] What can I say? I apparently am succour for a big porch, a comfy huge bed, a hammock and a magnificent view. Vilcabamba has a way of reeling people in and holding them. The valley is known as "Sacred Valley" and supposedly has a variety of powers. To test that theory, all one has to do is deposit themselves at one of about six little cafes on the central square and wait. When we first arrived we noticed a local phenomenon:  a bevy of colourful characters...

Ahhhh, I type this note as I lay in my glass fronted cabin, built by German craftsmen, in the lush Andes Mountains of southern Ecuador, CBC Calgary Radio playing in the background on my laptop telling me about the horror that is playing out in Japan, the sun and the birds just waking up here, a donkey up the mountain bellowing out his hardships and I meet another day with awe. OK, I live a pretty fine life and this piece of it here in Vilacabamba Ecuador is goin...