¡Vamos!

It’s time to go.

Paying our tab at the front desk $330 for five days and meals, a little pricey but still only coming out to $33 a day each. Close to what our rent back home came out to daily.

We’re told the bus will be driving by in about two minutes.

We fill our waters (and tea bottle), grab two handfuls of homemade bread and run down the steps.

One bus passes, not ours.

The next one comes “Zumba” that towns on the way, we hop on!

The man checking tickets comes by, takes a look at ours, and starts speaking quickly and loudly in Spanish.

I’m not totally sure what he’s saying…

Oh shit… We’re on the wrong bus.

“Salida aquí” I say hoping we can hop off and wait in the side of the road.

He walks away and comes back with a note written in Spanish and hands me it…

A few minutes later he stops in the next town and lets us off the bus saying our bus will be by in 20 minutes.

We drink some tea as this village starts to wake up.

We see our bus “Nambija” come around the corner.

Safe.

Border Crossing

So our bus winds 8 hours on dirt roads through the mountains, avoiding pot holes and somehow not having a wheel go over the drop off on some of the turns.

We arrive at the border of Ecuador and Peru.

The borders called “La Balsa” and it’s a really small border that isn’t used very often.

So no lines, very easy and quick exit from Ecuador.

I walk to the exchange, and hand the lady a $20, in return I’m awarded 70 Soles.

I happily take it having no idea what the exchange rate should be.

We walk over the bridge separating Peru from Ecuador.

Easy entrance into Peru, load the bus (without our bags being checked) and zoom off into the windy jungle roads.

Shhh.

Stop.

Smell.

Listen.

Breath.

Look around.

Feel the air, listen to the little sounds happening all around you, pay attention to the little details and see things you may miss.

Appreciate the moment.

Give gratitude that you get to live life.

You get this human experience, and you get to decide how you live it.

Give intention behind your thoughts.

This is life, and it’s easy to miss it.

I let it fly by without paying attention, and I curse myself for that.

But then again, that’s just a flaw of being human.

I learn to appreciate it.

But it’s always good to be reminded to stop and smell the roses.

After all, this will just be a memory shortly.

Having intention is one of the greatest human attributes, after all, we’re so small in the grand scheme of things.

We’re a speck of dust in the galaxy, and everyone gets replaced.

Every 100 years:

I’m not saying enjoy every moment, I’m saying soak and and pay attention to every emotion.

Because that’s being human.

Izcayluma Loop

Dog barking and snarles

He lunges forward

Raising my hand in a throwing motion I yell

He skids to a stop, dusting raising around him

Taking a few steps back he comes at me again

Pretending to throw the rock in my hand he stops again

It said it right there on the back of the map, dogs may charge you, just pretend to throw a rock at them.

Our “hostel” (it was more of a retreat/resort) had their own “hiking trails”

We were suggested the hardest rated one by the owner, accepting his challenge we headed out on a hike he outlined which involved combating guard dogs, following a sewer canal, walking along a road, scaling barbed wire fences (5), navigating the ridge of a mountain, having a stand off with wild horses on the ridge of the mountain, and doing all this following vivid instructions and blue dots spray painted on rocks or trees.

In the end the hike was absolutely beautiful as usual.

Not having cookie cutter paths makes it more of an adventure.

Attached is a photo of the instructions; at the end of this post they’ll be written out.

50 Days in Ecuador

We had 50 glorious days to the dot in Ecuador.

It’s day 46, I come into the dorm room.

Katie’s laying on the bottom bunk, turned over in the fetal position on her phone.

Immediately in the back of my head I knew something wasn’t right.

My stomach hurts she says turning over to look at me.

Katie caught the first case of food poisoning…

I’d say it was a win we went that long without getting poisoned though..

We ended up staying 3 extra days in “Gringotopia” (Vilcabamba)…

Ecuadors a grand country.

