On the morning of the 13th, I left Loja to Vilcabamba. It´s a very beautiful bus trip.

I stayed at the Hostería Izhcayluma, which is 2 km outside of town, but awesome! They have a lot of land, and grounds to spread out on. Very scenic place.

I walked around town after I settled into the Hostel. I went to eat lunch at the main square. While I was eating, a group of 3 people - tourists, sat by the table next to me. They sat down, and started to look at the menu. They were also talking about how crappy their tour guide was. Then the police came in a truck, stormed out, and demanded documentation. I was about to $hit my pants!!! I couldn´t tell if they were asking all of us, because there was a blond girl behind me as well. And they were pissed off! Then I realized that they were only targeting the 3 people because they didn´t pay their tour guide. Jesus, my heart was beating fast!!! They had to leave with the police.

After that, I turn to the blond girl sitting behind me, and tell her that nearly scared the crap out of me! She felt the same way, and we began talking and hung out for a while.

Later on, I went back to the hostel, and hung out..met my roommates, and had dinner with them. I met some folks that will be on my Inca Trail trip - Stephan and Wendy from Holland. Also ran into Grithe while at the campfire. She had stayed at the Hidden Garden and ran into Michelle and Francis from Cuenca.

On the 14th, I did a horseback ride-hike trip with Tosca Tours. It was pretty fun. Only 2 of us on the tour - Monty from Israel, and me. Our guide was René. My horse farted almost all of the trip. The horses took us up near the top of the mountains and at the base of the cloud forest. The views were so spectacular. René owned the land, so we went higher than any other tour went. It was so nice.

The cloud forest was...la selva pura. It is a humid forest, so it is kind of like a rain forest. It is very untouched. The path was not very visible. We walked and slid down steep sides of soft peat moss-like ground. We just sunk into the ground. Lots of slippery parts, so I got really muddy! We also walked along streams and up the sides of waterfalls. It was just beautiful.

The ride back down was nice. My horse was going so fast, gallopping through the forest, past the folliage, and past many butterflies. It was just so amazing!!!

Kevin, an American guy I met, broke off the sink in the dorm next door. It was quite funny. He was leaning on the sink, and the whole thing just fell off the wall!

Also, Bill, another American guy I met who was working at the hostel for a week...was in the kitchen, and a knife fell on his foot, so he had to go to the hospital and get stitches...hope nothing like that happens to me!!!

In the evening, I hung out at the hostel, had dinner, then we watched Fahreinheit 9-11 in the bar. You know you can get ripped DVDs in Ecuador for $1 ;)