We are currently in Vilcabomba, EC. They bill themselves as the fountain of youth here based on some National Geographic article from the 1950s that found people to live extremely long here due to the perfect weather. It does have perfect weather, but subsequent research found that people had lied about their ages and that somewhere else must be the valley of youth. Plus there is no fountan here -- bummer.
The hostel where we stayed the last three nights made a good case though - we rented a private cabaña for $11/person/night and that included a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt, bread, and a crepe or eggs. They also had a restaurant with a gorgeous panoramic view of the town and surrounding valleys and a spa with cheap-ish masages.
Unfortunately though Jon started feeling sick the day we left the beach to head here. So Chris took Justin and I on this amazing hike along a knife-edge ridge. Dad you would not have been able to finish it -- the computers here are too slow to send pictures though, so I guess I'll just ahve to post them later. That afternoon, Chris, Justin, and I went for lunch at a local counter and had a Ecuadorian special -- cows intestines in a kind of peanut sauce. After getting over the idea of it, it tasted really pretty good (flavorless, like chicken basically). However that evening I got violently ill ... out both ends... I have never been so sick in my life. It seemed like it was just food poisoning from lunch though, so I dont think that I will be eating intestine again any time soon. Chris came down with a milder version yesterday, while I spent the day lying around feeling okay, but not good. At 5 am this morning we were all woken by the sound of Justin emptying the contents of his stomache in the bathroom. In the dark room, chris asked "who is that" and Jon and I answered before we all burst out laughing. We were now 4 for 4. We were such a sad sight that Chris's peace corp friend who came to visit us ended up leaving after only 24 hours ... I mean who wouldnt want to hang out with a bunch of puking and shitting guys lying around a bedroom?!

Chris took the bus back to his site today so that his hosts wouldnt worry about him, while Jon, Justin, and I are hanging out for another day, waiting for Justin (who just got sick this morning) to recover a bit before the 7 hours of bus rides. We will hang out at Chris's site for a week before Jon and I head back to Guayaquil to catch our flight up to LA.