Saturday 29th we travelled 15 KM out of Loja to
The Podocarpus National Park where we done a 10km hike up to 3,400mt, the first
4km was straight up through tropical cloud forest which seemed to be untouched
due to there not being many daily visitors. It’s hard to put into words just
how truly magical this terrain was so here are some photos.
Once at the top we were looking forward to enjoying our
picnic and taking in the amazing landscape. However, it was more like Scotland
freezing, wet and cloudy! We did try to have our picnic in a sheltered dip, but
every small flying insect from 3 miles came to enjoy it too.
After dipping down a bit more we eventually came below the
clouds and started to see the breathtaking view the guidebooks talk about.
These are looking across the valley between Vilcabamba and Loja.
We had been told to be back at the refuge point before 5pm
to check out of the park, making it with 5 minutes to spare we found no one
there to check out with. South American security at it best yet again, the
guardian had gone home for dinner early. Then it dawned on us we didn’t have a
phone to call a taxi so had to start the 8km down hill walk to the main road,
painful wasn’t the word. Although, all was forgiven when 1km down the road he turns up on
his motorbike to check on us and give us a lift, 2 at a time down to the main
road. There we were 3 on a motorbike zooming down hill with every bump my bum
getting closer to falling off the back, screaming despacio, por favor! Got to
say one of the best taxi journeys I have ever been on, laughed all the way.
From here we managed to flag down a passing bus as we had learnt from
yesterdays journey this is possible….
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