Quito to Loja to Vilcabamba back to Loja then to Cuenca back to Quito.
Ten hours to Loja. Forty minutes from Loja to Vilcabamba. Forty minutes back to Loja. Six hours from Loja to Cuenca. Ten hours from Cuenca to Quito.
Kendall and I did all of from Wednesday night to Sunday morning. That's a lot of traveling. Nonetheless, my heart is so happy to have been able to have the opportunity to do such a thing. Of course, it's pretty easy when bus tickets are never over $20 and hostels are the same way. By the way, I'm going to stop being so lazy with my blogs and making them a little more organized.
We left Wednesday night after what seemed like forever to get from the northern half of Quito to Quitumbe, the bus terminal in the south. We got to the bus and let me tell you, this bus was the nicest bus I have been on in Ecuador by FAR. Goodness gracious, it was comfortable and I slept and so on. In comparison to the bus I took back from Puerto Lopez, it was practically the magic school bus. The bus I took back from Puerto Lopez was awful, by the way. I never told y'all about it, but during the ten hour bus ride, they had a trilogy of Sylvester Stallone movies prepared. Do you know how violent Sylvester Stallone movies are? Not to mention a night bus in Ecuador through the middle of nowhere....anywho. Back to the point.
Kendall and I got into Loja around 7 AM the next morning and hit the ground running. We got to our hostel, rested for an hour, had breakfast, and prepared for the day. We walked to "La Puerta de la Ciudad" which is the door to the city. It was BEAUTIFUL. Loja itself is beautiful, but very small. After we wandered around the little mini-museos at the door to the city, we decided to head to Vilcabamba. This bus ride was less than enjoyable--seemingly long and a lot of people here don't exactly know how to use headphones, including the chiquito who played "El Serrucho" (this literally translates into handsaw, but basically means dry sex) on repeat for the entire forty minute bus ride into Vilcabamba. But we made it! We went and had almuerzo, where I enjoyed fried shrimp and rice for a mere $3. Afterwards, we wandered down and decided it would be cool to ride horses through the Andes. Which is was, don't get me wrong, the entire two hours was well worth it and it was beautiful, but sore does not even begin to describe the feeling afterwards. Not to mention, I had a competitive horse who wanted to run and do a little dancing and drop it to the floor, you know. Needless to say, enjoyable but a once in a lifetime kind of thing. When we got back into Loja, we decided to go have some fresh smoothies and juice, but the funny thing was that we stumbled onto a large group of Americans. And I mean some HIPPIE Americans. Old, young, mostly young with dreads and tattoos and couldn't speak a lick of Spanish--which in itself, is frustrating. I bought some art from some street vendor that I'm pretty excited to hang in my room once I get back. Forty minutes later and we were back in Loja; we showered up, rested, and got dinner. Kendall wanted Mexican so she had that, but afterwards we found a microbrewery named Zarza. Best part of Zarza? The owner was a younger guy from Texas who had backpacked around Ecuador and moved here because he loved it; he said he decided to start the brewery because he was tired of drinking Pilsener. Turns out he's from Dallas. What are the odds? By the way, the Belgian brew is the smoothest I have ever had.
We went home and immediately went to bed, literally at ten PM we were both knocked out. A full 11 hours of sleep is healthy though, right? We had breakfast and hit the bus station. Not the most comfortable ride to Cuenca, but that's okay. There was an American from southern Virginia on my bus; I was having a cool conversation with her until she mentioned she was a Jehovah's Witness...had to dip out of that one quick. We got to our hostel and we were immediately in complete awe of what we saw--a view of the "Catedrál Inmaculada" or Immaculate Cathedral. One of Cuenca's prettiest sights for sure. We quickly began to wander around the town on the hunt for pizza (who would've thought that I would be craving pizza?) but ended up inside the Black Olive. I had corvina and it was delicious. Afterwards, we went and had hot chocolate at the hostel and then prepared to wander around the town for the night. We ended up at Goza cafe and then Monday Blue for a beer or two, then turned in for an early night. We hit the ground running the next morning and decided to stay in Cuenca just to get lost for the day. It's a beautiful city with beautiful people and even more beautiful architecture. We had lunch at the Black Olive again, where I had a filet mignon for 12 bucks. YEAH A FILET MIGNON. It was delicious. We actually met a couple of Americans inside; annoyed with their constant English and whatnot, I turned around to correct one of them on a Spanish word. Immediately, I felt guilty because I learned that the mom had moved into Cuenca over two years ago, her mother (also at the table) moved there 18 months ago, and the mom has 11 kids! Four of them are biological, all of the others are adopted. She then offered me a business card in case I ever want to return to Cuenca and need a place to stay. It's funny how the world works sometimes. After, we wandered some more, got a milkshake, and then back to the hostel. We got ready and left for dinner where we ate at La Cuchara Magica (the magic spoon) where they do magic tricks for you at dinner. It was alright, but I would've rather returned for some delicious food at the Black Olive. We wandered into the park in front of the cathedral after dinner and watched a couple of street performers, then headed to Goza for a night cap.
Needless to say, I loved Cuenca. The bus ride back was long, but the prettiest bus ride I have ever been on. It's so cool that with the altitude here, you literally drive through clouds. It's funny because the clouds are eye level and hover over the valley towns below, making it look like a boiling pot. We got back into Quito, found a taxi (after two taxi drivers tried to over charge us) and were homeward bound just like that.
Although I am so thankful for the opportunity to travel around Ecuador, my heart is with my university and it's fight to end racism on our campus. I am so proud to be a Sooner and to see how swiftly action has been taken to right the wrongs that only a handful of students seem to have committed.
That's all for now, good night and good luck to you all.
Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.
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