Weekend in Loja

Dear Family and Friends,

We have just returned from a fun trip to Loja with Rich and Nancy and Howard and Barbara.  Chuck and I were going to go to Loja last week, but when we learned that these guys were going over the weekend we changed our plans so we could all go together.

We drove down on Friday.  We spent Saturday together in Loja and on Sunday our friends went to Vilcabamba while Chuck and I headed to Zamora.

Here are some pictures of Loja we took on Saturday.

Nancy looking at ceramics at the showroom.  This is a must stop place on every trip we make to Loja.

We visited the arboretum.  Here is everyone enjoying the beautiful walk.

This is the church in the main plaza.

And the San Sebastian church at Plaza de Independencia.

Check out Rich's and Nancy's blog for more pictures.

Chuck has been wanting to go to Zamora for some time.  So since we have already been to Vilcabamba several times, we decided to go to Zamora on Sunday.  Zamora is east of Loja, about an hour and a half drive.  We did not know what to expect except we knew it was much lower and getting into the jungle.

The drive to Zamora was spectacular.

 

We went through a national forest with beautiful waterfalls.

We stopped outside of Zamora to take this picture.  They have a huge clock built into the side of the mountain.  The surprising thing is that it works and even chimes on the hour.

This is an interesting statue we discovered.  We don't know the significance, but it is very interesting.  She is holding up a rolled document in one hand and has a broken chain dangling from her other hand.

We enjoyed walking through the bustling Sunday market.

Chuck found a plant that he has not seen in Cuenca so, of course, he had to have it.  Hope it survives in the Cuenca temperatures.

We found a really neat, outdoor restaurant to have lunch.

They had a Coca Cola bottle opener on the side of the counter.  It had a box to hold the bottle caps.  It has been ages since I have seen one of these.  Man, if I could put that thing up on eBay I bet it would bring a buck or two.  The funny thing is that they only served Pepsi.

We had fish for lunch.  It was fantastic.  What looks like french fries are actually fried plantains.  We were not in potato country anymore.

It started to rain so we headed back to Loja.

We stopped just outside of Loja to take a picture of the wonderful view.

We got back to Loja in time to meet everyone for dinner and share adventure stories.

Today we headed back to Cuenca, stopping in Saraguro on the way to do a little shopping.

Here are some cute pictures of Nancy and Barbara trying on a traditional style hat.

I'm not sure who was having more fun, Barbara or the sales lady.

We had a terrific weekend.  Thankful for such wonderful friends.



Chuck and I are excited about our upcoming trip to meet Mary, of South of Zero fame, at the airport in Guayaquil.  We leave early Thursday morning so we are sure to be at the airport when she comes in at noon.

Love,
Nancy