great trip. I have some bug bites that itch like crazy, but it could certainly be worse.

Here is a link to my pictures on google in case you don't have facebook. Vilcabamba All the flower pictures are mostly for my mom and grandpa to see because I'm sure they will love them. The flowers are all from the grounds of the hotel.