Traveling South

The last few days have been a bit of a blur. The program ended on Saturday morning and we had to say goodbye to Colin and Candice. We spent the day in Quito getting ready for our big trip. We had dinner with the other groups who were still there and then headed out on the night bus (9 hours) to Cuanca. It was a good bus but a bit hard to sleep especially because we didn´t get very much sleep the few nights before. I woke up Sunday morning to the mistyest most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. We got into Cuanca at about 7 or 8 and found a place to store our bags. We went on a breakfast hunt downtown. Unforutnately it was a Sunday morning and nothing was open except for church. We thought about oging and taking communion a few times but we found a restaurant eventually. The food was delicious and the waiter was my favourite so far. He was very sweet but was terrible at his job. He brought us bread which we ate and then asked us what kind of jam we wanted. He forgot to ask what kind of eggs we wanted and the chef had to come out to take our order. He was hilarious. We then wandered Cuanca until 4 when we got on another bus to Loja. This was a 6 hour and was probably the scariest bus I have ever been on. It was like the Trout Lake road with a cliff on one side and a cliff on the other. The road was very narrow and we were in a huge bus. We would pass other busses on corners and eventually I just gave up on the idea that we would survive the experience. We arrived in Loja ok and checked in at the first hostel we saw. We slept so well that night and got up the next morning to the beautiful weather. As we get farther south the weather gets warmer and warmer. Yesterday we travelled from Loja here to Vilcabamba. We are staying in the Madre Tierra hostel which is the most beautiful place I have ever been. We are surrounded by fruit trees, banana, mango, mandarin. There are flowers everywhere and an outdoor pool. We have all turned into puddles of relaxation. The food is delicious too but today we have to leave to cross into Peru. We are going to take another night bus tonight and cross the border at 4 in the morning. The bus doesn´t actually cross the border, we have to take the bus to the border, cross on a bridge and get a bus on the other side. We then start our multi-day trek by bus to the south of Peru and the border crossing into Bolivia. We will hopefully arrive in Santa Cruz on the 23rd of Dec. I am sending all my love and I apologize for not calling the people I should be calling. Phone access is few and far between. I´ll try to update this a little more often from now on.
Lots of love,
Anna