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Email:
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ICQ: 114970838
email us
Phones: (593) 99-581-219 (593) 91-847-091 USA Fax: 1-253-595-6153 USA: 1-305-515-8137
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an intentional community in south Ecuador |
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Directions to Los Visionarios |
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From Quito or Guayaquil you will have to take a flight or bus to Loja. See FAQ for airline information. Bus cost $15-20, flight are $50-75 one-way. We are in the province of Loja, near Peru. The name of the airport is La Toma, is the only one in Loja.
The dome can be seen from several parts of the Vilcabamba-Loja road, but not from any of the actual entrances. There are 3 entrances, one is for cars, one is a walk paths and the 3rd one is a walk path that hopefully will soon be for cars too.
From Vilcabamba: We are 7 minutes drive from Vilcabamba. Taxi's and Buseta (small bus) charge 40 cents from Vilcabamba. Ask the driver to leave you in Carrarango, from there you will need to find one of the two entrances and walk for about 20 minutes. On the rainy season you may need boots.
From Loja take the Taxi-Ruta to Vilcabamba taxies or Buseta from the bus terminal, they charge $1.25 Note: The taxies are different from the regular city taxies, just ask for the “Taxi-Ruta a Vilcabamba Taxi”.
From the La Toma (Loja) Airport: Taxies from the airport also go directly from the airport to Loja and/or Vilcabamba for $3-5 per person, 4+ persons per car. At the bus terminal in Loja, you can take the “Busetas a Vilcabamba”, just tell them to leave you in Cararango. FY: There are two roads from the airport that go to Malacatos (Malacatos is next to Vilcabamba and is the name of the town limit we are in) on is paved and goes through Loja first, the other one is gravel and goes to Malacatos. If you are paying (carrera) the full fare ($20-25) you may want to ask them to use the gravel road to Malacatos, it is an interesting one hour ride.
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WALK ENTRANCE 1: Going from Loja towards Vilcabamba, we are on the left side of the road. The entrance is located across the street from La “urna de Cararango”, there is a lady named Rosa who sells pig meat on Saturday on the right side, you can ask there, how to reach the casa/dome de Carmen. It is about 5 minutes from Taxiche. From there you cannot see the dome. There are two walking entrances, one is parallel to the irrigation canal, there is a torn down white house, in fact very little of it is left, just follow the path next to the canal for approx. 15 minutes, from there you will reach a colored door with our nasty sign about dogs and a call box on the left, go in and then take the green door to the left. The dogs are usually not there; they are all usually up at the dome, near the dome is where they are NOT friendly. Else where they are ok. To them the dome is their home. |
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WALK ENTRANCE #2 The other entrance is approx 200-300 meters down the road, it is harder to recognize, it goes straight up to the dome. Hopefully in the next few months this road will be finished for cars also. Note: Not finished yet, but it looks a bit different than the picture above.
We have call boxes at the entrances near us and one a the small house, (Note: not on the picture above) please use them. Once you are in, please do NOT come in at all without being escorted, the dogs do attack strangers. From there call us, we will be waiting for you. It is best to wait at the door on top. The dogs are no joke, they do bite…
Please try to send us an email with the time you will be arriving so we can have the dogs tied.
In Vilcabamba you can call Victor Hugo Guaycha, at 2-580-392 he is a very good friend of us, he can reach us vía radio.. But he is usually not in till Thursday, he is the owner of the only discothèque in Vilcabamba.
Our number is 2-673-224
You need to dial 07 to reach Loja from other cities and 593-7 from other countries. Also note: Quito just added a 2 to all the numbers.
There are Internet Café's in Loja that work, in Vilcabamba there is one, but it does not work well at all. In Malacatos there is one Internet Café, we are the owners. |
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DRIVING ENTRANCE: By car/taxi: Take a left at Taxiche, about 1 kilometer on the left, there is a 2.4 kilometer that leads to our entrance, which is on the right. Taxiche is approx. 35 kilometer south of Loja, on the road to Vilcabamba. Taxies charge $12 from Loja and direct from the Airport $20-30. NOTE: Take a pick-up truck, they provide service to Vilcabamba and all the area. At the time the road is a bit bad for none 4x4, best to arrange for us to pick you up in Malacatos or Vilcabamba.
From the airport you can share a taxi to Loja for $3-5 and then take a buseta or taxi to Vilcabamba for $1.25 and have them leave you in Cararango, see above.
Here is a note in Spanish for the taxi driver, in case you want to take a direct taxi and pay the $20 from the airport, $8 from Loja.
Tome la vía hacia Vilcabamba, Landangui-Taciche, la entrada esta a mano izquierda, a mas o menos la mitad del camino entre Landangui y Taciche. El camino esta cien-por-ciento lastrado, todo tipo de automóvil ha subido, asta los mas pequeños con llantas 13. Son 2.4 kilómetros de la vía a nuestra entrada. Normalmente los taxis cobran de Loja a nuestra casa $8 y de la Toma $20.
When you reach our entrance on the right you will see a nasty sign that say “Propiedad Privada, perros bravos y duenos armados” That is us. There is a call box there, please call us. Wait for us there, we will come meet you in 5-10 minutes.
Here is a map: |
