Vilcabamba

Enjoying a beer in the hostel
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Vilcabamba is supposedly Ecuador's "valley of longevity" where people often live 100 years or more.  It is actually a very cruisy place surrounded by hills, with several good walking trails.  Our hostel was German owned and was a really great place run with typical german efficiency so it was no surprise that our German friends Marcel and Miriam from Baños turned up at the same hostel a day after us.  We spent 4 days doing some of the walks in a vain attempt to raise the fitness levels before attempting the Inca trail.

Yep that gate to the waterfall is definitely locked
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The first walk was probably the best, you climb a mountain called Mandango which is in the shape of a bloke lying down, the first half of the walk takes you to the top of his nose where there is a big cross which is visible from the town.  From here you can go back the same way you came or continue across the very top of the mountain along a very narrow ridge.  Of course we took the more difficult option across the ridge which I have to admit was a little scary in places walking along a path 0.5m wide with steep drop offs on either side and strong winds.  Jo spent the majority of the walk sliding along on her butt too scared to stand up, I got some excellent photos of her before she told me in no uncertain terms where I could put my camera.

Jo through the terror still managing to tell me where to stick my camera
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Went on another walk to a waterfall which took the best part of 3 hours only to discover that the gate on the last path to the waterfall was locked and there was no one around to let us in, we toyed with the idea of climbing the fence but with no trespassing signs plastered everywhere decided against it.  Upon returning to the hostel we found out climbing the fence is precisely what you are meant to do and we were the only suckers that had given up so close, fortunately we have learnt a valuable lesson and will be disregarding all trespassing and danger signs in future.

Hmmmm....where to put that first gigantic pawn?
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The food in the hostel was great with a lot of german dishes such as stroganoff, goulash etc which we took full advantage of.  In the end I think the eating and the walking might have canceled each other out and we left Vilcabamba relaxed but no fitter.