Espero and his flighty friend

To continue south from Cuenca more buses were required. When there are no movies screened on longer bus rides the ¨entertainment¨is provided by vendors quickly leaping on at stops and selling everything from ice cream to pirated DVDs. It was from such a vendor that Mel obtained an extremely handy sewing kit in Latacunga. When one doesn´t want fruit or freshly baked banana bread there are the salesman who stay on the bus as it moves, describing at length the multiple benefits of their product which will usually be a ¨medical¨ product of dubious origin and allegedly providing heretofore unseen benefits to the mental and physical health of the customer. While Mel and I are chuckling at the ridiculousness of it, Ecuatorianos seem to be buying the stuff. Perhaps all this quality public health care has Australians fooled: we should be buying getting our prescriptions filled on the bus.

While waiting on a bus in a terminal we got talking to Kevin, an Irishman coming up from the south. He assurred us that the bus vendors are only really prominent in Ecuador, and had just finished describing the incredible variety of products he had seen being sold when a well built, aviators-wearing young black man stepped onto the bus. He held a portable stereo on his shoulder and began to rap (I believe that is the correct terminology; I tried ¨freestyle¨ but I think he had practiced beforehand. Had I used ¨freestyle¨ there and he hadn´t practiced, would that be correct usage? Someone cool get back to me) over the beats it provided (does ¨beats¨ jar there to anyone else?). It was in Spanish but was undoubtedly passionate and political in flavour. It was excellent and he earned fifty cents from us. Kevin had to admit that it was the first time he had seen that.

We were headed to Vilcabamba, a quiet town in a beautiful spot, famous in part for the abundance of an hallucinogenic cactus and, subsequently, hippies and others fleeing the rat race. We stayed at Cabañas Rio Yambala, our cabin built into the side of a hill and providing a superb view of the Valle de Yambala from our bed. This accommodation is highly recommended to anyone in the area. We stayed two nights and spent our one full day on a horse ride up to a hiking refuge high above. I scored Espero, the wise and serene old horse that was to lead the expedition, while Mel mounted a more youthful and flightly nag who preferred to run up and down the sloped parts of the track. The path was very narrow and very slippery in parts, and Mel´s horse proved repeatedly that his stratgey was foolish but displayed an admirable commitment to speed. Mel never came off but her steed´s knees were soon raw.

The path wound around steep valley edges, rarely with any protection from the fall if missteps were made (although Mel´s horse went too fast, he only went forwards, never sideways), and took us up high above our accommodation, through valleys folding into each other and across several rushing streams (cue Man From Snowy River theme). We enjoyed magnificent views back to Vilcabamba, and then of several homes built in impossibly remote locations, grand houses whose raw materials must have been carried up on foot or horse as no roads could be seen. Cattle grazed on the steep hillsides and dogs barked at us from far away on the valley side. We rode to a refuge and had lunch and then hiked into the bush to a little zip line and bridge set up above the trees that was a lot more terrifying than we expected at first glance. On the hike back the path was slippery and I chivalrously led Mel to an alternative path, only to slip one second later and fall into the spikiest bushes in all of Christendom. While we picked the thorns out of my hands and chest the guide just walked off out of sight, apparently disgusted by my clumsiness. We arrived back at the Cabañas bow legged and enjoyed again our serene valley views and pleasant hospitality from Charlie the ex-pat Yank (who enjoyed declaring that all the other Americans in the area were "weird" or "crazy") and his family.

We left Vilcabamba the next day, destination: Peru!