I changed my whole blogsite that day I was so ungratefully bored, and the next day I went for a careful walk up to the mirador. I ate good pad thai chicken at Casa hood, watching the movie playing, then I was interviewed by a girl that was collecting stories from solo female travellers in South America, and went to bed. I got up really early to leave for Cuenca. The trip was amazing! I´m always nervous about riding, until I get on the bike.
I could see the big volcano by Baños spewing out smoke of its crater. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road. Later on, I passed by snowy Chimbarazo; the tallest volcano in Ecuador. I enjoyed myself on the great roads, all the way to Alausi. After that, the roads got much worse. There was also a beautiful place called Ibiales or something, that looked like it had inspired the first fairy tale authors, with the oddly shaped green hills and a castle like church in the side of one, bathing in crystal sunlight.
I reached the classical Cuenca right before it started to rain. I asked gringos on the street for a hostel. I met them again, in another town. The city was surprisingly beautiful, with its european architect. Found a cheap, unsociable hostel with a nice staff right by Calle Larga, settled down, got to know the owner of a Pakistanian restaurant, who gave me a discount, then went to the cinema and saw Eat, pray love. The movie is about Julia Roberts travelling, among other places to Bali, so I was trying to recognize where they "wanted it" to be set. Did see the monkeys from Ubud, and got a terrible craving for italian food.
In the morning, I walked around to see the pretty city, met some friends from Colombia, got money from Western Union, changed my tyre: 43usd for a tyre. 2usd for changing it, and had to pay 35 usd for new gloves, as I was dumb enough to leave them on the bike and drive off.
I wasn´t finished paying for my whimsicality that day, however...
The busride to Vilcabamba made me ralize how much better riding with a motorcycle is.
I left my bike in Cuenca to be able to travel after dark, so that I had time to enjoy Vilcabamba, and the beautiful hosteria www.Izhcayluma.com, which is more like a resort, only for 10usd including a breakfast buffet. The nature is beautiful, there´s a pool, hammocks, big and nice rooms, there´s a cheaper massage parlour than in Baños, which Really made me bitter! There´s a bar, tv, pool- and ping pong table. Around the area, there are so many great treks to do. Today we couldn´t leave the hosteria until 5, because Ecuador is gathering info about everyone in the country. So we had a huge breakfast, slept in hammocks, talked, sunbathed by the pool, had lunch, talked. Now I might go and fix what was caused by my whimsicality again:
After getting off the bus in Loja, sleepy and not used to having another set of luggage, guess what I forget?
I realized this after buying my onward ticket, and they tell me to catch a taxi to follow the bus, because the luggage wasn´t at the terminal. The taxidriver was strange, as he tried to charge me when we hadn´t pulled over the bus yet, and as I said I wouldn´t pay until I had my luggage, he didn´t seem to try to catch up with the bus until we reached Vilcabamba, and he charged me 15 usd for it. I told him to buy something nice to his 6 kids.. But he had also said that I was close to my hosteria, which I was not and had to pay another ride there. The worst part was however that when I pulled the bus over, my luggage wasn´t there, and the driver told me it´s in the bus terminal. 16 usd straight into the toilet...Plus having to return to the station. One says one learns from your mistakes, but Man, there are a lot of mistakes to make out there!
But done is done. I´m happy to be in this wonderful place, where so many people get "caught" for longer than they had planned.
3. december, 2010
Damn, was I right to say that. Izhcayluma just turned out to be my second favorite place in all of South America. Fine, there was some stress involved in the fact that the buspeople sent me after the wrong bus, and my luggage ended up in Cuenca, before I went to get it two days ago. But I was never bored for one second, those four nights I spent there. Good food, so friendly staff and I don´t think I´ve found that many great people in one hostel before. My knee healed and we went first on the San Jose trail, among others with a french guy that we only spoke spanish to(good practice), then the next day, up the scenic Mondonga trail. There are so many options. I loved that one. So great to excercise again! I´m enjoying the fact that my youth and previous training allows me to slack off from excercising and still be able to run ahead. When you reach the top, you´re walking along a really thin ridgeline, with a 360 degree view of the green mountains around. I was trotting along, smiling and listening to "O holy night", of all things. It´s soon christmas. Did a whole lot of reflecting on that walk. My stay at Izhcayluma has really relighted my fire for travelling and enjoyment. I was walking on clouds, feeling partly sorry for all the people with imaginary chains. My heart is open to all adventures. I´m free. Happy. It´s not just about travelling, it´s about taking the plunge and realize the endless opportunities that are out there. How did I afford to do live this kind of life? How did I ever diserv it? It´s so crazy Not to do it. I really want to say thanks to my family for the chance to save up for this trip.
I took the bus back to Cuenca with a british friend, and stayed at the Cuencanier again, had some pakistani food and sang karaoke that we rediculously enough had to pay for. I had to get up Really early to make it to meet Victor in Arenillas, before crossing the border. That would become easier said than done..
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