Since our planned trip from Baños to the rainforest, via Tena, went ‘tits-up’ (a Spanish term), we decided to test our ‘metal’ in the rainforest of Vilcabamba (Admin – not sure that’s classed as a rainforest mate?).
We booked a stay at the Rumi Wilco Ecolodge just outside of Vilcabamba itself, offering treehouse style accommodation in the Rumi Wilco Nature Reserve, set beside the river that runs close to the town.
Now, as you know, I don’t like to moan much, and I feel I spend a large part of life biting my tongue, often in half (Admin – eh?!), but the trek to Rumi Wilco from town – then the trek to our booked lodge – was nowhere near as short as Google was promising; Google apparently forgot to include any of the ‘wobbly’ bits (Admin – he means uneven, hilly terrain), not to mention having to navigate the crossing of a river (Admin – there was a bridge)!
Upon arrival though, and spending the night there, it’s probably the best and most interesting place we’ve stayed; even Rebecca was getting along famously with the multitude of Crab Spiders there … you remember, the ones we neglected to photograph, stock image below:
The hut (née treehouse) was fairly basic, but had a fridge, cooking facilities, toilet, shower, and even fresh coffee and preserves (jam and marmalade) made by Alicia our host.
As we are into the dry season here, we were glad to find that the little buggery biting insects, namely they-who-shall-not-be-named, were on the whole absent; although Rebecca still chose to sleep under a net so as not too share a bed with any 8-legged friends! I on the other hand braved the nights ‘sin net’ (smug smile). Still, the huge gaps between the wood slats that made up the huts construction left plenty of room for families of creepy crawlies to join us, especially popular along with the spiders were cockroaches.
The next day we explored the hiking trails on our doorstep, quite literally (as they were within the nature reserve we were staying in). Most didn’t appear to be well maintained, especially further up the mountain, and would probably be pretty sketchy to explore in the wet season. So as the intrepid, rugged, grizzled and seasoned explorers we are, we retreated down to the town for a sit down and a nice cup of coffee. Here are a couple of pictures showing our journey to the seats:
Talking of coffee, Alicia was kind enough to show us part of her coffee making process, the undried berries are actually quite nice to eat; not in the least bitter.
After that night’s game of ‘swallowing spiders in our sleep’, well, me at least, we did our main hike up Cerro Mandango, a very popular ‘lump’ in the area.
It’s actually a really nice hike with stunning views across the valley. Vilcabamba is at around 1,525m, so the hike wasn’t too lung busting.
We really enjoyed our stay here, the town has a very chilled and laid back atmosphere, the area is also known as The Valley of Longevity. Our time here has made us more eager to dive into the Amazon; it gave us a taste of a life lived much simpler as some of the indigenous peoples still do; Lake Titicaca is another destination we are also looking forward to, and the Uros people who live there.
Short photo dump below and our next post will have Rebecca waxing lyrical about our border crossing into Peru…
Sloth Journeys 