Bitchen Camaro

My time here in Vilcabamba has been mostly going on hikes, exploring the restaurant scene and watching town life from the vantage of the hotel balcony.

A couple of days ago I went on the trail that takes you up to Mandango, which is an eroded outcropping that sits above the city. Supposedly, some people in town believe that UFOs circle Mandango occasionally. (A restaurant in town is called UFO, even.) The end of the trail up there is considered challenging and not recommended for solo hikers, or if it is windy, so I decided to go up halfway to a lookout point. I am not sure I made it to a lookout, but I got pretty high and had some nice views of town. The trail was only going up, up, up and it consisted of broken rock, much of it loose, and I eventually realized that going down was going to be harder than going up- and again, I forgot my hiking pole- so I turned around and descended.

I returned to the hotel and got right in the pool. It was a hot and muggy day, so it felt great. It’s not a big pool, and only about 4.5 feet deep- not deep enough to tread water, disappointingly. Still it’s great to have access to.

Later I went to the hotel cafe and ordered something Ecuadorian, meat and stuff sandwiched between some paticones. Very filling and only $5.

Then I walked down to the river and went on a trail along one part of it. The Mandango trail was on a dry-ish mountainside, and the river trail is all mossy and lush. I definitely like the lush trails better.

On the way back to town I stopped into a little tienda selling all kinds of stuff, kinda the selection at a Dollar Tree. I bought a replacement for a dog toy that the goofy dog by the pool had chewed too many holes into so it doesn’t float anymore. The dog knocking the toy into the pool is part of his keep-away game and it doesn’t work so well if the toy sinks.

I have been looking for a place to buy a margarita or something. I had a glass of red wine the night before at the Italian place with my meal (garlic shrimp in a creamy sauce and plenty of bread to soak it up with- $13, including the wine.)

Tonight I wanted an actual cocktail. So far I have just seen places that serve beer. I wandered the side streets for quite a while. Finally I went into a place called Vilca Garden, which I had seen described in a tourist guide as a place with craft beer and bar food so I had not bothered to go in. But I decided to peek inside. I checked their menu and saw they served margaritas and have a lot more than bar food. The place is really lovely, with tables all around the edges of a garden space. There was a DJ setting up. I got a table and ordered my drink, $7. I nursed that lovely margarita for quite a while listening to a beautiful prerecorded downtempo set the DJ put on before his actual set started later. I should have had another drink and stayed for his set. He spins Afro-house, and that’s what I have been collecting a lot of on Apple Music. I’ve nBitchenever been anywhere where a DJ played it.

But I was not hungry- still full of that paticone thing- and didn’t really want another drink, or to be taking up a table as more people came in, so I went back across the plaza to my hotel. I passed a crowd of people watching as a bombero (fireman) rescued at kitten from a tree in the plaza. A cheer went up as he grabbed the kitten. I had never ever seen that cliche of a fireman rescuing a kitten from tree in real life. Have you?

Back in my room I opened my balcony doors, put on my own downtempo playlist and played a couple of games on my iPad. It was Saturday night, and the plaza was even more full of folks hanging out than usual. Lots of cars cruising by, the food truck doing lots of business. Eventually some guy pulls up with his 2020’s Chinese hatchback version of a 70’s bitchen Camaro, pops open the back hatch to expose some big flashy LED-lit speakers and blasts some great, great reggaeton for about an hour. Right there at the town square. It was wonderfully loud. The speakers were about 15 yards from my balcony. He had a bevy of girls dressed up for their Saturday night popping in and out of the car for booze, and who knows what else. They were partying on the corner by an open businesses, blasting the whole neighborhood, not to mention this hotel full of guests. I was enjoying it.

Ecuadorians have a different relationship with sound than we do in the US. People have more permission to make noise here. An individual can turn the town square full of his townsfolk into an impromptu dancehall for a hour on a Saturday night. A vegetable seller can amplify his monotone recitation of the day’s selection as his small pickup slowly winds the streets of the neighborhood. Gas trucks play their individual songs as they do the same (and this town’s truck’s song is a very annoying short repetitive few notes that sound very early Casio.) This hotel is a bunch of rooms around an echoey concrete atrium, but folks tend to talk at full volume while passing through the atrium late at night.

There was a bunch of noise this morning from the PA system at the school just across the street. People were giving speeches, followed by what sounded like lots of different national anthem-type songs. Kids were cheering and clapping. Later I saw parents and students pouring out of the school and the kids were in ties, dresses, new haircuts. I think it might have been a graduation. Congrats!

I knew from my research that the noise level in Ecuador can be a challenge for new expats. I also knew that being right here in the city center by the plaza would be noisy. I am trying to fully embrace the noise, at least at this first stage of things. The next place I stay in Loja is in a pretty noisy party street I hear. And I stayed in a noisy place for a month last time I was in Cuenca. I did fine with the noise. But the next place I have in Cuenca, in mid-May, I chose to see if it will be significantly quieter. We’ll see.

My hope that the kid with the loud motorized bicycle would not continue rev up the street right outside my window was realized. The kid is actually a member of the family that runs the hotel, so I see the bike in the lobby. He’s been out on it every day, but not using the motor. Hooray.

Ha! Just now I heard a crowd, and someone speaking into a mic, some applause and then some loud cumbia. Maybe almost as loud as Saturday night’s hatchback. I wondered what is going on in the plaza now. I went to the balcony to see, but it turns out it’s all happening in the hotel’s cafeteria. The Ecuadorians love to celebrate, I’ve heard. I’ve got my room door open so the music sounds better. Lots of shouting! They are having a good time. Everyone up and dancing.

$4 chicken Burger and fries. Of course I had to leave a 50 cent tip. Such a rip off.

I’ve got two more nights in this town, and then it’s off to Loja.