Mandango mountain rises at the edge of town, its silhouette legible as a reclining man - the Sleeping Inca, said to protect the valley from earthquakes. The hike up the ridge is the single most popular thing to do in Vilcabamba. It is also the single most notoriously dangerous trail in the region. Armed robberies have happened on Mandango repeatedly over the years. In July 2011 a group of tourists was robbed at machete-point on the mountain, and similar incidents have continued sporadically since. The rule most hostel owners will give you is simple: hike Mandango if you want, but take nothing of value, and preferably go in a group. All the other trails out of town are considered safe, and there are many of them.

Hostels hand out hand-drawn trail maps - Cabanas Rio Yambala, Rendez-Vous, Rumi Wilco, Izhcayluma, all maintain sets. The trails lead into the surrounding hills or into Podocarpus National Park, which borders Vilcabamba to the east and protects some of Ecuador's best cloud forest. Cabanas Rio Yambala, four kilometers out of town, organizes tours to the Las Palmas cloud forest deep in Podocarpus. Mountain bikes rent at El Chino, on the corner of Diego Vaca de Vega and Jose David Toledo, for eight dollars a day. Horse-riding trips of two hours, four hours, or one to three days run from several outfitters. The standard Vilcabamba day involves picking a direction and walking out until the tarmac ends.

One of the genuinely distinctive things about Vilcabamba is its massage economy. Several salons cluster near the main square, offering manicures, pedicures, waxing, and one-hour massages for around ten dollars. Hosteria Izhcayluma, the German-run lodge two kilometers south of town, runs its own spa. But the real cult figure is Lola, a masseuse who works out of Shanta's restaurant on the far side of the river, roughly a ten-minute walk from the parque central. She takes only two clients per day. Her sessions start with a full-body diagnostic assessment and then move through chiropractic, Swedish, and Eastern techniques, using hot oil, over 80 minutes. The price runs 14 dollars. The appointments fill weeks out.

Shanta's itself is worth the walk. Bar stools made from horse saddles. Walls covered in international currency, animal hides, and photographs that look like they were collected by someone who actually traveled to the places they depict. The menu runs to pizza, filet mignon, pasta - solid three-to-six-dollar mains - and a long drinks list that includes house-made moonshine marketed as Snake Drink. Charlito's, run by a Virginian named Charlie, sits on Diego Vaca de Vega above Sucre and does excellent inexpensive fare, the veggie sandwich recommended above all else. La Terraza, on the Central Plaza, hits the Mexican-Italian angle with fajitas, nachos, and pasta at similar prices. The entire eating scene in Vilcabamba runs under ten dollars a head if you want it to.

Most people arrive in Vilcabamba having heard the old story - that the villagers live to 120, 130, 135, that there is something in the water or the altitude or the diet. Researchers at Harvard in the 1970s chased that claim and came back with a different answer: the ages were exaggerated, probably for generations before the tourists arrived, and the village's actual longevity was no different from anywhere else. What Vilcabamba does have is a lot of genuinely healthy older residents, a famously mild climate at 1,500 meters, and mineral spring water local vendors still sell as magic. Hosteria Izhcayluma, run by German brothers Peter and Dieter, builds its whole offer around the idea of slowing down - buffet breakfast with homemade granola, pool, tropical gardens, a panorama restaurant with some of the best views in southern Ecuador. The service is notoriously slow. The waiting is, arguably, the point.