Vilcabamba! The Valley of Longevity as the International Living magazine called it.
Arriving here shaken and stirred from crazy taxi drivers, military truck rides and nearly losing my residency card, I quickly set upon the purpose that we came here for- Caballos!
A little bit of research led us to this Australian drunk named Gavin. He used to be a really good horse guide in Vilcabamba. However, unbeknownst to us, of late he’d taken up drinking and was a bit more careless with regards to horses. As it turned out, this was good from a perspective of adventure, but bad from a point of view of safety.
We met with a fellow traveler from Germany, Michael, and setup for a 2 day trip. We decided to go up into the mountains surrounding Vilcabamba on horses, camp overnight in a cabin that Gavin owned, and come back via a different route the next day.
On the day of our adventure Jodee, Michael and I arrived bright and early at his office to find Gavin missing. Apparently he had forgotten to arrange horses the previous night and was running around getting them! This was promising to be interesting, and we hadn’t even started yet. Thanks to some kind friends of Gavin who loaned him horses, we were off!
We received quick lessons on horse riding again. However, these horses were used to pesky tourists and knew enough to plod along quietly along the road. Things were uneventful until we started up into the mountains. Gavin, in his spirit of adventure (and to be fair, he had told us he’d be trying a new route), had decided to take us on a route which had been unused for the last many months.
Uncharted Waters…
The horses were completely unfamiliar with the trail. Add to that the fact that they could sense rank newbies sitting on top, and were having no part in any trekking up the hill! So halfway up the mountains, atop annoyed, nervous and disobedient horses, Gavin gave us a crash course in guiding a horse down a path its nervous about going. In short, it was all about confidence and clarity of direction. The simpler, straighter and firmer your voice, tone, and body motions, the calmer the horse would feel. Our horses were already starting to go walk downhill so we had to learn, and learn fast. I was trying to be a lot more confident than I felt internally. I had no idea what I was doing. But either I managed to fake it really well, or, more probably, the horse took pity on my yelling and hawing and decided to follow my directions. Jodee had a younger horse that was a lot more nervous and she had a much harder time getting it to calm down and follow directions. Michael’s horse, however, was an old-timer and having lived through his rebellious days was content to follow where the main trainer was going. He knew Gavin had expertise, and would follow Gavin’s horse without fuss.
The climb atop took about 7 hours! About 5 hours into it, there were place where the trail would flatten out. At those moments our horses would break into a canter. Graceful, rhythmic running and it felt heavenly to ride them as they ran with with wind, lush manes billowing behind! At other times, the horses would be huffing and puffing climbing really steep and narrow trails.
We were advised to grab hold of the mane hair to prevent from falling backwards and off the horse. I felt bad for pulling their hair with all of my weight! But Gavin (and every other horse trainer I met) told me that it was standard practice and the horses didn’t really feel pain from having their hair pulled.
Climbing up, the views were stunning. Just unbelievably stunning!
Of course we only got to enjoy a small fraction of it, as for the most part we were scared for our lives and holding on as the horses balanced precariously on trails as narrow as one shoe width, with nothing to break a fall for at least 500 feet below! And even then it was the big boulders that waited to greet any unlucky horse or rider.
We reached the top of the hill without too much incident. Jodee had fallen off her horse a couple times at this point, and I once. Mainly from having low hanging branches and vines snagging our clothes or ourselves and pushing us off our horses! Luckily there was always soft grass to fall on. So they didn’t hurt, and we got right back on. As the sun was starting to set, we reached the rustic cabin that Gavin owned and setup camp for the night.
The evening was gorgeous. Sitting there, eating well honestly quite terrible food, the ambience was just amazing. The sun setting behind the valley lending golden rays out to bathe the entire landscape in front of us. As the sun set and the light faded to a milky blue/gray color, Michaels white horse took on a sheen of it’s own…. It looked beautiful, if not ghost-like, prancing under the blessed moonlight.
After a sort of restful sleep atop extremely thin mildewy mattresses, we were back on the horses for our long ride back. By this time horse and rider had got to know one another. My horse was a lot more pliable, and I could guide him where I wanted to go with ease. I took the lead for most of the way down. Gavin’s horse could get a rest, and the other horses were fine as long as they could see a horse in front that was plodding on.
This time we could get to enjoy the views a little bit more. Being more confident on the horses. My overly aggressive directions of before slowly to replaced with mild but decisive instructions.
We reached down to the base of the hill without incident. By this time the horses could sense their stable was close by, and they started off galloping! I didn’t know it at the time, but my saddle wasn’t on real tight. Anytime my horse started to gallop I would careen off to the side! Thankfully I could yank back the reins to make her resentfully stop amidst a chorus of snorts and stomps. We’d get to walk about two minutes before my horse wanted to be off and running again! This keep continuing for a bit till I decided my thighs were aching way too much from clinging on to the horse for 14 hours of the last 2 days! And decided to get off and walk.
The remaining folks went ahead. I sauntered back to the stables, stopping en route to get some yummy banana bread from a home kitchen with a sweet old lady.
When I reached the stable there’d been a small incident due to Gavin’s carelessness. He had taken off the bit from Jodee’s horse before helping her down. After he took it off he turned to finish off something else. At that time two other horses decided to go off running, and Jodee’s horse wanted to go join them. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the bit to stop the horse! It was quite a precarious position to be in. The horse bolted through a very low gate and Jodee was thrown off. She landed on the hard concrete on her back. The folks there were hoping that she hadn’t broken her back! Luckily she was fine. But her back ached for the next few days. Gavin got a major shouting to from everyone present for his lack of attention. Jodee was too shocked to know what was happening.
It was a sad ending to an otherwise really awesome weekend. That being said it made us that much more aware of checking the background of any horse riding agency afterwards!
Once we finished that, we both took the entire next day lying in our dorm beds. Our legs were aching to the high heavens! and we could barely walk. A few days later, we decided to roam around Ecuador a bit before heading off to Colombia, for more equestrian adventures!
And onto the final part of the blog in Colombia…
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