En route to Northern Peru
On Thursday evening I left Quito on board a 17 hour bus to Loja, 500 miles to the south, and the most southern major city in Ecuador. My plan is to head into the Amazon basin via Northern Peru, eventually ending up in Iquitos, a large river port Peruvian city, in about 10 to 14 days. At the moment I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Vilcabamba, a nice spot to stop for a few days. I had planned to come straight from Loja to Vilcabamba without stopping, but a severe case of diarrhoea convinced me to stop and take advantage of the medical services in the bigger city of Loja. I´m on two sets of antibiotics to make whatever is causing it go away (they seem to be working)!
Vilcabamba is in the famous "valley of longevity" - residents here claim to live to 100, and some claim to be 120 years old, due mainly to a low fat diet and agreeable climate. Vilcabamba reminds me of Baños in the sense that it´s nestled among tall hills. This morning I took a hike up one of the hills surrounding the city, and captured these views.
In a couple of days I´m going to head to the Peruvian border, about four hours away. From there it is a similar length of time to Jáen, the first largish town in Peru, theoretically reachable in one day from here. From Jáen I plan to take my time stopping at various places en route to Yurimaguas (the end of the road), from where it is a two day boat trip to Iquitos. Along the way from here to Yurimaguas, there are one or two pre Inca ruins that I would like to see, and some jungle/waterfall excursions I could do. After spending a few days in Iquitos, I´ll fly back out to Lima.
I´m now well over half way through the South America part of my trip. I put my flights to New Zealand back by a couple of weeks, to the 2nd March, but I´m flying out in less than two months! In that time I hope to get to Iquitos, then explore southern Peru and Bolivia, before dashing to Chile to catch my plane. I´m really enjoying my time here, but I can´t wait to join Emma in New Zealand.
Happy new year everyone.
4 comments:
Glad to hear you've made it to Vilcabamba - it looks like a fabulous place to spend a couple of days. Hope you're soon completely better - have a great time in the wilds of Northern Peru!
Thinking of you as ever, xxx
Wow - great ridge and great views! Did you managed to climb the Roadrunner tower? Glad to see that the runs are not stopping you walking!
Hey mate - happy new year, and happy birthday! know it might be a while before you get this. hope you had fun climbing mountains, rescuing baby monkeys single-handed from rocky precipices or whatever it is you got up to ;)
It looks like your trip was a blast. I am also going to Quito and hoping to get to Iquitos from there. I was wondering if you know and effective route of travel? Let me know, I also facebook friended you. Thanks.
-Evan Ratzan
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