Ingapirca

On Wednesday, we visited Ingapirca, the largest Incan ruins in Ecuador. We took a 2 ½ hour bus trip there, which was good for reading and watching the scenery, and arrived shortly before lunch time.

When we arrived, we were asked if we wanted a guided tour in English or Spanish. We decided to be a bit more adventurous and had our tour in Spanish, taking turns translating for Alex, who is less familiar with the language.

Just past the entrance were a number of llamas grazing. Jesse tried to take a picture of them, but ended up getting spit on one from 1 ½ meters away!

The first part of Ingapirca is actually Cañari ruins, where they had a temple to the moon. It also includes a grave which was excavated in the 1960s. They also had a rock with 28 holes, which was used as a lunar calendar.

The Incan part ironically enough was also celestial, a temple to the sun. It was interesting to see how the Incan and Cañari ruins compared. While the Cañari used smooth rocks from the river, the Incan cut their blocks to be amazingly rectangular. In fact, for their temple, they didn’t use mortar because the stones fit together so perfectly.

After the tour, we went on a nearby short hike, where we saw a natural stone formation that looks like a head and is called the face of all Incans.

We then took the bus back to Cuenca, where we decided to go out for Colombian, rather than cooking after a long day.