Valley of Longevity
We wish we could have stayed longer in Cuenca (with easy access to beautiful national parks), but we did not. We wanted to get to northern Peru and therefore travelled south across Ecuador to the village of Vilcabamba. This place, or more specifically, the valley is known as 'the valley of longevity' and it is not uncommon to see people older than 100 years still working in their fields. The secret - no stress, good food and lots of exercise. You should know that by now.
We stayed outside of the village at Cabanas Rio Yambala. We had a little cottage close to the river with a great view out of our hammock. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. Johan did some bird spotting from his hammock and saw yellow birds, blue birds, orange birds, brown birds, black birds and a striped bird. He could not page through the bird guide in his hand because he had to sit dead still for maximum observation.
After a day of rest we hiked into the mountains to the owners' private reserve called Las Palmas. It was a long day. It took us more than 4 hours one way and 2.5 hours back to cover some 11kms and 800m in altitude. We crossed various rivers on makeshift tree bridges and did not see other people the whole day. Johan saw a big red bird which he thinks might have been a type of parrot. The forests swarm with all sorts of butterflies, especially see-through ones! Johan still had the energy to go waterfall hunting (which was successful!), but when he returned Janine was worried that he was near to a heart attack. But he survived.
Vilcabamba was a fantastic and peaceful place to rest before attempting the next part of our journey to northern Peru. We called this leg that followed our own 'amazing race'...
We stayed outside of the village at Cabanas Rio Yambala. We had a little cottage close to the river with a great view out of our hammock. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. Johan did some bird spotting from his hammock and saw yellow birds, blue birds, orange birds, brown birds, black birds and a striped bird. He could not page through the bird guide in his hand because he had to sit dead still for maximum observation.
After a day of rest we hiked into the mountains to the owners' private reserve called Las Palmas. It was a long day. It took us more than 4 hours one way and 2.5 hours back to cover some 11kms and 800m in altitude. We crossed various rivers on makeshift tree bridges and did not see other people the whole day. Johan saw a big red bird which he thinks might have been a type of parrot. The forests swarm with all sorts of butterflies, especially see-through ones! Johan still had the energy to go waterfall hunting (which was successful!), but when he returned Janine was worried that he was near to a heart attack. But he survived.
Vilcabamba was a fantastic and peaceful place to rest before attempting the next part of our journey to northern Peru. We called this leg that followed our own 'amazing race'...
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