Trip to Loja

Over the July 4th holiday weekend, Livia and I traveled down to Loja, a city in southern Ecuador. Loja is up in the highlands, but at 6,700 feet, isn’t as high as Quito or Cuenca. It’s a regional hub, with a population of a little less than 200,00 people. We walked about the town, went to nearby Podocarpus National Park (pictures far below) and also took the bus to Vilcabamaba and spent one night there. The trip was quite delightful, although there were a few hiccups. 

(famos Loja city gate)

I showed up just in time for the flight, and Livia was waiting for me in a restaurant. I rushed through check-in and security, and then sat at my gate and texted Livia. Just as I did that I heard the last call for my flight, and they had changed the gates. I rushed over and grabbed the tarmac bus to the plane. All this time I’m texting Livia telling her to hurry up. As we get off the bus I tell the flight attendant that my girlfriend is waiting at the gate. They say that this was the last bus, and there’s nothing they can do. Mind you, we still had 10 minutes until departure time. I insisted, and a few other passengers agreed with me. But they said, nope, they weren’t authorized to send another bus. Granted, Livia was waiting for me on the other side of security…so once I urgently texted her, it still took a bit for her to get to the gate. So, once I arrived at Loja, we talked on the phone, and she got a flight for early the next morning. In Vilcabamba, the hotel cancelled our reservation, and there really is only one nice hotel in town, so we ended up at a perfectly acceptable hostel. We found it odd, though, as Livia had confirmed the reservation just two days prior. The lady gave us no explanation, except her ‘employee’s incompetence’ and said she was full. Our final hiccup was when Livia’s rented bike skidded out on a dirt road in Vilcabamba, and she cut her hand and forehead. 

(panoramic view in Vilcabamba)

But, other than that, we had a refreshing, if quite muddy, and chilly (in Livia’s opinion) hike through the national park. The town of Loja doesn’t offer much, but is pretty peaceful, and has a few nice colonial era structures. It’s known for it’s music, and we had drinks at a very cool shared space type place. It has a large courtyard bar/restaurant, but then music practice rooms off of that space, and there were people singing and practicing guitar while we were there. 

(views in Vilcabamba)

Vilcabamba was in interesting place. I was not especially impressed. The views are gorgeous, no doubt. The climate is quite nice. Because of this, it has attracted both Chilean/Argentinian hippies, and retired Americans/Europeans. The hippies tend to be selling bracelets and necklaces, or working in restaurants/hotels. The old Westerners seem to be walking around in a bit of a daze, usually with a local employee helping them get about. It was an odd environment, the coming together of the retirees, the hippies, and the rural highlanders in one place. The juxtaposition of a yoga studio next to a chicken feed store, was, if nothing else, intriguing. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the vibe and the town, just not my cup of tea. 

(don’t be a party-pooper)

So, all in all a fun trip, it was Livia’s first time down to the very southern part of Ecuador, so that was cool. We also got free Pope hats (see below), t-shirts, and drawstring bags because we flew on Tame, the national airline, which was the official sponsor of Pope Francis’ visit to Ecuador. It was a huge deal. I intentionally planned the trip to get out of Guayaquil for the weekend, I have very low interest in seeing the Pope, and even lower in dealing with the crowds. From what everyone said when we got back, it was a good idea. They shut off my neighborhood for something like half the day on either Saturday or Sunday. Below the pope hat are pictures from our hike in Parque Nacional Podocarpus, which is in both Loja and Zamora Chinchipe provinces.