Incas In Ecuador

We didn’t set off from our campground at eight o’clock, not even close. The French couple whose names we didn’t get, turned out to be lovely to hang out and talk to so we did. 

Too bad they are going north but they had some good pointers about Peru. Victor the campground owner came by and sold us eggs and homemade kahlua.

We got into gear at the crack of 9:30 and drive up through the town of Alasui, until Layne spotted a roadside breakfast joint. We ordered Tigrillo which is a mashed plantain dish from the coast of Ecuador. It was crispy and salty and there’s was sunny side up and the yolk flowed. 

The show did get on the road and back we were to roads going up and down, 10,000 feet, 11,500, 8,000 and back up again. On and on. 

It really felt like the Andes of my imagination, winding along the side of a mountain, with a deep valley to the side. 

Small villages and towns littered the road. 

That will be us down there in a minute. 

And the clouds rolled in making it look like winter then they rolled back and summer sun illuminated the road. 

The goal of all this mountain driving is the southern city of Cuenca by way of Ingapirca, home to the northernmost Inca ruins in South America.

We sort of drifted into Ingapirca and found ourselves driving around a rather uninspired town wondering where the ruins were. We did figure it out without help, doubled back and found our way to the temple of the sun clearly visible on a knoll. 

It turned out getting a ticket took some knowledge. At first we hung out by the entrance waiting for the next tour. When it left we were told to go buy tickets. Oh. We got the tickets and got in the two o’clovk tour. The day was passing. There was an alpaca in the parking lot ready to give kids rides. Rusty was fascinated. 

There was a field full of llamas (“yaa-mas”) too. I found out from our tour guide what the difference is. Alpacas have white fur and it’s softer. Llamas have brown fur which turns to black as they age and it’s a rougher texture. Now you know. 

Rusty was fascinated by the llamas and petted through the fence at them. He came back when I called but he was ready to go under the barbed wire to investigate these aliens. 

They were fearless and just as curious about him. 

Rusty kept them under observation walking to the entrance gate and back like a sentinel on duty.  

Then we got to visit our first Inca ruins.

The Cañar people were here before the Incas who conquered them and made this their northern frontier. The Inca Empire stretched to Argentina and encompassed 10 million people. 

There was a grave marker showing where a group of women were found buried. Who or why unknown. 

This was selfie country for locals. 

The temple was built on a knoll in a basin surrounded by taller hills. I wondered why that was and our guide explained the taller hills funneled water as well as providing protection. 

There was a kitchen area and gardens and channels for irrigation. 

Most interesting to me was the remains of the Inca road. A message could cross the empire and get back to the Emperor in three weeks, thanks to relays of runners on these roads. 

Being sun worshippers, there was a calendar  too as shown below. Make of that what you will, all I saw was dimples in rocks. 

Check out the curves on the terrace. As Layne pointed out you don’t see that in Aztec temples in Mexico. 

Perfectly tight rocks in the main temple with no gaps.

Some rocks had a green tint as they were mined in a nearby copper mine. 

Modern buildings aren’t necessarily better built. 

The exit:

Home sweet home with Rusty sleeping aboard as he wasn’t allowed in as this isn’t Colombia. 

The town of Ingapirca, picturesque from afar. 

From here to the southern city of Cuenca which is just four hours from Peru. We’ve headed a lot about Peru and not much of it is good.

On a personal note Happy Fourth of July to all.  We miss being in the States today. 

This is also the day Giovanni is being buried in Italy. He died on the second do I had no chance to get back there for the funeral. 

Also today my sister in Scotland is running for Member of Parliament in Britains largest constituency in the far north of Scotland. It’s a tight race so I will be checking returns this afternoon. 

Central Ecuador

With the death of my oldest friend our plans were up in the air and Layne was looking for flights from Quito to Rome. Then we got word Giovanni’s funeral is set for Thursday. I don’t know why the rush, I had been hoping for Saturday to give me time to cross the hemisphere but that was that. We got on the road driving south toward Cuenca. I was worn out  and we stopped early at a camping spot run by a young Ecuadoran Victor who grew up in the US. I wasn’t much in the mood to socialize with the French campers already there but heading north. That was our day. Herewith some pictures. Life goes on no matter how painful. 

An Ecuadoran traffic light: do as the locals do…

The government recently announced there was no money for railways or postal services so they were shut down and everyone involved laid off. The signs remain. 

Google suggested there was a supermarket in this small town. Off we went over the bouncy cobbles. 

We got lost of course and the streets were not the best.  We did not get stuck. There was no supermarket that we could find. The small stores have beer and chips and not much else. 

We needed toilet paper milk and vinegar (which we use to clean as well as cook). These staples have been difficult to find in central Ecuador which is a land of poverty it turns out. 

E35 is the PanAmerican Highway down the middle of the country and it’s mostly very good. 

These are the high plains called the páramo in Colombia and Ecuador and we are traveling around 11,000 feet. 

Up and down, brakes and transmission working hard and me trying not to think of Giovanni. 

He was crawling preserving his brakes so I buzzed past him. Me in Ecuador. 

And then we met a checkpoint. The car in front only had a bill and they spent minutes  organizing his change. I had a dollar coin ready and that indeed was the toll as it is at all official toll booths. This lot did not look official but they had a barrier and the locals paid to pass.  

Later we found out from the campground owner Victor that there had been a massive mudslide months ago and the temporary road runs through private indigenously owned property and they are collecting a toll.

As usual the photos don’t show the grade which was ridiculous. 

And the surface was not great. 

By now we have learned GANNET2  can cope with this stuff better than we can. 

And off to the side there is the town of Alausi, our destination. 

The red line was our drive and the arrow is our route Wednesday toward the Inca ruins in the direction of the city of Cuenca in E35. 

If an 18 wheeler was taking the hair pin coming up our job was to stop (“pare”) and not block the turn. 

And at the bottom of this brief nightmare was a toll booth for up bound traffic. 

Alausi had its own too steep streets. Tantalizingly we passed a supermarket with absolutely no parking. Great. 

Young bullfighters in the making? I have no idea what that was about. 

And the railways are gone but the statue remains of something to do with trains. 

The drive across town down to the campground was on streets so narrow and difficult neither of us took pictures. It was a maze and we were ready to hit a dead end but we got through it. 

The driveway pretty fancy. 

I was so tired I forgot to photograph the parking area and I slept the afternoon away in my misery. 

That’s Rusty having dinner. My consolation in the face of death, a supportive wife and a furry dog.