The Valley of Longevity and very few electromagnetic waves...

We left Cuenca bright and early and headed to Vilcabamba - a wee town just outside of Loja also known as the Valley of Longevity. We´d decided to treat ourselves and stay at a beautiful hostal complete with swimming pool. Sad times when we arrived to find out there was no room at the inn BUT we managed to head to somewhere on the otherside of town which not only had a swimming pool but also a jacuzzi! (whoop - more for Will than Katharine, the hot baths in Baños were quite enough.)

Spent the afternoon relaxing at the hostal which only had another 4 guests (lol) and then headed down a fairly dark road to find food in town. And what good food we found! Lovely mexican restaurant complete with green interior lighting (we sat outside - the green lighting was simply too much for Will). Then headed back to the hostal avoiding any dodgy men/dogs).

Next day we headed on a long walk around Vilcabamba. Map reading skills = 0, walk = 2 hours longer than expected. But we did see some pretty good views of the village and lots of banana plants (WHICH are technically herbs - WHO KNEW!!??) Finished our walk with lunch in town and this is the moment when entered the STRANGO...

.. Will kindly offers an American guy change for his $20 (NOONE has change out here) and then he starts talking to us. Firstly about how Vilcabamba has quite a large Gringo (ex-pat) population AND THEN about how the reason he is here is to escape the electromagnetic weapons of the US. Apparently, the levels are very low here but not at 0 so he will be heading to Peru next month to get as high as possible to avoid them completely. He then also advised us to avoid the salt (they add fluoride - and as the Nazis and Russians knew, fluoride shrinks a gland in your body making you very passive....) Will thought this would be an appropriate time to tell him that fluoride occurs naturally in the water near his home in England and it simply gives people better teeth.... Thankfully in walks another American family who the guy knew and that´s when we made our escape.

We didn´t hire horses although as a sign read, ´Hire a WHOLE horse. Horses make you happy.´We were happy enough with the lack of electromagnetic waves. No horses needed. Next we plan to try and make it to Lima in Peru. HELLO long bus ride, bye bye Ecuador.