The currency used is actually USD because the economy crashed in 2003, but they don’t have $1 dollar bills, just dollar coins and 50¢ coins.

It makes the conversion easy though.

Everything’s cheaper, typically about half to a third the price of the states.

Of course, you can get away more budget than that if you prefer.

Geographically it has Amazon, Ande mountains, Jungle, Beach, Colonial Cities, and the Galapagos.

So it has a whole lot to offer.

But we spent the majority of our time “surfing”

Thats a wraaap

The new adventure is Peru, and HOLYSH** it’s beautiful!

Wrapping up a stay in a town called Chachapoya we’re celebrating their independence day “Las Fiestas Patrias“

This town isn’t very unknown, and I feel more ridiculous each day with how bad my Spanish is.

But I’m trying.

Cheers!

Eliot

P.s.

IZHCAYLUMA LOOP Instructions:

DON’T GO ON THIS HIKE ALONE.

Overview:

This is the most varied hike we offer. It takes you through the indigenous little village “Mollebamba”, along a ridgeline hike with wonderful views and into a mostly dry riverbed. If it has rained the last few days of your stay, please ask at the reception desk if this trail is possible to do. You have to wear good shoes for this hike and bring enough water, a hat and sunscreen.

Trail desciption:

The path is marked by blue arrows and dots though there are not many on the dirt road and in the riverbed.

The start is immediately after the large adobe wall on your right hand side coming down the stairs from Izhcayluma. Go down to the right til you come to a little creek. Cross it and follow a smaller creek up until you reach the dirt road. There turn right just following it all the way up to the main paved road. Along the dirt road you’ll find a large iron gate, blocking your path. If it is closed just go around, as it is a public path. If you meet any foreigners there, telling you it is a private road , please tell them to talk to us or “Teniente politico” of Vilcabamba. It has been public since centuries.

When you reach the upper iron gate, turn down to the right to get to the paved main road. You have to follow it down to the right for about 300m where the trail picks up on the left side of the road. You’ll see a barbed wire fence where you have to climb under it, but please don’t destroy it. After this point you will be walking on private property, so please respect any locals you might encounter. Also it was difficult to find stones to mark the trail clearly , so look out for painted stones on the ground or painted branches or bushes.

After the barbed wire fence you have to go up to the left, then right then left again. Don’t follow the leading down to the right, you always have to go up.

As soon as you get to a point where you can see the roof of a new building in front of you hidden behind some trees, you have to turn to the right into a little forest. Don’t get to close to the house, the new American owners prefers his privacy. We want you to respect this.

Once you leave the forest you have to look out for another group of trees, you’ll see them above and ahead of you. The main goal is to get up to this group of trees.

When you’re there pass this group of trees on the right side and then climb always straight up through the pasture land till you get to another group of trees. Behind them you already can see the ridge line. Keep to the right , always going uphill, never downhill, until you reach the ridge. From there turn right over a narrow part. But don’t worry, it is the most narrow one.

You’ll follow the ridge for around 20 minutes. don’t go any further than to the descending point, because the ridge becomes deadly narrow afterwards. When you reach the point to descend down into the riverbed, stop there and look down to your right side, because from where you are you can see your way down. It follows another smaller ridge, always down. Be very careful going down, as the path is of loose gravel and it is very easy to slip and fall. Here again it was hard to find good land marks to paint them, so look for painted stones on the ground. The main goal is to get into the large (mostly dry) riverbed. The path is sometimes very steep, but if you have to climb you are wrong and should go back to find the proper path down.

Once you get into the riverbed, never walk up again. Sometimes it will be better to find little paths by the riverbed, but never leave it too far. Just climb over or under the barbed wire fences you’ll encounter. The number of fences always varies. The riverbed will lead you to a paced road about 700m down from Izhcayluma.

Izhcayluma is not liable for any loss or damage of property, injury, accident, or death related to this hike. The map is provided as a service by Izhcayluma but you must hike at your own risk