What it means to be in Vilcabamba

OMG...Vilcabamba. The Ecuadorian town where hippies and travellers go to relax. You will definitely get more than you expect. Initially,  Vilcabamba is an amazing little town with a feeling that you can't explain with words. It is quaint and everyone mind themselves. People move at their own relaxed pace. Vilcabamba is famous for not only being a gringo town but also for having the largest population of people who live the longest. So that means most people in Vilcabamba live a long time. There was a study done with the people of the village and they found that they lived longer because they: 1) Ate lots of (healthy) yogurt...not the sugary american stuff, 2) Exercised regularly, and 3) Had low blood pressure because of a lack of stress. I think the lack of stress has something to do with the environment around them. It's very serene and mountainous. The mountains and hills just have the ability to calm you no matter how shaky you are.

So I can't write this blog without mentioning the food there. You might want to get a taste of home with spagetti that isn't overcooked and a wonderful lasagna. I know it seems silly to write about food but it's surprising how much you can miss the good stuff when its not at your fingertips. The yogurt was all natural with NO sugar...it's a rarity to find in the US and come in a yummy crepe.

Natalie a tourist  in her way to Peru says: I had trying to cross the border back into Peru. So on Sunday, there was only one bus out of Loja back to Piura at 10:30pm because of some religious festival in Loja(arriving El Cisne's Virgin). This meant that we got stuck at the Ecuadorian border for 2 hours because Ecuador has decided that they should close their border between 1am and 5am. Finally 5am rolls around and we get our exit stamp for Ecuador and so we can now finally get our entrance stamp for Peru.  I decided to play it off as if I didn't understand the Spanish or at all what was going on. It was worth a try...actually it worked and he gave me 90 more days. I don't think he was too keen on having to explain to me a few times that he was trying to cheat me and that I should bribe him to get through. Silly border police...maybe next time I should bat my eyes and give them a big smile...!