Misconception (spread on social media, especially English-speaking Facebook groups): Loja is unattractive.
Clarification: If you look for information about the city of Loja on English-speaking social media sites, especially Facebook, you will find lots of people saying that Loja is ugly, grey and boring. This is fascinating given the intense natural beauty here. It is true that we have a lot more hours of overcast skies than sunny skies in any 12-month cycle, but the cloudy skies highlight the lovely green mountainsides which host a variety of plant life ranging from swaying palm trees to a great mix of tropical, semi-tropical and desert-like plants and a wide variety of flowers. And in recent years Loja no longer has a dry season, so (unlike a lot of Ecuador and unlike Vilcabamba), it is green 12 months out of the year here.
But very few expats have ever seen much of Loja. Those who live in Cuenca pass through on their way to visit Vilcabamba but rarely see much more than the bus terminal or the shared taxi terminal. The expats who live in Vilcabamba come into Loja to shop and see just a small portion of the urban part of the city. Even those who visit Loja for a few days tend to stay downtown and see almost none of the city. Those who do not speak Spanish often find it impossible to see other parts because they cannot communicate with the taxi drivers or the locals to find out where else to go. I've talked to North Americans who spent a year or more in Loja and never saw more than a little bit of the urban part. One spent three years in the city and stated that it had never occurred to her that Loja was a mountainous city. This is remarkable since the geographic area of the city is built up and down the mountainsides for miles in all directions. So the comments posted about Loja on the expat social media sites are often from people who have seen pretty close to none of the city.
In contrast, Ecuadorians from as far north as Quito and as far west as Guayaquil and Machala have told me that Loja is THE prettiest city in Ecuador. Even Peruvians in northern Peru told me this. The only place I've been in Ecuador where Ecuadorians didn't tell me this was in Cuenca and it would seem that Cuenca has a mostly one-way rivalry with Loja. I'm sure there is some historical basis for this, but we'll just leave it that many Ecuadorians from Cuenca say terrible things about the people of Loja, none of which I have found to be true.
Now, this is not to say that every non-Cuenca Ecuadorian views Loja as gorgeous. As in any country, there are city people who dislike nature, who would much rather look at buildings than grazing pastures, would much rather see cars than llamas and goats wandering freely and who are much more comfortable walking along a highway than a hiking trail. We have these people in Ecuador, too. Such people will be unimpressed with Loja because the beauty here is in nature, not in human-made structures. And that's okay. It takes all kinds of people to make a world or even a country. And boring? Perhaps, if your idea of fun is vibrant city night life and activities 24/7.
