Ecuador - Loja

ihana.com - big trip - diary - ecuador - july 2003

Kiwi RV on the road for 10 years

Pady fields

Into the mountains

Thursday 3 - Friday 4 July

At the Ecuadorian side of the international bridge was parked a large 'RV', a rare sight since leaving the states. This vehicle is owned by a kiwi couple doing a latin america trip similar to ourselves, except anticlockwise. They are taking things a bit slower though - just 10 years to get here from the USA, where they bought the RV, and still down to Patagonia and the Atlantic coast left to do! They seem to be surviving comfortably, teaching massage and selling massage tables constructed in the back of the van. After a too short but interesting parley it was time to hit the road.

On the map it doesn't look very far to Loja but the twisting mountain roads and the delayed exit from the border forced us stop at a roadside restaurant for the night, well short of the town. In the morning we took a short detour to El Cisne (the swan) church. The architecture is really interesting, with dragons and such like adorning the outside, but the trip was worth it just to see the cars lined up outside and the bishop chucking water over the engines, blessed things. The landy is a heathen and made it without celestial assistance down the valley to Loja.

Cisne church with dragons

Inside

Get your car blessed...

...or they end up like this

Loja is a pretty town with clean streets and nice plazas, new cars more abundant than in Peru. We parked the landy near the market building and bought a $1.50 strip ticket for street parking, wheel clampers in busy evidence. Lunch, a tour around town, finding a hotel then an internet session took care of the afternoon.

Hanging about outside the office

Cool mural

Church

Castle style gatehouse

Loja is mad for wheelclamps

Bulldozer

As it was Friday night we went out in search of some action. We found a bar that was heavy with dorises but the favourable ratio soon changed to a decidedly unfavourable one. Moving on to a supposed area of bars we found things to be a bit quiet and were pointed in the direction of a disco. It wasn't very good though as the average age of the clientele was about 16. The doorman usefully told us were to go for more fun and we found Fiesta disco which wasn't too bad in the end, a few friendly dorises livening things up.

Doris prays for...

...B while he downs his cure

Before we left Loja B wanted to drink a glassful of papaya seeds after the kiwi couple at the border said a guy they met swore by it for curing dodgy stomachs. The old woman at the juice stall in the market was familiar with this type of tonic and prepared it for the hapless B. Unfortunately it tastes like a cross between curry and pepper and feels even worse once its inside the body! The girl in the juice stall next door was busy reading her bible, lips moving quietly. Maybe she was praying for poor B.

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