We had arranged to go on a tour today to Ingapirca which are the most important Incan ruins in Ecuador. Sunday is a good day to get out of Cuenca and see some of the surrounding countryside as everything here shuts down on Sundays and there is absolutely nothing going on.
We were getting picked up at 8.15 so we got up around 7, not my favourite time of the day and it was made even worse by the fact that we had no hot water to take a shower; Mike had to boil the kettle and fill the bathroom sink so that I could wash.The day obviously couldn't get any worse from that point on and it didn't, we actually had a really good day.
We were picked up exactly on time and there were only 2 other couples on the tour along with our driver and a guide named Diego. Ingapirca is about an hour and a half from Cuenca but we took a little detour on the way to make a couple of other stops. Along the way we saw more dead pigs along the side of the road. Now this is nothing new in Ecuador but in Canar they cook them a little differently. They are killed and put on sticks, then they are blasted with a blow torch until the skin is brown and crispy. The skin gets cooked this way and is then cut off in strips, but the rest of the pig doesn't get cooked and so then has to go in the oven or the pot. We took a picture of a half cooked pig, the brown is done, the black parts not so much.



The first stop we made was in a place called Biblian which is in the Canar province, which is the next one north east from the Azuay province that Cuenca is in. We visited a church there that was so high up the side of the mountain I wasn't sure our driver was going to get us there. But, I guess he's done this once or twice before and had no trouble. The church was fantastic, not very big but still pretty amazing although Mike almost died climbing all the steps to get into it. It was well worth the climb, and the views from it were unbelievable. The reason that the church is so high is that someone from the village was walking in the mountain and apparently saw an image of the Virgin Mary in/on the rock, so the village decided to build a church at the place where the 'miracle' took place. The church is built on and into the rock, behind the altar and at other places through the sanctuary the walls are actually the rock face. It's very cool and is called the Santuario de la Virgen del Rocio. Coming back down the steps was much easier, and I think the van driver free wheeled all the way back to the town; at least he was much quicker coming down than going up.










After leaving Biblian we headed to the city of Canar in the province of the same name - funny that. Here we visited the mercado. It was very similar to the markets in Cuenca except that the ladies, and some men, here were wearing a different style of hat. The hats here are rounder and not as tall as those worn in Cuenca, and they have cotton balls hanging off them. Apparently, if the cotton balls hang from the front of the hat that person is single, and married people wear the balls at the back of the hat (you have to look really closely at the pics). Pretty easy to see who's free. We walked around the market and Diego pointed out some of the products available to buy, it was mostly fruit and veg, but also big chunks of sugar, meat, and other weird bits and pieces.






After the market we headed directly to the ruins. Even though this is a tourist place, if you didn't know where you were going you'd never find it as it was not signed until we got there and the roads to it we only partially paved. We got to the place and bought tickets and then toured the area. I'm am really glad that we went with a guide as otherwise we wouldn't have had a clue what we were looking at. Diego was awesome, very knowledgeable (he had to go to university for five years to be a guide, plus he has a passion for archeology) and willing to give the official info plus what he considered the more likely story about the ruins. We spent a few hours walking through the ruins, learning about the Incas, and what each part of the ruins would have been used for; it was most likely an area where the ruler of the area and his family lived, along with his army. We went room to room learning the purpose of each and how they were built before getting to the place that was most complete which was the temple of the sun. It was all very cool, from the stones that they used to read the stars, to the manner in which the buildings lined up with the sun for different times of the year. This ruin is important as it's the only Incan ruin that contains an ellipse. The Incans worshipped the sun, hence the temple, but the elipse was included in the design here to 'appease' the Canari people who the Incas 'conquered' and who worshipped the moon.












The area that the ruins are in is really strange as there are peoples houses almost right on top of it. The local people here are not much into the preservation of their past, in fact Diego told us that he was on a project that discovered a tomb not far from Ingapirca but since it was on private land the owner claimed everything in it for himself and there was nothing they could do. The people around the area find things on their land and just sell it to the tourists, we passed a woman who was selling off pottery and weapons that she had found from the Incas. She had a double headed axhead that she wanted $800.00 for but Diego told us she would take $100.00 or less, plus she had some gorgeous intact pottery pieces. It's a pity that there is no trust that could purchase it from her to preserve it here in Ecuador. It is illegal but if any police came she would just close her doors and wouldn't have to let them in.
After visiting the ruins we trekked a little way down into the valley to see the Incan face that has been carved into the mountain; this was so that people coming from the next valley over would see the face before they saw Ingapirca and know that they were in Incan territory. It was pretty cool and very imposing.



When we were all done with Ingapirca we headed off for lunch to the Ingapirca Inn just up the road. It was a lovely place, really nicely renovated and taken care off, and the food was really good. We started off with some kind of warm pink alcoholic drink that I managed to take two sips off. It was a little powerful and it was only around 2 in the afternoon. According to Diego anymore than two glasses (and they were shot glasses) and you would wake up in the morning with the worst hangover ever - not anything I wanted to experience. Mike enjoyed his though, as did our driver. While we waited for our meal we had popped corn and salsa picante which was different, then we had Quinoa soup to start which was excellent. Mike and my main course was rice, potatoes and a variety of veggies including asparagus, palm, beets, and a bunch of others. It was all really excellent and in a beautiful location.





We headed back to Cuenca after having a leisurely lunch and the drive took about an hur and a half. The driver took a completely different route on the way back but we saw some stunning views and I didn't have to look at any pigs.
We got dropped off outside the apartments late this afternoon and we had a really good day out, Ingapirca is definitely a place for anyone who likes a little history, but a good guide is a must.

Mike: Amazing place! I don't think the ladies appreciated me checking out their bobbles!