Week 25: I Feel The Earth Move

Only 2 months later than originally planned...

My journey frmo Cusco, Peru, to Vilcabamba, Ecuador, was one of the most epic I have undertaken yet. From the bus station in Cusco I took a 22 hour overnight bus to Lima, the capital, arriving in the late morning. I had about 4 hours to kill before taking yet another overnight bus of 19 hours to Piura, in the north and close to the border with Ecuador. In the 4 hours I managed to somehow delete the pictures on my camera from the preceding 2 weeks, I blame the computer, but on the upside I booked my ticket to go to Shambala festival, near Bristol, over my birthday this year with my friend Carys. After another couple of hours wait I managed to take a bus from Piura to Loja which incorporated the border crossing and took 9 hours. The final leg was a local bus from Loja to Vilcabamba of 1.5 hours.



I arrived in the evening and as I'm sure you can imagine, was in dire need of a refreshment. I sat in the bar where a met an American lady named Sheila, who lived in Cuenca and was on a spiritual journey to Ecuador. It was extremely interesting to talk to her about her journey and the way she looked at life and the things she did, as I have never really met anyone in the same place as she is before.

A hostel with one hell of a view

Luckily I had a whole dorm and a double bed to myself so I slept like a log that night, and had a big lie in the morning which I fully deserved. A bit later 4 belgian medical students who were living in Cuenca arrived for their weekend break. I mostly spent the day by the pool and reading as I needed to recuperate after time sitting cramped on the bus.

The next day the belgians left early for a walk, and I met Sheila and another girl to go into town. We had a delicious mexican lunch before wandering round the shops and stalls, where there was some really beautiful jewellery, so I had to really restrain myself. We then had "afternoon tea" (cheesecake!) in the inner courtyard of a lovely hostel, before heading back to Izhcayluma, our well-run hostel up on the hill with beautiful views.

In the evening we had a fire outside the bar, with a couple of drinks, and chatted with the belgians and a few other people. I went in the pool while it was raining because that is the most fun time to go.

Incredible vistas of rolling hills

The next day all of the Belgian students left apart from one guy, Bob, we went for a hike together up to a  beautiful ridge, unfortunately I forgot to change the memory card in my camera so don't have any pictures (still waiting on Bob to send me some). The end of the walk was a little bit tedious as we were hopping from rock to rock on the river and trying not to break an ankle or get wet.

A bit of low-res photography on the old iphone 3

Bob had told me he was going to hitchhike back to Cuenca, where he was studying, and as it was my next destination, I asked if I could join him. So in the morning we walked down to the main road from the hostel, laden with out bags, and managed to pick up a ride within about 10 or 15 minutes. The guy told us he would drop us in town. When we explained to him where we were going he said he had an appointment at the hospital but that if we were willing to wait he would take us into Loja. He dropped us in the city about an hour later and we grabbed lunch at a chicken place (there's a disguise), it was one of my worse experiences and I thought I wasn't going to be able to get it all down but I just about managed. We walked along the road a while until it turned into the main road north to Cuenca. We had been standing for about 20 minutes and we just about to give up and grab a cap a few miles further north where we were more likely to get picked up, when someone pulled over. The guy took as as far as a town called Saraguro, although I had to grip the JC handle all the way as he was rather erratic. From Saraguro we were picked up within a few minutes by a camioneta (4x4), although he told us he could only take us about 10km, and we soon realised it was a local collective taxi, so we were going to have to pay. He dropped us at the end of his route and to our surprised didn't want any money from us. We walked 100 or 200m up the road to where we would be a bit more visible (who realised there were such tactics to hitchhiking?), where a few cars and trucks passed us by before one guy obviously made a last minute decision to take us and stopped about 50m up the road. We ran up the road and climbed up into the cab of his truck. They were full-time truckers transporting motorbikes through Ecuador. It was really interesting talking to him in Spanish particularly about how much he loved his country ("Ecuador has everything... Sea, mountains and jungle, why would I ever need to leave?"). After another couple of hours, which would have been less in anything a bit smaller, but it was fun all the same and thankfully at no point did I need the toilet!

Excited to be setting off on my first ever hitchhike!

He dropped us just outside of Cuenca and Bob knew the local bus to take to get to my hostel, and so he could get home. After a quick turnaround we met up again with the other girls I had met in Vilcabamba, and another couple to go for dinner and a few drinks. All in all I had thoroughly enjoyed my first hitchhiking experience and would certainly think about doing it again.

I hear you ask, why the blog title? On the second night I was sitting on the toilet (necessary detail, sorry) when I was sure I felt the whole room shaking. It had nothing to do with me I can assure you, as I saw the lightbulb swinging in the main room and was sure there had been a tremor of some kind.
The following day I was sitting at the computer adjoining the restaurant when I felt the room shake, but nobody else around me seemed to react. I did later realise that it was another tremor, I hadn't just been imagining it. Earthquake experiences 3 and 4!