Vilcabamba

Last week, we spent a couple of days with our friends Jerry and Rhonda in Vilcabamba. It's about a 4-1/2 hour drive from here and at approximately 5000 feet of altitude. So, it was nice and warm.

We stayed at Le Rendez-vous, which is located about three blocks from the center of town. It's a very nice place with rooms surrounding a beautiful tropical garden. And of course, since one of the main reasons for going to Vilcabamba is to relax, there are hammocks for the afternoon siesta. For those interested in a nice, inexpensive, basic and clean place, we recommend Le Rendez-vous. You can check it out at www.rendezbousecuador.com.

Rhonda in front of her room overlooking the garden.

Ahhh! Relaxation.

There isn't a whole lot to do in Vilcabamba but relax -- unless you want to do some strenuous hiking or horseback riding, which we didn't. But, there is a mini-zoo that we visited. It is located in a nice park that is probably rather busy on weekends. The zoo has mostly birds, a few of which were quite pretty.

This is the prettiest buzzard that any of us have ever seen. His head was just gorgeous.

This ostrich did a mating dance aimed at the young woman standing there. Wedding announcements to follow.

This little fellow comes from the Oriente (Amazon jungle).

One of the things we really enjoyed about Vilcabamba is that you can walk down the middle of the street without worrying about getting hit by a car.

Anybody home?

Doesn't look like there is anybody home.

We went up the the Izhcayluma Lodge for lunch one day. This is the view of Vilcabamba and the surrounding countryside from there.

Vilcabamba

View around Vilcabamba

Anyway, we had a nice couple of days of relaxation. And since it's the valley of longevity, we are a bit younger than we were before we went.