No Expectations

We are now in Loja which sounded much cooler in the guidebook. I have learned not to put too much stock in the guidebook. In fact I have realized that the best thing to do is not to have any expectations at all for a place. That is a difficult thing for me but I am learning.

While in Cuenca, still our favorite town so far, I picked up this book at the hostel called The Gringo Trail by Mark Mann. It is an account of this British guy's travels in South America. It started off funny and he was going to places that we are going or have been. His adventures were more crazy than mine, though. I recommend it but I would suggest reading after or during a trip here unless you are not one of those people prone to expecting too much.

There is a character in the book who may be a real life person but for me she is simply a fun character. She is great at not having any expectations. However, she is also clueless and is a bit of a burden for the narrator and author who is doing all the planning and being somewhat sensible. I am more like her though(except I plan too much) and Brian is more like the narrator. A couple of times I almost walked into a hole in the sidewalk because I was looking around at everything and I was not paying attention to my surroundings. Thankfully Brian was there.

Like one of the characters in The Gringo Trail, we are headed to Vilcabamba tomorrow. We are going for the nature, though. I doubt I will be looking for a psychodelic cactus and boiling it down for eight hours. It sounds like too much work. I just want to see alot of the rare birds that are endemic to Parque National Podocarpus. This park is named after Ecuador's only native conifer, according to our guidebook (Lonely Planet). However the guidebook also says that we will not be seeing much of these trees or any mammals as they have been cut down by loggers and the animals have been hunted to near extinction. Yeah, Civilization!!!

Well, we will see some lovely birds and contemplate our role on this planet. And feel close to nature and not see it as a resource to exploit. Just some travelers who have no expectations.

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Note from Brian: We have managed to upload a bunch of pictures and two videos from our backlog, thanks to the almost fast Internet at the hotel we're staying at. In chronological order, they are:

* A video of white water inner tubing and a video of the cable car across a canyon in the cloud forest in Mindo.

* Pictures from La Ciénega and Volcán Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in Ecuador (and second tallest peak in Ecuador).

* Pictures from Riobamba.

* Pictures from Guayaquil and a short video of the iguanas in Parque Simon Bolivar.

Hopefully we can get our pictures of Cuenca and even Loja up this evening!