How To Get To NeverLand

So. You waited and waited for Peter or Tink. No fairy dust? Its like the difference between snail mail and email. One works instantly, but sometimes the old fashioned way is nice.

When you get to Ecuador take a bus, from where ever you are, to Loja Province. All the buses come into the terminal terrestre.

From the terminal there are a few options.

First, the bus line Sur Oriente (across from the Vilcabamba terminal), a green bus, leaves several times a day to Quinara. This bus goes thru Tumianuma, where you must get off. Ask the ayudante (helper) to show you when you get to Tumianuma. Ask him again after Vilcabamba. Get off in Tumianuma at the church and soccer/voley pitch.

Take the Vilcabambaturisbus to Vilcabamba. You can check the bus schedule at the Sur Oriente bus stop, ask inside. The sign is old. From Vilcabamba take the Sur Oriente, green bus, towards Quinara. Ask the ayudante to tell you when you get to Tumianuma. Try to stay awake so you do not pass Tumianuma. Get off in Tumianuma at the church.

ONLY TAKE THE GREEN SUR ORIENTE BUS TO QUINARA. There is another bus, but it does not pass thru Tumianuma.

DO NOT TAKE ANY BUS IN THE NIGHT. You WILL get lost. Its hard to see in the dark. The last safe bus leaves at 3 from Loja, 4:30 from Vilcabamba.

In Tumianuma stop and see Gloria (a short woman with warm brown eyes) at the only store with a phone and blue plastic chairs outside. Stop there because she and her family are not only nice, but have watched enough volunteers come and go to pick one out of a crowd! She can point you in the right direction and fill your bag up with food if yourfeeling in a giving mood. Speaking with her will put you on the right trail…which goes around the back of Gloria’s house, crosses a small creek, and heads 1 minute down a small path. If at this point after 2 minutes of walking you haven’t reached a dirt road, turn around and ask again!

Head down this dirt road for 10 minutes. It wraps around to the right and then to the left before it heads to the BIG ORANGE BRIDGE. Cross this bridge and head up the path. Follow the path to the left when you get to the top of the first little hill, and stay on this path for at least 20 minutes. You will pass a few houses, a few dry creeks and remember,always STAY TO THE RIGHT and DON’T PASS THROUGH ANY METAL GATES! There is only one direct split in the trail, and it comes after coming down a hill. Just stay straight and you’re golden. After about 25 minutes from the bridge, with a good sized pack, you should come to a down hill, follow the path around the base of the mountain and to the right. You will get to the wooden gate after the split in the trail to follow the base of the mountain…great…go on through and please close behind you so animals can’t get out, this is the entrance to Neverland!

Walk another short 3 minutes and you will see a gate with 4 pieces of wood placed laterally; head on through this gate… Head up the path and past the first house you see (this is where we dry café) and head through the gate straight ahead. Follow this path for a quick 2 minute walk and look for the path to drop left down to the creek (marked by a red arrow on a rock)…head left, down to the creek, over the wooden bridge and up the path to the main facilities. Welcome.

If you have at any time in your walk to the farm ended up at the big river, crossed barbed wire, bush wacked through brush, or found yourself marching up a mountain, just go back to where you started and ask again…plenty of daylight for all.

Travellers warning. On the path to the farm, after the bridge, lives a sweet little old man and his wife. This sweet almost 90 year old man will hug you in welcome. Or even kiss you. Or grab your ass, tits, whatever he can get his eight hands on. He is harmless, and nearly blind. He once, to his great surprise, grabbed the crotch of a long haired young MAN. Shake hands with him. However. If you have trouble on the way to NeverLand this same sweet little old lecherous man will put you in his house, feed you and get you safely to our place 15 minutes away in the morning with no funny business. Several women have become lost, called for help and he came and got them and took care of them. I don’t know why he does that feely thing. Maybe it would be better if someone actually smacked him, but most of us are afraid he will fall down or something. The police know, and most of them are pretty amused every time I report him. Shake hands.