Hello everyone. We are safe in a small town called Vilcabamba which is located a couple hours north of the Peruvian border, set in a valley in the Andes Mountains, and is famous for the longevity of its Ecuadorian residents. The area in general is beautiful, the water is clean (at the hostel, we can actually drink the tap water), and we hear more crickets and birds than cars.

Our hostel is very beautiful. It is located 2km south of town on a hill that overlooks the entire valley. There is a fantastic restaurant, bar with pool, pingpong and darts, lagoon like swimming pool (which is very cold), free bike rental (our transportation to town... we will hire a truck to take us back... much to steep), a spa (for massages and Maya´s facial) and hot showers made of large stones (Maya wants a shower similar in her future house). There are lots of other tourists/backpackers at the hostel. We may possibly travel with a French guy we met who is about to leave his job at the hostel as a bartender.

To backtrack in time briefly, after Cuenca we headed to Loja to spend a night there. Population: 350,000, the town provided rough accomodations and little entertainment. From the beginning, Loja gave Maya the creeps. We were happy to leave, but will have to return tomorrow night to catch the overnight bus into Piura, Peru.

Back to Vilcabamba. Yesterday, we did the hardest hike of our lives (yes... it was harder and more dangerous than the cloud forest!). Our hostel has put together a series of day hikes for its guests... naturally we chose the most difficult (5 out of 6 on the difficulty scale). This scale is comparable to the international white water rafting scale. Therefore, our hike had everything except vertical decents.

We began the hike by walking a mile to the start where we had to pay a 3 dollar entrance fee and were warned against taking valuables on the trail as there is the potential for thieves. Luckily, we only had both cameras on us so we were not too worried. The first hour was all uphill to the first peak at 2000 meters. While tiring, this part of the trail was very safe. Braden fed the donkeys water out of his hands. Upon reaching the cross (the first peak), we had to walk around the backside of the mountain/rock that you see in the photos. The trail narrowed and we had to be careful not to slip as we would have slid a long way down the grassy hill. At the backside, we had to scale the rock face by using the narrow path cut into the side (see the photo of Maya). After this climb, we reached the second peak (this is where the video of the surrounding area was taken).

Now, the trail became hard... and seriously dangerous. From the second peak, all the way to the third, we had to hike on a trail no wider than 2ft at many spots. To slip off either side would of meant a 100/200 meter fall. At numerous points, we had to crawl on our bums as walking would have been too dangerous. These were on areas of loose rocks and steep downhills. Three hours into our hike, and between the second and third ridge, we encountered the biggest spiders either of us have ever seen. Not only did we have to negoitate a four foot drop in the path, steep cliffs on either side, prickly cacti, but mammoth spiders as well. (We had some tears and a rest after this obstacle). Needless to say, we have had enough of the nature walks for a while.

Heading off now. Will write again in two days from Peru.

Lots of Love,

xoxoxooxox

Maya and Braden.

P.S. Maya would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all the concerned inquiries, and she is happy to report that her hair is doing quite well. Braden says wow and that he will do his best to keep Maya as safe as possible and thus avoid probation.

P.P.S. Off to teach Maya how to ride a bicycle.