Sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation. That's where we were at by the time we got to Loja but Loja means my life so when I got back I was very busy with my day to day things. Plus I had to see all my friends and catch up on everything I missed!! We decided though to leave Sunday and go to Vilcabamba for a few days. Vilcabamba is only about an hour away from Loja and is at a lower altitude (1600m) so it's much warmer. Basically the weather never changes there and they claim the people like to be 100. The record age there is supposedly 130 but in my true skeptic nature it's hard to know if it's true since recording keeping isn't what their known for. We took the bus there Sunday and the town itself is very tiny. We hate lunch in the town and then grabbed a truck-taxi up one of the mountains to our hostel Izhcayluma. Izhcayluma means "two hills" in Quechua. Our hostel was absolutely gorgeous. It overlooked the city of Vilcabamba and had a panoramic restaurant. The rooms were set up like little cabins, it has a pool and an entertainment area with a bar, pool tables, ping pong and various other games. We stayed for two days, just laying around the pool and had a fabulous time. While I wouldn't want to live in Vilcabamba it was great to get away and enjoy some peace and quiet and relax!!
