Well the latest stop on my journeys has been the village of Villacabamba in the south of Ecuador, close to the Peruvian border. It’s a gorgeous village nested between some lovely Andean mountains, but isn’t high enough altitude to be cold.
Villacabamba is famed for having a ¨Fountain of Youth¨ that allows its residents to live 100 years plus. Some people attribute this to a magical waterfall there, some to the healthy diet it’s people eat. However it seems this is becoming less and less true over recent years, and I think the oldest person there is now around 90. Maybe it has something to do with the Westernisation of their diet.
Regardless, it’s a lovely place to chill out for a few days. The hostel we stayed at was more like a resort: it had a pool, spa, sauna, Turkish baths, badminton and basketball courts, and pool tables. Plus you got your own room with a double bed in it all for US$6 a night including breakfast. What a bargain.
I even did something I never thought I would be enticed to do: go on a 4 hour horse ride. Despite my misgivings it was an awesome day. The horses we had were lovely, which makes a big difference. I’m glad the trek we did was on horseback, because the path was very steep and wouldn’t have been much fun on foot. I’m even gladder that the horses knew what they were doing, and we didn’t really have to guide them too much.
My legs and bum are still a little bit sore though, but no pain no gain huh.
The only thing that marred the entire Villacabamba experience was a couple of conversations we had with people around town about the manager of the hostel that we stayed at. Rumour is that he has raped a few of the tourists staying there, which is an absolutely horrifying thought. Apparently he gave horse tranquilisers to one person and they woke up the next day not really knowing what had gone on.
I have no idea whether this is true or not. He did seem a little bit creepy to me, but I didn’t get a danger vibe from him. I’m torn between wanting to give people benefit of doubt, innocent until proven guilty and all that, and thinking that there must be some kind of basis for these rumours, otherwise they wouldn’t exist.
So while I had a great time there, I don´t necessarily know if I´d recommend that hostel heartilty to any blonde women travelling alone. Just in case.