Loja, Ecuador

We spent Tuesday nite in Loja Ecuador after a manageable 5.5 hour ride down from Cuenca.  We splurged and decided to stay in a “3″ star hotel, apparently one of the finest in the city.  Lets just say that everything is relative…

Traveling with 4 people we run into unusual circumstances about costs in certain situations.  I wrote about how it was a much better value for the 4 of us to take a cab than it was a van at the Colombian border, and often it is cheaper for us to stay in a nice hotel than it is a hostel.

Hostel’s typically charge by the person, so $18.00 a person is a good rate for a single person but for a family of 4 balloons to $72.00…not such a good price.  The 3 star hotel in Loja was less expensive than the hostel we stayed at in Cuenca, but I think they should give back a couple of the stars.  The room was large and clean with 3 beds, two singles and a queen which is obviously perfect for our family.  The room had internet (the kids and Gina determined that this is a deal breaker for them and ALL accomodations must have internet access), and was located in the center of town.

One of the reasons we chose this hotel is they advertised a pool and spa.  Well, they had both but there was not water in the spa and the pool was covered.  We called the front desk and asked if the pool was open, they said to give them a few minutes and they would open it.  After an hour we went to take a look and the cover was still on the pool…so much for that idea.

We had a 5:45 wake up, for a 7:00 a.m. departure.  We had asked for a wake-up “call” the night before…and at exactly 5:45 a.m. the following morning there was a knock on the door.  Apparently the wake-up call is still a few years away in this city.  I was wondering how they handled say…50 different wake-up calls all at the same time.  Did they have guys running up and down hallways and stairs knocking on doors?

We were only in town a short time, but there was not much to see or do.  What we found odd was the number of lawyers in the town.  On a 4 city block area alone there must have been close to 100 lawyers offices.  We found none of the charm or interest that we had experienced in Cuenca the day before.

The drive from Cuenca to Loja is spectacular.  The trip was all mountains!  It is impossible to describe how rugged these mountains are.  We are from the West coast and have our fair share of mountains, but the size and scope of the Andes dwarfs anything in the states.  Rugged is an understatement.  The distance worked out to approximately 120 miles, but that distance is the road distance and I am guessing the straight line distance somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 miles.  It takes us 5.5 hours to travel this distance !!

I have not visited the Alps but I would guess that this mountain range would rival the Andes in size.

I would not be surprised if the vertical distance equaled the horizontal distance we traveled   We drop 10/11/12 thousand feet to the valley floor, cross the river and begin our journey out of the valley on the other side.  We do this for 5 hours straight, up and down the Andes mountains.

The PanAmerican Highway is a bit of a misnomer…the “highway” part that is.  In some areas it should be described as a highway…but in many other areas it could be described as a road, a dirt road, washed out, a landslide, a trail, or we lost it.  Speeding down a dirt road at 10,000 feet, visibility reduced from the cloud we are driving through, the ground wet from the moisture deposited by the cloud, and unable to see the road ahead is an interesting experience.

Tomorrow we make the push to Peru…